Cuenca to Guayaquil

After a couple of days in Cuenca we headed out to cross over the Andes and go down to the coast at Guayaquil where I would catch my flight out to the Galapagos Islands. The ride over the Andes was awesome. The mountains were set off by clouds and blue sky. We went through all sorts of micro climates as we climbed up to the pass at the top and then descended into hot wet tropical jungles at the coast. My guide was driving very well, safe, slow and with lots of patience with my frequent requests to stop to look at scenery or to talk to people along the roads. I don't think he has ever had a client before that wanted to just stop and talk to people along the road. He always let me do the initial hellos but then he quickly jumped in to find out about these people standing or walking out in the middle of nowhere. I offered rides to some of them and despite his company policy not to pick up strangers, my guide went along with my requests.

There is a national park at the top of the mountains. Wild llamas and things wander around. My guide told me there are big cats like cougars, jaguars, panthers, ocelots and margays. There are also foxes, wolves are thought to be extinct but there have been some reported sightings, weasels, skunks, opossums, raccoons, deer, wild pigs and pecaries, armadillos, anteaters, sloths, agoutis, pacas, tapirs, monkeys, tons of birds from parrots to raptors and some rare spectacled bears around. We saw llamas and a fox but not much else. My guide told me the indigenous locals are allowed to hunt in the park for food but that other people are not allowed to hunt. That makes sense to me as long as they don't rape the place like some of the native Americans in the United States tend to do. The roads were good all the way from Cuenca to the coast. Very few people seemed to live along the way or at least we did not see many houses or much farming going on. I saw lots of pathways where people walk off into the mountains in areas that looked totally uninhabited to me. They must have been walking long distances to get to and from their destinations. Some of them were walking with very heavy loads too. I am sure they are considered to be very poor by most people's standards but they all seemed very happy.

We stopped at the top to look at the vistas. It was not clear enough to see to the coast but my guide told me that sometimes it is possible. I do love mountains though and there are definitely plenty of mountains in the Andes. The snow capped volcanoes and peaks were beautiful. My guide seemd to know the names of most of the big mountains but I could not remember all the names he told me.

As we came back down into the tropical zone there were large plantations of chocolate. I enjoyed seeing that. My guide offered to stop and let me tour a chocolate farm but I have done that several times and passed on the opportunity.

We finally arrived in Guayaquil around sunset. I got a quick road tour around the area before checking into my hotel. I had the next day off before flying to the Galapagos Islands and I planned on taking it easy after all the car riding I had done in the last week.