Cuenca General Tips by richiecdisc

Favorite Thing: As with all colonial charmers the best thing one can do in Cuenca is wander around with no particular destination. That's how you generally find the best stuff. What's best? It's up to you.

Fondest Memory: It felt good to be back on the Pan American Highway, even if we stood next to our backpacks waiting for the bus to take us to Cuenca. The previous day’s eerie walk down the desolate road behind us was now a somewhat comical if haunting memory. It was easy to laugh about the territorial fierce dogs now that we’d already passed them. We were quite prepared to jump on the next bus which we figured would be no more than an hour but when a car pulled over despite our not even attempting to hitchhike, we rushed over to investigate. He was going to the next town and was willing to give us a lift for a dollar. We figured it would be easier to get a bus from there to Cuenca and we had already experienced the difficulty of jumping on a bus from the road the previous day. So, we hopped in and kept our fingers crossed. Though I never hitchhike we had taken a lift out of Cotopaxi National Park when it was our only alternative and despite the reported dangers of Ecuador, we had found the people warm and friendly. Our new driver seemed pretty much the same and the car was brand spanking new as evidenced by the plastic seat covering and fresh smell. As it turned out, he was delivering the car from Quito to Cuenca and made the run a couple times a week, often picking up passengers to make the ride more interesting and obviously make some extra money. Once he heard we were going to Cuenca he was quite happy and offered to take us all the way there for $10 each. I hadn’t gotten a chance to took at the transit prices from our current location to Cuenca but remembered it to be more like $5 each so bargained hard for a price reduction. He was a bit perplexed but eventually relented to us paying $10 for both of us. (concluded below in Fondest Memory)

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Fondest Memory: He drove fast but a lot more carefully than most South American drivers. We passed everything in front of us but generally I felt in less danger than when taking the bus! While were drove he talked to me non-stop since I was sitting right next to him while my wife slept in the back seat. I did my best to keep up my half of the conversation despite my meager Spanish and I guess I did a good enough job since he never stopped. We were making great time but I kept an eye on the map just to make sure we were indeed going to Cuenca and not being abducted. When we hit the halfway point and we still had a few hours to go, I checked the bus prices and found out not only that the trip was eight hours but also that it would have cost us $10 each. He was only trying to charge us the going rate as it turned out so I felt a little sheepish for my tough negotiation. It took under five hours and despite a few doubting moments it was a good ride through some incredible if dusty scenery. We were feeling pretty good about our survival skills but mostly it just felt good to finally be in Cuenca.

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