Journey of Journeys

So, it took me 11 hours to get to Cuenca yesterday. 

I left Canoa at 7 in the morning saying goodbye to the beach and took a taxi to a bus station in San Vicente.  The taxi driver convinced me not to schlep all of my stuff on the ferry and that it would be faster to take the bus from the north side of the bay to Porto Viejo and then transfer to Guayaquil.  I didn´t really think that would be true, but my stuff is extremely heavy, so I decided to go with less hassle.  I boarded the bus and quickly made friends with the bus driver´s helper -- this is the person who takes the money and ushers everyone on and off -- not hard being a foreigner as they take a lot of interest in us - esp. women and I try to use it to my advantage without being reckless-stupid, etc.   Anyway, he asked me if I was in a hurry to get to Guayaquil or if I wanted to hang around the bus station for a few minutes.  I said I was definitely in a hurry and then I thought he said he would help me find the right bus when we got there.  Great, I said.  But, that´s not exactly what he had in mind.  He somehow intercepted a bus in the middle of the highway headed for Guayaquil and before I knew what was happening, I was transferred in the midst of oncoming traffic!  But it probably did save a bunch of time, so it was good, just crazy!!

By 1:30, I got to Guayaquil without anything happening and just made my bus connection to Cuenca - another 4 and a half hour trek.  I thought I might sleep during this trip, but I couldn´t.  First, it is fascinating just looking out the window, especially when we began our ascent into the mountains.  It is so beautiful, I was totally beside myself.  Second, I was scared almost literally to death.  I have pretty much gotten over the crazy bus drivers and passing people and whathaveyou, as I have been taking the buses for two weeks and they are all about the same.  But as we kept going up and up and up into the mountains, we were spiraling around crazy cliffs that you wouldn´t even want to look down, but you have to because it is so amazing.  And then of course we are in the clouds and fog so you actually can´t see anything in front of you. I forgot to mention that they gave me a seat directly behind the bus diver... so I could see everything!  Like when we almost hit an oncoming bus and swerved very close to the edge of the cliff, or when we almost took out an indigenous family that was traveling up the mountain on horses.  Anyway, driving through the Parque Nacional Cajas which is a protected national park made this totally worth it -- the place may as well have been Mars because I have never seen anything like it in my life.  Landscapes of lush forest alternating with brown rocky terrain dotted with hundreds of glittering lakes.  I cannot describe the beauty and really couldn´t get any good pics from the window of the bus, so I will have to go back on a hike. 

And finally I reached Cuenca.  A really beatiful city - it looks a bit like Madrid, which it should because of course it was planned by the Spaniards - but also looks a bit like New Orleans, with the cobbled streets and cast iron balconies, etc.  It´s amazing how much of a difference um... 8,000 feet makes.  It´s really cold here!  But the weather is great, blue skies and crisp like a fall day. 

I took a taxi to my hotel -- Casa Naranja -- a converted old townhouse which is run by the nicest woman (Dulnia) and whose family has owned this house for generations and generations.  I was starving, as I had not eaten anything all day without any proper stops from bus to bus, so Dulnia suggested a mexican (of all things) restaurant very closeby.  I went, I ate and it was like the most wonderful food I had ever eaten in my life!  I went back to the hotel, had a nice conversation with Dulnia (her cousin lives in Manhattan with her three children), and by then I had had it.  It was 9:00pm and I passed out, completely for another 11 hours.

I´ve been walking around this morning and it really is a nice city.  Small, manageable, but very pretty and quaint and I¨m looking forward to being here.  So far, it´s like a different world from the beach!  I am going to meet the family I am supposed to be living with in a couple of hours, so we shall see what that´s like. 

I´m not sure if I have mentioned this to anyone, but ever since I arrived here, my dreams have been LOCO.  And you know I have weird dreams anyway, but here they are completely and utterly insane, and pretty distrurbing mostly.  I´ve told a few people here about it and everyone seems to attribute it to Larium, the malaria medication that I´m taking.  Not sure if any of you know about Larium, but a lot of travelers do, just me not being one of them I guess. It´s basically been outlawed in the UK and most doctors won´t prescribe it because it causes psychological problems, common side effects being weird dreams and a tendency toward suicide! Now that I´m out of the lowlands and coast where Malaria is more prevelent, I´m making the executive decision to take myself off of it.  I´m not planning to go to the Oriente (rain forest), so I shouldn´t have any problems.  So, hopefully that will be the end of that.

Anyway, that´s all for now.  I´ll post photos when I can and hope you all are doing well!