Cuenca

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The bus from Alausi to Cuenca took forever. Next to me sat a guy from Aachen, Germany (later on I found out his name is Alex). We had a chitchat and after about one hour he told me that he didn´t feel to good. On the train from Riobamba to Alausi (it seemed like everybody in the bus took the train - full of Gringos :-) ...) he had a cooked corn-egg-dried-something . An English girl bought it for him and he didn´t want to be rude and so he ate it (even he normally can´t handle food from the street so well). Anyway, five minutes after his announcement his fingers became numb and he started to sweat like crazy ... we just were thinking of what that might be ... and than he started to threw up like hell ... poor guy! And it didn´t stop ... I felt really sorry for him. I didn´t have a bag or so, but the girl on the other side of the aisle was able to help out ... but for the most ¨food¨ it was too late ... the bus stopped and Alex went outside to take care of his business. Most people in the bus were very understanding, just the girl (American) behind us freaked out. When Alex came back he was white like a wall ... later on he got ride of the rest of whatever was left and he really felt bad ... when we arrived in Cuenca, we went to the same hostel (we had talked about it already before he got sick) and to be honest the way he was looking, I wouldn´t have left him alone anyway ... whatever he had eaten, it wasn´t good at all. And when you travel by yourself and get sick it is double hard ... so I was glad I was able to help a little bit ... writing about being sick: I still have my stupid cold and I am soooo annoyed by it!!

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That night I went to downtown and got something to eat (for some reason, Alex didn´t want anything - I am not sure why :-) ...). Cuenca is a very old city with a lot of historic buildings ... beautiful.

Next morning Alex felt much better (he was like new) and we decided to go to an Inca ruin near by. According to our Travel Guides it is the biggest one in Ecuador. Well, when we arrived there, it was nice, but not really big. But it was interesting. The Spanish Guide told us a lot and I pick up some stuff by myself and some with Alex help (he lived in Spain for 1 1/2 years and his girlfriend is Spanish - so his Spanish is an idea (or two or 1000 or a Million times) better than mine :-) ...). I really need to get into the Internet and find out more about the Incas ... I know some of the culture, but don´t ask about little details ... There was also a little Inca trail we hiked ... very nice and interesting. They chopped a huge stone in a shape of an Inca face ... amazing!

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Later that day we took the bus back to Cuenca and visited the old City. The city has beautiful churches and old buildings ... at night we found a restaurant named ¨Wunderbar Bar¨ and had Diner there (a kind of Schnitzel - yummy) ... it was a really cozy Bar :-)

Tomorrow I will leave Ecuador and travel to Peru ... by the way, I booked Machu Pitchu! 12/1/07 is the day! I wanted to go a little bit earlier, but couldn´t get anything ... it is expensive, but I am sure it is worth every $!