We the took the bus yesterday from Quito to Cuenca – 10 hour bus ride to smaller university town, much less police. Yesterday, we only slept two hours because we had to take the 5:30am bus, so we had to wake up at 4am.
The Mercedes bus ride was quite nice — albeit the roads in some places were not very good. The seats reclined and the toilet worked, except no light when you closed the door. We had to stop about six times to wait for road construction crews. We had 6 bags to check and had no problems with them and no extra charge for the number of bags. We were given baggage tags and had to show the tags to reclaim our baggage.
Today we will get more acquainted with Cuenca. Have to switch hotels this morning and get somewhere we can rent a house for a month or so. I was told that hotel rates are higher in Cuenca but rental houses are lower priced. I will let you kow what we find out.
Manager of hotel in Cuenca told us that the Ecuadorian President has declared three cities in Ecuador as martial law due to crime. I certainly saw police everywhere in Quito, but none here in Cuenca. We walked the streets of Cuenca last night looking for a restaurant and felt quite comfortable — very different than Quito. Much more mellow and relaxed.
Took pictures from the bus during 10 hour bus ride on very nice Mercedes bus. Pictures to follow when I get time to download them from the camera.
I haven’t been scammed too much here – except the taxi driver who said 2.50 at the bus station and then demanded 4.00 when we arrived at the hotel – I paid 3.00 and told him to ‘fuck off’. I hate ass-holes who play games with prices. Overall we have gotten much more honest prices than in Vietnam here in Ecuador.
