Town of long life

Well finally managed to leave Cuenca on Wednesday, but went out in a blaze of glory! After saying that we were just going to the cafe for a cup of tea and a game of curenta (great ecuadorean to which we are all addicted) after dinner, we ended up being talked in to going out to a local bar with the guys who we had been hanging out with, and then at 4am decided we might as well just stay up all night as we had to leave at 8! This actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I then slept for the entire 5 hour journey to Loja and as such missed the point in the journey where the bus was 2cm away from a crumbling road edge and 50m drop. Apparently even some ecuadoreans were going up to the front to try to get off and walk and Kate and Emma (new travelling friends) really thought they were going to die! That great journey was then topped by Emma getting her bag stolen and being charged twice for the next bus journey as the bag nicking incident meant that we missed our original bus. Grrrrr Luckily Vilcabamba is lovely and v relaxing so we all calmed down once we got here. So much so that i was pursuaded it would be a good idea to spend all of yesterday on a horse......beautiful ride but am REALLY suffering today. But, the brill think about Vilcabamba is that there are loads of massage places, so am booked in for back massage and reiki session tonight....hurrah. Just in time to relax before my 11 hour journey to Guayacil....urgh