Cuenca: Helados a plenty

After Riobamba, we hopped a five hour bus through the highlands to Cuenca. What a bus ride. Another rainy day (this is really the only time other than in Huaraz that it has rained at all so far) with the bus snaking through high mountain tops, shrouded in mist and cloud with occasional sunny breaks. Cliffs turned to farmland and lush valleys as we left the high snowcapped Andes behind...

Cuenca is both modern and colonial. Paved roads only reached this area in the 60´s so there is still a lot of traditional dress and people and the downtown core is a beautiful mix of colonial flat topped buildings and red tiled houses. The downtown runs along a river which is well cared for, and is still used to wash and dry clothes. Brightly coloured dresses lie on the banks drying in the sun. Beautiful bridges cross over the river which is free of garbage, although is still pretty dirty (not too common in SA). Streets are straight but filled with beautiful colonial buildings and churches, it is a real treat for the eyes.

Not too much else to say. Today is election day. We opted not to go to Sigsig (nearby town that makes Panama Hats) as the owner of our hostal tells us that things will shut down today as most people will be watching the elections.

Things have been really heating up in that category lately. Parades galore fill the streets, and these aren´t really parades... just anyone with a working vehicle, some tape and whatever political propaganda they can find adherred to their vehicle. Whole buses and big rig trucks go by with a few posters and no one but the driver. Loud speakers seem to be the draw and the louder the speaker the better, even if it isn´t political tunes, just music is great.

As we said there are a lot of political parties down here with a lot of voting numbers. Our spanish, unfortunately, isn´t great enough to really understand the situation, but from what we can understand from the hostal owner it is between two parties, number 35 and we think 12-29. Not sure if that is just from advanced poles or surveys. We also wonder how everyone must vote as there are a lot of remote houses far from towns with obvious politcial feelings, so perhaps poles have been open longer. We haven´t noticed polls before, but we saw a few today and turnout seems to be good. There is a police presence, but things are calm. People aren´t afraid to tell you who they are voting for, we had lunch at a market stall and the lady was busy showing us her ID and political party. Should be interesting, apparently we should know by around 9pm tonight.

Tomorrow we are taking a bus to Loja (about six hours south of here). From there we are going to get a bus to Piuria, Peru, and then on to Lima and Ica, Peru. Should be about a day and a half process or more.. but we are realising there is a lot to do in Peru still and even more in Chile and Argentina.... so we must bid Ecuador farewell.