South America, Days 66 to 73 - Stage 16: Cuenca, Ecuador

Can't even relax with a cup of tea on your own!

Day 66-67 Saturday-Sunday

I got the best out of the Christmas chicken, right up to boiling the carcass for soup, which though I say it myself was lovely. Whether the smell just makes you hungry and determined that it’s going to be I don’t know, but we thoroughly enjoyed it. Soup felt like the right thing though, it’s not cold, but it really has been very wet so we’ve continued with planning, and jobs in the morning and reading in the hammocks in the afternoon, unless the noise of the rain on the tin roof just makes it unbearable!

Spotted this bird in the field opposite the house. Google Lens tells me its a Peruvian Meadowlark, there were quite a few hopping round early in the morning

Day 68 Monday

The morning forecast didn’t look too bad, and we were out of chicken meals, so a two pronged attack for the day. Brian wanted to walk up to a hill top with a cave that he’d seen the route to on his run (yes, he’s finally done one). An hour and a half got us to the top, this included a quick whizz round a shopping centre, just to see what was in there.

Our our cave walk. Its up there on that hill, by the lump on the right, but first we have to go right down and way to the left in order to turn right and go up. However, the good thing was that we didn't pass any snappy, loose dogs on this one

We had passed a sign with a map on telling us what we could expect to see, which didn’t look anything like what was there, but we continued to the stream. Crossing this was harder than it usually is I’m sure, due to all the rain, but we were intrigued by a sign on the other side explaining about the via ferrata lower off. What lower off and what via ferrata? We continued for a moment and came upon the recognisable metal staples in the rock forming a ladder down into the gorge. It wasn’t very far, but was very pretty, and most unexpected. There was no exploration to be done though, not without getting wet feet, but what a find. Mark, the homeowner sounded as interested in this walk as the last one we sent them pictures of, when he really wanted to know where the cliff was! See the walk on Relive with a few photos: click here

Past this very pretty tree on the road out towards the start of the hill. This has formed part of my running route, as of this morning I've done it twice, but at this altitude it's really hard!

Going down never takes as long as going up and we were back at the Cueva del Cangrejo in no time. This was my chosen lunch stop, a seafood restaurant, that gets good reviews, and why shouldn’t we? We ordered the sharing platter, she looked at us and said, something along the lines of “just 2 of you? Ha, no!” So we ordered the half, which was plenty and went down extremely well with a couple of beers. If I have a complaint it would be that the only choice was beer, there wasn’t a glass of dry white wine to be seen. Still a fab finish to the walk though.

Up the hill on the gravel road towards the uphill track. It is much steeper than it looks here

It then started to rain, really rain, so Brian decided we were going to get our first taxi home. We ran out to the first taxi that came in who grumpily told us that we had to phone the office, before stomping off, either to have lunch or use the loo, but he certainly wasn’t taking us anywhere. Fortunately the taxi that had been despatched for us then turned up and we hopped in, already wet. He didn’t seem to know about the road closure south of us which is quite a surprise, so by the time we’d been round the block and back up the long way the cost of the fare had gone from $2 to $2.50, but that’s ok.

However, the views are getting better. The mountains in the distance are the high Andes. We're staying in a house in amongst those on the far left. No idea which one from this photo

