Cuenca, Vicentico, Cajas & the Devil's Nose (15-19/Jul/06)

Latacunga, Ecuador

Cuenca is a really nice town, but on account of knowing people there we didn't do any standard tourism over the weekend. On a rainy Saturday morning(ish) Charly showed us around a bit, taking us up to the city viewpoint, stopping at a really nice pottery workshop on the way. We spent the rest of the afternoon having a few drinks at a friend's house and then went out to a smashing concert. The artist in question was Vicentico, singer and front-man of the Fabulosos Cadillacs, an Argentinian group we really like that split up a couple of years ago (and had seen a few years back in Barcelona). Sunday we went out to the nearby country with Charly and his landlord, feasted on a roast pig, and generally chilled out. Getting back to Cuenca a feast in honour of the Carmen Virgin (patron of fishermen) was in full swing so we hung around for a bit and watched the fireworks.

On Monday we wanted to see the city sights, so started off at a Panama hat factory (Panama hats are originally from Cuenca in Ecuador, they just happened to export a lot to the canal workers in Panama). Nearly bought one but it would have returned a bit of a mess so I didn't go for it in the end. Then we walked around the colonial old quarter for a bit, and popped into one of the museums.

Tuesday we caught the bus early to the Cajas national park, a beautiful high-altitude (around 4000m) moor with a few hiking trails. Walked around for a few hours, getting lost now and again (luckily it was a clear day, a minor miracle). There are some lovely lakes, amazing desolate landscape, a few birds, and lovely wildflowers at the end. By lunchtime we had finished the second trail we had wanted to do (couldn't actually find the first trail) and caught the bus back. We found we really liked Cuenca and were very glad for ditching Montañita.

At a silly hour the next morning we caught the bus to Alausi, and from there hopped onto a train down the "Devil's Nose". The journey is billed as an "unforgettable journey and a feat of engineering" as the train zigzags down the steep mountainside into a valley. OKish we found, but we prefer trekking. At least here you could go on the roof of the train which is pretty cool. After that we continued onto Latacunga. Not exactly a beauty of a town, but a good base for various local attractions, one of which is the Tungurahua volcano which is in the middle of an eruptive process. It was spewing out lava on Friday, with the nearby villages being evacuated. If it did any more spewing we wanted to see it (from a vantage point far enough away not to get scalded).