Heading to Perahhh

Plantas y blanco, Baños > La Escalinata, Cuenca (Ecuador) > Loki hostel, Mancora (Peru)

After a fairly hectic morning sorting out a bus, and an emergency 'jugo natural' stop (natural juices, particularly mango and passion fruit, are our saviour out here!) we caught a 4 hour bus over to baños. Said destination is a fairly well reputed city, known for its natural baths created by mountainous springs and heated by the enormous volcano (name forgotten) which overlooks the Baños valley.  

  

Roof terrace with view in Plantos y blanco

We had made the foolish mistake of failing to prebook a hostel on arr. in Banos, but we quickly managed to find a decent room in the rather confusingly named 'plantas y blanco' (plants and white, the topic of many discussions but apparently a reference to the odd decoration theme). P&B's most attractive feature was a hexagonal roof terrace complete with cafe and 360degree view. In every direction, the mountains (now definitely towering mountains, not hills) overlooked us, with papa volcano standing snow-capped above his comparatively small neighbours.  

We had only reserved one full day in baños, on which we hoped to visit the natural baths and take a trip to one of the many spas that line the streets. As we approached the baths, we realised that Sunday may not have been a wise choice. It looked like Baños' entire tourist population had beaten us to it, squeezed together in the relatively small baths, all sporting matching shower caps (quite an amusing sight). We decided to return in the early hours of the following morning. Instead, we set off to earn our lunch by doing one of the locally suggested hikes. 

View from Banos mountain

300 steep steps and some uphill walking later, we found ourselves high up one of the mountains, looking out over Baños alongside a rather crude statue of the Virgin Mary. Once we had caught our breath (I blame the altitude, still over 2000m above sea level) the view of the mountains was spectacular, and this time we could really gauge the size of the town and decided it was a bit of a blot on the wonderfully wild landscape! We descended in half the time to hunt out some food. 

We spent the afternoon hanging around a delicious cafe, Casa Hood, where they screen films daily. Our film? 'Midnight Express' about a man who got stuck in a Turkish prison for smuggling marajuana. Quite a...um... surprising watch if anyone ever has the pleasure. The spa got ousted in replace of food and film so although a fun day, we felt like we had to do something 'Baños' before leaving the next day.  

For this reason, bleary eyed at 5:30 the next morning, we stalked our way over to the natural baths for an early morning dip to avoid the crowds. Donned in our very own shower caps, but in slightly less crammed conditions, we got in the luke warm bath, and then upped our game to the super hot one. Surrounded, even at this early hour, by a fair few retirees, it was quite a surreal experience watching the sun come up. Refreshed, very heated (the hot bath was dizzyingly so) and well woken, we headed to the bus terminal to get on our way to Cuenca, 10 hours south of Baños and still in Ecuador. 

And so began one of the smoothest bus routes we've done (metaphorically speaking, roads still very windy). We were ushered quickly onto the right bus, caught a connecting bus by a very close 2 minutes (avoiding a 6 hour wait) which followed a beautiful mountain road that transported us blindly, but effectively, through a cloud. In addition, the journey took only half the time we had anticipated, so we arrived 5 hours early, giving us a good afternoon in Cuenca. 

Cuenca was a last minute decision. Instead of powering through Ecuador following a slightly awkward bus route to the Peruvian border, this white-stoned city provided a nice break in the journey. As the third largest city in Ecuador, it seems well developed and offered pretty cobbled streets and good restaurants. A particular favourite spot of ours was 'cocoa y canel' ('chocolate and cinnamon') where we had an incredible chocolate pizza! 

Our hostel in Cuenca was a different experience. We had been under the impression that buzzing hostels were thin on the ground, and so booked a cheap private room in what turned out to be a very small hotel. A heavily pregnant woman took us to our room, a small, very quaint number, and put some curtains up on the windows which looked out into the corridor. The three beds could not have been much closer together, but the privacy was still very welcome after 5 weeks of room sharing. Sleep came quickly after a very expensive Italian meal, and we prepped ourselves for a morning of exploration in Cuenca. 

Bean, a llama and some incan ruins...

Following a delicious breakfast which included a 'humilas', a local snack of corn wrapped in leaves and heated with cheese, the focus of our day was visiting some Incan ruins in the old settlement of Pumapungo. Impressive as they were, we tended towards the 'fauna' section of the park which randomly boasted llamas, parrots, hawks and toucans. We also saw the famed 'shrunken heads', which were literally a collection of human heads that had been ritually shrunken. Info on how this is actually done was a little thin on the ground, but we learned that, sadly, Ecuadorean law prevents it from being done to human skulls these days. It is, however, still permitted for sloth skulls (?!).

Parrot in Pumapunga

Cuenca was certainly a nice place to spend the day, and a stark contrast to the bustling streets of Quito (which, in retrospect I was perhaps a bit harsh on) and the touristy Baños. We left Ecuador that evening feeling like it had certainly been worth a visit - perhaps a return to visit the Galapagos islands one day when we have some (lots of) spare cash!?! 

Our first stop in Peru took us back to the sun; Mancora. Mancora is a typically gringofied surfer town on the north, pacific coast. We arrived knackered at 6am and promptly fell asleep on some 3x3 metre beds situated around a luxurious swimming pool at Loki hostel. 

Loki swimming pool

Loki, Loki, Loki *shake and hang of the head*, certainly not our most cultural stop by far and very possibly the reasoning behind the 'gap yah' video that was so popular years ago. With all signs pointing to a very lively and well stocked bar and no signs pointing to any other activity except sunbathing we accepted our fate and awaited the evening's imminent debauchery. Here I shall swim in a sea of euphemism and leave you in the knowledge that I was very off form for pretty much two days following that night. A particular highlight of Mancora is that it is heavily defined on the gringo trail and, with a capacity of 160 people, usually fully booked, we bumped in to perhaps 5 different groups of friends that we had met all over Colombia and Ecuador, one being Shane, the first person we met coming off our flight in Bogota. In addition we made a new collection of friends who we may or may not cross paths with at a later date. 

Us and shane from Bogota in Loki
 (sorry about the photobomber)

So Mancora came and went in a sunny, sea-y blur, no surfing was done, and a final miserable night was spent by me in our dorm because a loud voiced *insert swear-word here* was sick all over his bed and the wall so my optimistic hopes for an early night were literally puked on. Should have been sensible and joined Bean and Lizzie on a final night of celebration with the crew. That'll teach me!

In fear that we were beginning to run out of time on our adventure, we powered down the west coast of Perah in one fell swoop, and landed in Huacachina, a sandboarding hotspot 4 hrs south of Lima, 25 hours later. 

More to come soon, sorry I've been MIA, just having toooo much fun haha