Today we visited a national park up in the Andes. We actually went a ways back up the same highway that we took to get to Cuenca from the coast. At one point we pulled off the road into a park entrance where our bus driver/tour guide took us on a hike above the tree line (appx. 13,000 ft) through lagoons, marshes, down into a small forest and back across the marshland. I won't go into a detailed description because I can't show you the pictures but I can say that it was magnificent. Our guide showed us a plant that the locals chew (like coca but much milder) to treat altitude sickness. Not surprisingly it tasted like sucking on ibuprofen would. It did get rid of my headache, though.
We came back, changed out of our muddy clothes then went to a Panama hat museum/store. Ecuadorians insist that Panama hats were actually invented in Ecuador. While I don't doubt that that is possible, the museum was kind of lame and since I could never see myself wearing such a hat with any kind of seriousness the whole experience was a little boring, though not long enough to really get on my nerves. We walked around the city for a while and I tried to keep some distance between myself and my obviously-tourist-because-I'm-wearing-flip-flops-in-the-rain-and-a-Panama-hat-I-just-bought colleagues.
A few minutes later we got on a tour bus that took us around the city. The tour was not very informative, but it was free and it took us to the top of a hill where we could see all of Cuenca so I'd say it was worth it. There is a gelatto parlour across from our hotel and today is the second time that I have purchased a cone for $1 which I think is a pretty good deal. My roommate had never tried gelatto so I made him do it last night. He went three times today. I suppose it's good that we're leaving tomorrow for Quito.
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