Cuenca Day 1

Yeah!  Slept all night without getting sick! Flagged down a taxi and headed to the Transportation Port.  Jeff had written down the address and showed the taxi driver.  We left Guayaquil in a small car with 1 other passenger and a driver. $30 for a 3 hour taxi ride from Guayaquil to Cuenca.  This time we had a different perspective on Ecuadorian driving.  Our Ecuadorian driver, Mr. Toad from Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, obviously had a deadline to beat.  I was glad Jeff and I sat in the back.  The front seat would have been too close to the action for me.  I was surprised there wasn't a hole in the floor on Jeff's side of the car.  We hadn't gotten too terribly far when there was a police checkpoint and our driver got pulled over. 

Evidently it was "No harm, no foul" because our driver wasn't given a ticket and we didn't see any money change hands.  From the gestures and conversation between the other passenger and the driver, the cars window tint on the front windshield was too dark.  Back on the road for more Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.  We could see the Andes in the distance and before long we were heading uphill.  

Up we went into the clouds.  There were times when we couldn't see 20 feet in front of the car.  Mr. Toad took every curve on 2 wheels.  

Mountain on one side and guard rail on the other.  And we just kept climbing and climbing.  

Jeff pointed out that we must be pretty high since we were looking down on blue sky.  At one point I'm pretty sure we were looking down on the clouds.  

Before long we were on the outskirts of Cuenca and our Wild Ride was over!  

I will never complain about Atlanta drivers again.  I'm really proud of Jeff.  He didn't stomp a hole in the floor and he didn't say anything to the driver.   Although I guess he could have said anything in English to our driver since Mr. Toad didn't speak English!

After we arrived at the transportation office we asked them to call us a taxi.  Jeff had written down our hostals address.  Cost $3.  Turns out our taxi driver spent 5 years in Jacksonville FL and 2 years in Queens NY.  His English was better than our Spanish but not by much.  We're staying at La Casa Cuencano this week.  It's in El Centro which is the older historic section of town.

We walked around the corner and ate at Windhorse Cafe which is expat owned and evidently very popular in the expat community.  It was nice to eat a sub sandwich and listen to English being spoken around us.  We walked around a little more and a gentleman on the other side of the street said, "How ya'll doin'?"  The ya'll was a giveaway.  He was from Alabama and a former Marine.  It's a small world after all.  We visited with him for a bit and headed back to our room. 

Tomorrow we hope to take the double decker bus tour of Cuenca to help get our bearings.  Cuenca is not as big as Guayaquil but its a big town.  We're looking forward to exploring tomorrow!