On the bus from Chiclayo I didn´t sleep much. We crossed the border at around 3 in the morning and I had to pay a fee for overstaying my visa in Peru.
When I arrived in Cuenca in the morning I felt tired and exhausted, and after living such a long time with someone so close it felt weird to be all by myself again.
Fortunately I had directions to a hostel, and I found it easily and liked the place. All the morning I spent there, relaxing and organizing my head. Then I left for the center of the city to find a chip for my phone and some information - I had come to Ecuador without any idea of anything.
The city of Cuenca is beautiful, with its narrow streets, churches, colonial houses and street art. It has a nice place to relax next to the river, and music in the streets. The only thing that really confused me was the change from soles to dollars, and everything was a lot more expensive than in Peru.
I visited the tourist information and they gave me a guide to Ecuador, and further information about Cuenca and its surroundings. But still, on the first day I didn´t do much but walk around and I went to bed early.
On the next day in the morning I went to the market to get breakfast. From there I went to one of the biggest museums there, the Pumapungo. The entrance was free and it had a good exhibition about culture and life in all Ecuador. I enjoyed it, and finished with a walk around the ruins and park outside before going back to my hostel. There I packed my stuff, because I had found someone to stay with, and then went down to the river to wait there. I still was very tired, and kinda passed out, head on my backpack, in the grass.After waiting quite a long time, Jefftoo, my Haitian host came to pick me up and we went to his house. He made me feel like home, and the only thing I was missing was electricity and a working shower. But it was a place to stay.
Jefftoo and his friends went out that night, but I stayed home, not feeling very motivated and still being tired.
The following day I left the house by myself, since my host was still sleeping. I found myself some breakfast and went to the internet to upload some pictures. I still felt lonely without my partner, so it was also important to me to talk to him for a little bit. After that I went up to the view point, wrote a little bit, and talked to my mom.
Walking down I stopped by a flea market and then made my way through the old town again. I also prepared myself a little for leaving to a national park the next day, and bought some food.
Back at the house I packed my backpack, went to the bus terminal to check the connections, and went to sleep early again, because I had a long day in front of me.
Parque Nacional de Cajas
Originally I had planned to take a bus to the terminal, because it was at the other end of the city. But since it was Sunday morning, I didn´t see any and so I walked all the way. When I got there the first bus had just left, and I had to wait an hour and a half for the next one. But I used the time to eat breakfast and charge my phone, so it was ok.
Time passed and more and more people came. When the bus came, it filled up fast, and a lot of people still got on on the road.
I got off the bus earlier than the others because I was planning to do a two-day-hike and so I had to start from another entrance.
I walked to the park entrance, registered, and started walking. It felt good being out in the nature again and I was surprised to find myself in a completely different landscape than the mountains in Peru.
The first part of the hike took me along a muddy forest trail, steep uphill. There I understood why the route had been marked as "difficult", but I loved the deep green of the forest.
After a while it started to clear up and I left the forest for a more open space. Here I was surrounded by mountains and had a great view. I lost the trail once, but it didn´t take me long to find it again, and after crossing a plain part high up on a hill, the trail took me downhill, to a lake. By then I was pretty sure I preferred going up, because the trail was steep and wet, and I almost fell a couple of times with my big backpack on my shoulders.
But as soon as I got to the lake, the trail got easier, and after a while I took a rest next to a river and ate something. The it got uphill again, rockier than before, and the landscape was spotted by waterfalls and little creeks.
The hike was exhausting, but I enjoyed it a lot, and when I got to the camping spot and a crossing I decided to keep going until it got dark and to take the longer route.
Again the trail got difficult, but I was advancing rapidly and soon I got to another two lakes.
I followed the trail uphill and downhill, already watching out for a place to put the tent. But that turned out a little harder than expected, because there was hardly anything plain and almost everything was covered by some kind of stinging pasture or was muddy and wet.
When I finally found a place, night almost had fallen in, and I hurried to get everything settled. The place was comfortable and protected, and right next to the shore of the lake.
I ate, but when I wanted to turn on my flashlight to read the battery died. But since I was exhausted I didn´t really mind to sleep rightaway, and get up early in the morning to continue my hike.
When I woke up it was cold and raining. I packed my stuff rapidly and pretty much everything got wet within half an hour.
I countinued the trail, which had gotten muddier and sometimes was now hard to find. The marks that I used to find on the previous day every now and then had disappeared, and I wasn´t sure at all if I was going the right way. It was foggy and I couldn´t even see the mountain peeks to orientate myself.
After almost an hour of walking in the rain I got to a point where the trail didn´t seem to continue - the footprints just disappeared. I made the decision to go back and search for a trail mark, but even finding the way back was hard. I almost couldn´t find it, and the cold wind was piercing my face.
I went all the way back to my camping spot, but foound neither a mark nor another possible trail. It was there when I decided to go back to the crossing and take a shorter way out of the park - I really didn´t feel like searching for a trail in that weather and with a heavy backpack, and then walk another 6 hours.
I found the crossing easily, even though it turned out to be a different one. But it served for my purposes and I took the shortes route out of the park.
When I finally made it to the road I was soaked and freezing and glad to be back. But I was also angry at myself because I gave up and didn´t have the strength to keep going. It really bothered me and it was then when I knew that I couldn´t go back to Peru, even though at that moment I really wanted to. But I knew it wouldn´t make me happy and it would get even harder to leave. I also wanted to continue my travels and see some more of South America and I knew I would regret it if I didn´t take this chance of traveling.
At the road I met an English couple and together we found a car to take us back to Cuenca. There I went back to the house, took everything out of my backpack to dry, and washed myself in hot water.
Then I felt better.
Back in Cuenca
In the evening I packed my stuff and got everything ready to leave the next day in the morning. I was planning on going to Riobamba, and from there on I didn´t really have an idea what to do.
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