LEAVING ECUADOR

LEAVING ECUADOR

This country has such a lot to offer that I didn’t see but its impossible to do it all. So I had to move south from Banos and chose to follow in the footsteps of the Incas down through the Andes and my first stop was Cuenca. This city rivals Quito for beauty and colonial buildings and much more ‘bite size.’ I saw an amazing museum of the Phohibito and a museum of Culturas Aborigines in the one afternoon and the cobblestone streets resonated to a life and vitality you do not see at home. Just watch your step that you do not fall down an unreplaced utilities cover or get pickpocketted!! Sorry Cuenca, just a flashback to Bogata!!

The next town was Loja which is the leaving point for the Peru border about 5 hours away. I must make comment about the fabulous scenery during the bus trips between these cities and the Peruvian border. These people, so small in stature, have amazing strength and to have lived in these mountains for thousands of years is truly a feat.

I stayed one night in both cities and wandered around in a ramshackle way that seems to work for me. I have some sort of sense of both places and felt elated by my trip in Ecuador as I slipped into Peru at the border town of Macara.

Talk about a complete change. To leave the temperate Andes and drift onto the flat land of Peru where it quickly became desert and the Andes retreated to the East. It was bloody hot again as we moved down to sea level.