Cuenca to buy a hat!

A weekend in Loja, nice place and worth a visit (apart from the food, struggled to find anywhere that didn't sell only chicken, rice and chips or a variation of that three) We met Henry on Saturday from Canada and had dinner with him at night, good to swap tales, he is heading South, We North so advice on both sides. This morning (Monday) before we left we had to get Insurance (SOAT) to cut a long story short, 2 hours, 2 queues and a taxi ride eventually got us the insurance so we left at 11am for Cuenca, around 130 miles of the best roads and scenery i've been on, climbing mountains, swooping around bends, feeling dizzy when I looked over the edge at the crazy drops below us, it was fantastic, once again so high that we were riding in and out of Clouds, the air hot one minute, cold and wet the next, a great ride. En route we spotted Ricardo heading South so a roadside conflab on road conditions and places to stay. Into the really nice town of Cuenca, past a Royal Enfield dealer !! We found a nice Hotel and headed of to buy a Panama hat, contrary to the name a genuine Panama hat is made in Equador, hat found and bought and then a nice meal in the centre of town (thank god we were starting to feel we had malnutrition!)

Impresive Murals depicting history In Loja

Simon Bolivar

Loja City gate, very impressive

One of the many Markets

The smell of the chickens was turning my stomach!

One of the many impressive churches in Loja

Today , passing through a small town, looked like the whole school out with their teacher, all playing instruments, realy nice!

Stunning

Roadside chat with Ricardo

So high we are above much of the clouds

Panama hat shop

Fi tries one for size

I Buy one from the guy who makes them, they fit in that box!

Really nice town with typical Colonial architecture