I'M AT: Hotel Pichincha, Cuenca. No-frills $4.50 with good central sitting area, angry bars on the windows, friendly and helpful (if bleary-eyed) owner.
Met Handsome Swiss Guy Mark (I should add, NOT my description) in the hotel Pichincha on Wednesday evening and went out and got battered, ended up dancing in a salsa club and then went to an after-hours bar with a load of Ecuadorians. The girls here are quite spectacular.
Got in at 5AM, slept most of Thursday but at night we went to a posh restaurant called the Eucalyptus Cafe, then to Club Roto for the 10 de Agosto celebrations.
Got back at 4.30AM.
Friday, Mark, me and two American girls, Dara and Golden, took in a match between Deportivo Cuenca and Liga de Quito. Finished 1-1, Quito had a man sent off and there were some very impressive fireworks. And cold lagers. So after a quick bite to eat we hit a club called Pop. Danced until the wee hours and got in at 4AM.
And then it was Saturday. Saturday night was surprisingly quiet early doors, but still - we managed to go salsa dancing at the Eucalyptus again until 2, then to a strange deserted club (which I later found out was a strip joint) playing house music and serving $3 cuba libres, did some stupid dancing with some Spanish and French folk, and got in this morning at 4.30AM.
Four nights on the trot, six different clubs, Pilsener and Brahma beers, absolutely wrecked, I´m an old man and I´m finally feeling it, but have the suspicion that tonight´s quiet night may not be as quiet as would be good for me.
Met some cracking characters, though. Hippy Suzy and her mate Betty, who ran the after-hours bar; an artist called Freddie, wheelchair-bound, likes a whisky and supports both Rangers and Celtic; DJ Gustavo, a guy we saw play both Roto and Pop, loads of different music and a good bald grinning madman; Sili, from Venezuela, who was always trying to get into Mark's pants; and a cast of three from El Cafecito hostal, including sad-faced Arriana from Quito, who never quite joined in.
Somewhere along the line we managed to fit in a trip to Parque Nacional Cajas, which was stunningly beautiful, verdant and eerie, rivalling Quilotoa for the most spectacular countryside. It really was incredible, lakes, spikily-leaved plants, giant lichen and jagged mountains, which the golden sun made holy with its beam.
And I shouldn´t leave this bit about the park without mentioning some of the varieties of hummingbird that we COULD have seen, which Mark has picked out in luminous yellow in his guidebook, and which I´d write in the sky in enormous letters for all time, if I could:
- the Rainbow-bearded Thornbill;
- the Purple-throated Sunangel; and:
- ......the Sapphire-Vented Puffleg.
How good is that??
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