Today was a travel day. To get to the airport, one must take a bus, take a ferry, take another bus. The airport is located on Baltra island. The US built a WWII runway there to mainly protect the Panama Canal. So, the transport shuffle went surprisingly smooth and I arrived with plenty of time.
Upon arrival at the airport in Guayaquil, I took a taxi to another bus for the 3 1/2 hour ride to Cuenca. Looking at my gps, I could see there were two ways to get there, the shorter one being through the mountains. We took that route and I was excited that it went through Cajas National Park, where I plan to hike tomorrow. And EXCITING it was! OMG, this road went up and up and up. The western Andes here are very steep, which created quite a few landslides into the road. Where there was room, the new dirt road just went around them. Where there was no space, one lane was cleared and traffic alternated going through. The cloud fog got thick in places and then we emerged above them and the view was spectacular. I kept watching the altimeter on my phone to get a screen shot of the highest point. Screenshot after screenshot, we kept going higher. Finally, I did see a sign for the summit and it was 13,550 feet!
Happy to be here, Cuenca is a colonial town with some amazing architecture. Indigenous people have inhabited this area since 8060 BC. The Spanish founded a settlement here in 1557. My Air BnB looks out on the Catedral Nueva dates back to 1885. That’s the new one, the baroque Catedral Viejo or Old Cathedral broke ground in 1567. Going to have to split my time between the city and the mountains in the next two days. It’s gonna be tough!
2 Wheeled Wanderer 