Ok, so where did I leave you? In Banos I believe.
Well, I decided to go ahead and attack the mountains surrounding beautiful Banos by horseback. Upon meeting my horse, Loca (spoanish for Crazy - not promising!), I noticed her harness did not seem overly well attached, but knowing so little about horses, thought nothing of it.
The actual horseride was beautiful, as we went up behind Banos tro the highest peak, from where we could see the menacing volcano, a huge waterfall, and a bird´s eye view of the town of Banos. What, however, was not so good, was the incredibly hard saddle, and the fact I do not know how to ride a horse. After 2 hours, my derrriere started to tingle. After 4 hours, I was in absolute agony! On top of that, managed to achieve some fairly decent sunburn on my arms.
I was heading to Riobamba, a large town one hour south of Banos, that afternoon. To compensate for my sore body, I checked into a rather deluxe hotel, at a hug US$10 a night, which was lovely! As I didnt arrive until quite late, and left early the following morning, I didnt see much of Riobamba. It seemed to be a fairly large, commercial town, with a lot of cheap clothing shops that I would have been happy to peruse!
Thursday morning, I planned to take the six-hour bus ride further South to Cuenca. However, I arrived at thew terminal to discover they had cancelled all the buses to Cuenca for that morning - It was unclear why. So, I walked around aimlessly, until an old Ecuadorian lady and her son approached me and suggested we take a taxi together to the middle of the Panamerican highway (outside Cuenca), from where we could try and hail down a bus. With limited options,
I thought I may as well give it a try. To my surprise, after a 1.5 hour wait, we managed to hail down a bus, complete with highland women and their chickens, middle-aged men (some carrying pistols!), and young children, all watching the R-rated movie that the bus driver had decided to play (film ratings seem to be ignored in South America, as they are in Mexico. Think I was the only person on the bus offended by the film´s content).
After a long bus-ride, I arrived in Cuenca, a beautiful town in the South of Ecuador, which seemed quite prosperous. Although it was apparently a tourist town, once again I failed to speak to or even see another foreigner.
I found a hostel, on the sixth floor of a building, with an amazing view over the town. The only drawback was the lift didnt work. I was planning to stay in a private room, although thought it better to stay in the 12-bed dorm, as it was half the price and empty!
This morning (Friday morning), Im heading down across the border into Peru.
