Sunday 15th got up early to catch a bus to Alausi to go on a tram ride to the Devils Nose. The breakfast at the Hotel was huge! there was buffet, the best kind of breakfast and it had Watermelon!!! and rockmelon and bananas and all sorts of other good food. I enjoyed it. I got told i said amazing too many times in the space of five minutes so i began saying deliscous instead. Before we left i had time to exchange my Stephen King novel, which is massive , for a much lighter On The Road, which i had tried hard to find before leaving new zealand. So that was good. We caught a taxi to the bus station and started another adventure. I dont remember the bus ride.. i sat next to claire...apparently. We arrived in Alausi and Claire was desperate for a toilet. We found the bus station restrooms and there was a girl selling the toilet paper. she was about 11 and in indigenous dress. Gorgous face and she talked to the adults as though she was one herself ...when we were leaving there was a younger girl who just wandered on in and the girl on guard started trying to tell her it costs 25cents. 25cents!!! It was all very entertaining.
We had enough time before the tram ride to wander around the shops, i bought a chocolate crisont. The tram ride was spectacular. We were meant to take a train the entire way, from Riobamba to Cuenca but due to recent landslides the tracks were closed. But we were able to take this one and a half hour tram around the hills to the Devils Nose, a huge big mountain , that apparently looks like a nose. The tracks took years to build and lots of people died. Thats all i know about it really. But the views were amazing. There were rivers and mountains and it all looked suspicously like a big version of New Zealand.
Once back in town we had a quick lunch then walked around the markets. There was a lot of people in indigenous dress and i dont think they liked that we tourists were in the markets taking photos and meandering around.
The next bus was packed full of people and it just filled up even more once we were on the road. We had seats at least . About an hour through the trip there was a hoard of school children who had been waiting in the rain. Their woolen clothes smelt dirty and one kid sat on my armrest, his bag was on top of me and smelt like old sandwiches. There were all really cute but made me incredibly uncomfortable at the same time. The boys kept trying to brush my arm and occasionally i felt a little hand in my hair. The were on the bus for two hours! I cant imagine how hard it must be, making that trip every morning and afternoon. The youngest was a little girl, maybe 6. She sat on her brothers bag and fell asleep. The floor wasnt particularly grippy and she just slid all around the front of the bus.
After 4 and a half hours we arrived in Cuenca, it was clouded over so really dark for 3pm.
We found our hotel- El Quiote, which is incredible. It has a huge big foyer full of Don Quiote statues and paintings. Theres a spiral staircase and marble floors. Im sharing a room woth nicky.
And thats sunday.
It was long and hard. we went out for dinner to an amazing italian restaurant but due to my massive stomach cramps (apparently most likely due to swallowing amazon water) i was unable to touch my main.
I went home and curled up in bed.
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