Day 69 Tuesday

We nipped out to get the last few bits for our New Year’s Eve tapas spectacular, knowing we had to be back for the gardener who was coming to cut the lawns. Just as we were leaving, the power went out, again. In itself not a problem, you always just want to know it’s not only you! As we got to the top of our road it was obvious what the problem was, the electricity pole was being changed, but why on NYE? Actually the power came back about 14.00 as the guy I’d asked as we passed suggested. Sadly however, by now the WiFi had gone, and that didn’t come back. Between us we walked up and down the road a number of times. There were different internet providers there, but never our one. Cheryl and Mark were driving to Tampa, not sure where from but this seemed to be a long journey during which contacting the provider was a real pain. She did, but was worried that they would try and call her Ecuador mobile to make arrangements, this wasn’t going to happen! We tried, as did they, calling and messaging Alex, their WiFi integrator, but nothing from him, apparently he’s usually tricky to get hold of when it’s not NYE. She suggested we ask Fernando, the next door neighbour, with a smattering of English, whose father owns this house if they had WiFi. They did, which he let us log into. This worked better for me, than for Brian. I could connect in certain areas of the house seemingly if I stood on one leg with my finger in my ear. Brian had to stand on the stairs with his phone pressed against the wall! Poor Fernando, had a man in and between them they were painting the house, so although he was very nice, he really didn’t want to get involved, and was probably cursing leaving the gate open so we could actually get in to speak to him. His son tried to help, listening to messages Cheryl had sent in Spanish and listening to us talk and type into Google translate, it was all very slow and frustrating, and we felt so helpless. Fernando eventually got to a place where he could stop painting and ring the provider, Cheryl had sent all the details through. They promised they would be there, today (it’s now 16.00 on NYE). I went back up the road, again, at 17.00, no one around at all, it’s not looking good. As I turned round to walk back Fernando with wife, and another son pulled up offering me a lift. Back at the house he called the provider again, giving them this son as a contact for the morning. New Year’s Day? Hmmm

Oh well, we’ll eat, drink and be merry, the tapas was fab. No WiFi meant no TV, but that’s ok, we’ll talk and nibble before heading off to bed at our usual time. Fast asleep when the fireworks started at 23.30, I spent midnight sitting in Asia’s bed with a shaking dog while Brian was upstairs watching the fireworks. The noise and bangs went on for a bit, fortunately it was pouring down which may have encouraged them to stop a little earlier than they would otherwise, and we all returned to bed to sleep.

Near the end of the gravel road before the track started there was a sign showing what we were looking for. Looks nice, lets carry on

Day 70 Wednesday

Messages from Cheryl asking if we had WiFi? As if. Alex has rung them too so that’s three notifications they’ve had now.

We didn’t want to bother Fernando, but got a message at 10.30 saying they would be out this morning. Hurrah, till 12.00 when we got another message from him that they weren’t coming till tomorrow between 8 and 9. Oh well, we’ll go out then, as it’s finally stopped raining (is that why they couldn’t get any engineers on NYD?) We were hoping for a bakery which we found, for some rolls for bacon and egg, and also found the icecream shop, so we’ll have milkshake and WiFi then!

Higher up it becomes quite rugged, mainly bare limestone with occasional trees and vegetation

Back to a call from Alex, that he couldn’t be with us in the morning, but could be available on the phone. Do we need him? Well it’s not an option, will they need to come in? Who knows, we are on fibre not copper, so it’s a possibility.

A chilled afternoon and tapas mark II. We didn’t have to talk to each other again though, I went through the folder of DVD’s!

Getting closer now, the dotted line on my Organic Map downloaded on my phone suggests its up on the right by that upper hill

Day 71 Thursday

09.00 and a van with two men in arrive, they do want to come into the house, and are a bit unsure about the dogs, they are fine though running around like nutters. The guys have a quick look and say they’ll be back, with the fibre, from the new pole, in about 40 minutes.

We leave the path where the dotted line on the map indicated its over here somewhere

We’ll finish our breakfast then, bugger, Suki has had a look and not only had a little lick of the yogurt on Brian’s fruit, but has also taken the stones from the small plums that we’d left on a plate. Just what we need. It’s not the stones so much as they are small, so shouldn’t cause a blockage, but the fact that like many fruit stones they contain a small amount of cyanide. After consultation with Cheryl and Mark we agreed to a watch and wait, and poo inspection regime. I boiled up some rice, with a little bit of chicken, added some olive oil and gave small regular doses of this. I went through all the poo in the garden and actually found one stone that literally must have gone straight through. One more to go then. There has been no sign of this one, but also no sign of any blockage, things are moving just as normal, but what a way to spend a day and a half, just as well there are lots of plastic gloves!

