Ecuador! (more specifically, Cuenca and Loja)

So we did it! We made it to Ecuador! I can't believe our trip is more than half over already!!

Once we landed in Guayaquil, we headed over the bus terminal to catch a bus to Cuenca. The bus ride takes about 4hrs, but you can't beat the price! $8! And since our time is worth a lot less than our money these days, we were all for it. Plus, it's way more of an authentic experience...right...?

While in the bus terminal, guess who we found at McDonald's? (I will neither admit nor deny if I was ordering at the time.) Missionaries!


We were so excited to see them, and Patrick got a kick out of talking about all his old mission haunts. I told them all to go home and get married and bring their wives back on a tour someday :)

Anyways, 4 hours later, we arrived in Cuenca. it's a cute colonial town in the Andes.








Patrick had actually only been there once before, for a day, so it was a new adventure for us both. We wandered the town, ate at an awesome restaurant, Tiestio's, that had about 15 different sauces and side dishes for our meal,





Look at all that food! For just the two of us!!



and saw 50 zillion churches.





I still can't get over the number of churches in this country! There is one every block or so, sometimes even right across the street from one another! Oh yeah and we went to their Museum, but 80% of it was either closed or broken. There were some Incan ruins though which was cool (Cuenca was the 2nd largest Incan city, after Cuzco, Peru.





AND some real shrunken heads! Too bad we couldn't take pictures. But trust me they were suuuppeerr creepy.

Our hotel (Villa Nova) was decent, clean and the breakfast was good, but I can't seem to get used to how thin the walls are in these places! You hear your neighbors AND all the cars. I need to get better at sleeping in loud places. I'm a wimp who needs silence and darkness.

In all of the Andean cities there are these cute local ladies dressed in darling outfits. I tried to find where they buy their pleated skirts but apparently they are homemade :(



Anyways, after Cuenca, we got back on another $8/4hr bus to Loja!

Loja is where Patrick spent 6 months of his mission, so it was really fun to watch him remember the streets and parks and even some restaurants! We may or may not have eaten at his favorite Mexican restaurant, A lo Mero Mero, twice





and his other favorite, El Fogon once. Your memory is a funny thing, and Loja was not quite as "cute" as Patrick remembered. It was much more of a regular 'ol city, so after about 3 hours we had seen it all. We had to remind ourselves that this was not a place you would normally go on a vacation, but it was a fun place to come to reminisce.











Proof that nerdy gamers have no nationality :) this place was packed!

Since we still had a day left in Loja, we decided to hire a guy to drive us to Zamora, a town about 1.5hrs from Loja that is the entrance to the jungle in Southern Ecuador. The outskirts of the city has a National Park, Podocarpus, where Patrick had spent some of his free time on preparation days.

Our hotel hooked us up with Manuel (you want to go where? Hmm ok, I know someone with a truck, he will take you, just be ready at 8:30. Uhh...ok...). We weren't really sure what to expect, but excluding the fact that he had zero personality, and AMAZING photography skills,


Take 1. Nice pavement!


Take 2. Maybe just hold it a little straighter?


Take 3. I give up.

he had a clean truck and was very polite. It was a fun (albeit HOT) day and the park was full of gorgeous butterflies, amazing waterfalls and gigantic ants.























Zamora was a nice town, our five minute tour showed us the way to the gold mines,


the clock on the hill,


the town square





and the river walk.


Oh yeah! And some guys catching a snake.








On our way back, we stopped for lunch and Manuel lectured me on
a. Drinking soda (it's really bad for you)
b. Drinking anything cold while sick ( I'm currently suffering from Gripé, aka a cold, and apparently I was making it worse with my Sprite.)
c. Meat and processed carbohydrates. He only really eats salad. (Thanks dude. Glad I ordered the grilled chicken instead of the fried chicken, can't imagine what your opinion would have been on that one.)

So yeah, I was happy to get back to The (notso)Grand Hotel.

Side note: These Latins are not shy with their opinions! At one point in Cuenca, Patrick was accosted by some dumb old man who was trying to start a fight about Osama Bin Laden not really being a terrorist, luckily we just walked away.

We did manage to find the LDS church which was fun because Patrick got to show me all around inside.


He says it was the nicest chapel of all the cities he served in. It was definitely a nice building! Also, instead of the U.S. Standard basketball courts in the cultural hall, they have an indoor futball court!

We also saw the "door to the city"








and a park full of buildings representing other countries. I told Patrick it seemed like someone had gone to Disneyland in the 70s, and came back and tried to put "It's a Small World" all over the city. Kinda awesome, definitely weird.

And that about sums up it all up! Stay tuned for our awesome "night in the U.S." and the Galapagos!!!,