Whoo! 10 hours in a bus yesterday wears you out. The problem with these buses is that they’re built for a population with an average height that rivals the Japanese. Not to mention that non-stop salsa is played at volumes that would make a deaf man cringe while careening around turns on one lane mountain highways. I’d feel safe but most of the bus drivers are under 20 (things that make you go hmmmm….). At times it feels like an amusement park ride that has gone on a *little* too long.

Maybe we’d just been a bit pampered for the last few days while studying Spanish in Puerto Lopez. I’m not sure if it was swimming on a gorgeous deserted beach in the national park, snorkeling in 70 degree water, or the new friends, both from Puerto Lopez and from Scandanavia, but we might have been a little bit spoiled. We spent several nights chilling at Clandestino Bar, the owner, a rasta-Ecuatoriano sporting dreads and a chilled out attitude, taught us a little salsa and we picked up a few new phrases to boot.

We’re camped out in Cuenca now, waiting for Matt and Lindsay to arrive later today. Cuenca seems to be the first big city in Ecuador that has genuine charm to it. With its narrow cobblestone streets and lack of unpainted cinderblock buildings, it feels decidedly European. Well, more like if the streets of Toulouse had indigenas grilling plaintain and pollo in every open doorway and minus the strip of high-end fashionista shopping. It’s quite nice. We can’t wait to start exploring later today.