Salinas & Cuenca

Monday we drove down the coast to Salinas, another beach town but a bit bigger.  There is a Navy base there and a yacht club.  We were told there are several hundred expats there but we didn’t meet any of them. 

We stayed at another lovely little place, the Hotel Amira http://www.hotel-amira.com/ with a swimming pool.  It was hot and humid when we got to Salinas so we took a swim before we walked on the beach.  All the stalls, shops & restaurants closed up at 6 PM so we had an early night.  

This morning we were on the smooth straight road to Guayaquil by 8:30 and there by 11.   It took us about an hour to find our way through the city and across the river.   We found a nice restaurant in Puerto Inca  

for lunch before we headed up to Cuenca http://www.frommers.com/destinations/cuencaecuador/2834010001.html at about 8300 ft.  However, we had to go through the Cajas National Park at nearly 13000 ft.

http://cajaspark.com/index.php on a very windy road with very thick fog clouds sitting on the road.  The drive was difficult but the scenery was spectacular.  

We explored some of the Cuenca’s historic old town this afternoon looking for a hotel and finely found the Hostal San Diego http://hostalsandiego.net/   A very nice but unheated bed & breakfast.  The weather is so moderate here they think they don’t need heat.  Unfortunately, I want heat when the temperature drops into the 60 F range but I’ll survive with an extra blanket or two.