Colonial times

Cuenca´s claim to fame is its panama hats and its old colonial buildings many of which have been well maintained and many of which are in disrepair. We enjoyed our usual walk around the city and along the river where Andean women still wash their clothes and dry them on the grass. As is common here we are finding, the streets were cobbled and comprised a number of switchbacks up and down. We´ll have athletes calves by the time we return.

After an evening of local Ecuadorean food we left Cuenca for the ruins of Ingapirca which are very small when compared to Peru ruins but which were the most beautiful gold and teal colours of polished stone and the Sun temple was the first one that we had seen ín the round´.

We travelled on from Ingapirca by bus through this amazing Ecuadorean rugged hilly landscape where people farm right up to the top of the mountains and the cattle and sheep seem to have short front legs in order to graze on the steep hillsides. In this part of the world there are more than 4000 types of potatoes and 300 types of corn so you can imagine what a good amount of the diet is made up of.

As we alighted from the bus at Alausi a drizzle started but did not deter us in our quest for a hotel and a good meal at the end of another enjoyable and interesting day.