In Cuenca

Cuenca is a lovely city at around 2500m. We arrived in the dark after our long day (see Devil's Nose train from yesterday).

Our simple hotel has an interesting layout - there is no front door, only a wrought iron gate opening onto the street, which leads to a paved and cobbled central piazza, covered with a glass roof. Corridors lead off this onto other piazzas, also with glass roofs, and the rooms all lead off the various little piazzas. It is quite chilly!

Our bus took us to a ceramics workshop, where some beautiful objects were on display. This was followed by a visit to a Panama hat factory. The handmade hats costs mega $ and there were pictures of various stars wearing them. Two men in the group bought hats and were mightily pleased with their purchases.

We wandered around the old town, visiting the old cathedral and the very large new one completed in the beginning of the 20th century. We called in at a covered market where we noticed a girl being cleansed with the leaves in the same way the shaken did us in the Amazon. We were shown some really interesting alternative remedies, one of which was for cuts. It came in a small bottle, blood red when put on the skin, but once massaged in, changed texture to a soft white. Then the colour became skin-toned. I was tempted to buy some for grandson Nathaniel who is prone to brining his head into sudden contact with concrete, but was told it wouldn't survive the air journey.

I thought the blip of the indigenous women with their hats was appropriate - here they wear these hats and have their hair in two plaits, whereas the people we saw yesterday had only one plait and different hats.

This part of our trip is almost over - a walk at 4000m tomorrow on the way to Guayaguil and the next day there visiting an island. The group goes its different ways - 4 go directly to Galapagos, 1 stays with her daughter here, and the others go back to London. We'll head for a few days in Quito.