The engineers finally got back so I went into the bedroom with the dogs while the work went on upstairs. Alex, good as gold, was available on the phone, and the work was completed. The engineers seemed to think the repeaters had forgotten everything, but I confirmed that we had upstairs and downstairs WiFi and that the TV has Prime and Netflix, so all seems to be good. Hurrah, we’ve still got lots of planning to do, not to mention, booking flights, paying house insurance and income tax and all sorts of other things that require the connectivity we all just take for granted.

Stew in the Instant pot for dinner, can’t believe how quick and easy it is, and how yummy it turned out. It’s not scary like pressure cookers used to be, but have I really got a need for one? I’ll think about it.

We walk to an edge and there's the cave a long way down. Don't go too close! We're not crossing there

Day 72 Friday

More rain, though we fortunately managed to make our shopping trip between showers.

More planning, more poo study, more blogging, though it’s not going to get posted till tomorrow as it’s about drink and nibbles time. I am however happy to report that Suki has shown absolutely no ill effects in any way. Phew.

A little way up stream there looks to be a possible crossing place. We can see others have been this way, so we'll give it a go

Day 73 Saturday

Just a quick update, despite many other ‘movements’ I went through one this morning containing three intact (1 more than expected) plum stones. Interesting that they have taken 36 hours to make it through though.

On the opposite bank is a sign indicating a lower off and via ferrata. We have no gear with us, but lets go and have a look...

We're here. There's a gash in the ground on the right, in front you can just see some slings on fixed lower off's and, just by those two twiggy trees in the lower centre, some staples leading down

Mmm, looks interesting. We can do that without ropes surely. Jackie doesn't object so down I go

This section is vertical and the water below is gushing through after recent rain, so exploration down there without getting wet is out of the question

I get down and stand on a rock, there's just about enough room for Jackie, but we can go no further

What a situation. We would imagine that in the dry season you could walk all along here, but those pools are deep with rushing water

Posing for a photo but not letting go of the bottom staple. Its wet down here with water dripping of the cave edges onto us

Jackie stood over there but I didn't take another photo as I didn't want to get my camera out again, it was wet and I was holding on with one hand

Back up there then. What could possibly go wrong!

Looking down the gash as we crossed back again

Jackie seems to have got back over safely

On our way back down

We pass this chicken farm where the hens have their own parasols!

We take a shortcut back, another dotted line shown on my map. I trod carefully on the bridge to make sure it would take my weight!

Our reward after getting down. Fried seafood platter and beers at the Cueva del Cangrejo seafood restaurant. It was fabulous and we made a note that we must go here again before we leave

Doglets missed us while we were gone, but they were fine

However they weren't so happy with fireworks and Asia dog retreats to her safe place in her bed under the stairs with Jackie to console her

New Years Eve and that's why we have no power. The electricity board decide to erect a new pole. Their only concern is to reconnect the electric. Unfortunately all internet providers use the poles to run their cables, but the electric board are not concerned about those, they just cut them all, leaving everyone with no internet. Each internet provider has to come out and run new cables. There's all our cables lying on the ground

On our way back from the shops and there'll still be no electric yet, but the are working on it. Unbelievably the internet was still working at this stage through those cables dangling down. However they later just cut them all as they reconnected the electric and we were plunged into silence, but at least we had electric! Why on NYE?

Our New Years Eve buffet went ahead and we had a nice selection of goodies. Doglets showed some interest too but we managed to keep them at bay

Saw these in the shop. We know them in the UK as Frosties, but Zucaritas is a much better name!

We've had some heavy rain here, usually in the afternoon and evening 
, but sometimes in the morning too. They've had a big drought here this year apparently, but that's definitely changed now and, we understand this is particularly wet just now. Rivers have flooded and some roads have been washed away. We're halfway through our housesit now, our forward trip planning is going very well and its all looking very exciting, starting on 22nd January. Lets enjoy the remaining relaxation!