Clara, Gilles-Yann, Diana, Diare, Wacho, Patricio, and us
Bussed to Cuenca where we couchsurfed with Patricio right near the town centre. When we arrived we accidentaly went to the wrong address and had to walk about 12 blocks to Patricio's house. He has a lovely house too and it was full of other couchsurfers, in all there were 5 of us. That evening Patricio surprised us with a lovely Quayaquil indigenous meal cooked by his friend and maestro dancer Wacho. After the meal it was decided an evening was in order and off everyone went to buy the means to enjoy it. A drink called Canalas was prepared made from Zhumbia (strong alcohol made from sugar cane) naranjitas, limon, agua and canela. It is served caliente (hot) and was most enjoyable, we drank it in shots and as you can imagine as the night wound on the evening became more and more fun. Everyone got up and danced with Wacho showing us the way it is done in Latin America, yes even Kent got up for a boogie. At some time in the early hours we hit the sack, a wonderful deep warm double bed upstairs.
The next day was spent doing our laundry and sorting out the pics from our time volunteering. As you can imagine with animals we had quite a few pics to sort. In the afternoon we were treated to a local dance festival in which Patricio and Wacho were taking part. Their dance troupe was really great, full of energy and doing funny things as part of their dance (they were entertainment). The rest of the groups were taking part in a competition and their dancing tended to be fairly slow and serious, in fact at times they looked pretty bored. It was an interesting afternoon but the weather was wet and cold and Carol managed to get a wee chill so went to bed and slept from about 7pm until 9am the next day.
On awaking we decided to head south with the other couple staying there, Julian and Clara from France, who were to couchsurf with the same guy as us in Loja. He said he was off work on Monday so we headed there thinking we could have a good day with him and J&C looking around Loja. The bus left and 11.30 and it was a 6.5hr trip to Loja, nothing exceptional to see on the way. We were a little sad to leave Patricio's so quickly as we very much enjoyed his and Wacho's company and that of Diana (the housekeeper) and Diare her five year old cutey of a daughter.
