Cuenca - the beautiful city

We arrived in Cuenca and were immediately struck by how beautiful the city was. There are heaps of old colonial buildings in the city centre, an enormous cathedral and the gorgeous Plaza de Armas which give the city a a beautiful feel.

Inside here was a beautiful art gallery - we almost came away with a sculpture of a frigate bird and a painting of quito

We spent hours walking around the streets and found ourselves a lovely new camera to replace the one we have been using which is frustratingly poor.

We stayed in a cheap as chips hostel for $12 per night and the city so lovely that we stayed four days! The best fun was the visit to the museum with Incan ruins, a bird avairy with toucans, eagles, and macaws and wonderful displays of life in the different regions of Ecuador, including shrunken heads made by the Shuar people in the jungle. They were incredible, fully intact with nasal hairs, eyelashes and all. It was very freaky and strangely mesmerising- although Eva couldn't get out there quickly enough!

We caught a kids circus performance in a beautiful old theatre in town

From Cuenca we headed to the sleepy hamlet of Vilcabamba. A place in a valley that is famous for the longevity of its inhabitants, many of whom have lived to over 100 years. The place was beautiful and the hostel we stayed in was moe like a health resort that an hostel. We spent an idyllic three days here, walking in the hills and catching up on school work and I handed in the last of my Uni stuff so it was an incredible sense of relief. It was with some reluctance that we packed our bags to leave for the night bus to Peru.