Day 11 - Cuenca

Ok, so Cuenca is turning out to be pretty nuts. Its been random after random. On Thursday we did pretty much nothing all day except collect football stickers and eat some weird soup which had bits of spinal cord in it. nice. We went out to play some pool in the evening, then ended up at this club in a house. I got chatted up by 5 quiteñas but threw them off the scent by telling them all about Tristan. Still got the number of one of them though, so I can give them a call when I get to Quito.

After leaving the club at 3am, we wandered the streets of Cuenca looking for some food. didn't find any (the people here have an annoying habit of not wanting to let you down, so they don't say "I don't know" when you ask for directions, but instead make something up - idiots). then bumped into some drunk ecudorians who promised us "hotdogs" if we got in their van. Now, strictly, I don't like doing this kind of thing. But I had two mates with me, and the guys looked nice. So, we jumped in the van. When I say van, I mean we jumped in the back of a pickup truck, sat on the edge of the truck with nothing much to hang on to. The dude then drove at 100mph down cobbled streets towards the far edge of town with some other dudes in a mini following us. At this point, I thought we were going to be slaughtered (after they realised we had no money on us). But then the guy turned the van around and headed back into town. Bombing down the streets, we now realised that he WAS'T going to kill us, but instead we were going to be involved in a car crash, jumping red lights and bombing through junctions without stopping. It was only ten minutes later when he dropped us at our hostel and apologised for letting us down that we realised he was just a very friendly, drunk man. Verdict: don't get in pickup trucks with strangers. I think my mum taught me that a few years ago.

Spent yesterday HUNGOVER (again) but ventured out to a BBQ/houseparty at the house of one of the american girls (who we met in Baños). Didn't get to eat much (and I think I food poisened Maria with my suasages), but whiled away the evening playing drinking games, ping-pong (I thought it was called table-tennis) and pool. I'm practically "sporty" these days.





We then went out with the american girls to a salsa club, which was pretty rubbish, but good company. The girls are awesome, and after much discussion we decided that their american phrase "to tie one on" should be our new favourite phrase. Apparently it means "to push the boat out", which the girls have promised to use from now on. Maria came too. She´s ecuadorian, speaks perfect english, is SO MUCH FUN, and is gonna take me out clubbing in Quito in 2 weeks.





We're off to the coast tomorrow. a place called Montanita. Its apparently a surfer's paradise, very much the party town, and we will probaby get ourselves a cabaña on the seafront to soak up the seaside atmosphere. Has summer started yet in the UK?