FIRST POST FROM CUENCA

BEFOR ANYTHING ELSE....I am at an internet cafe using a spanish language keyboard...similar but different than I am used to...and a real pain.

THE TRIP AND ARRIVAL:
It went as well as you can possibly hope for with excess baggage, bike, 2 dogs, 3 different airports...plus we don´t speak Spanish. (THIS KEYBOARD IS A NIGHTMARE!)

(AAAAAARRRRRGGGH!!! This keyboard is horrible. ....I just lost most of the blog post! Time to recreate..)

Good Things About the Trip.....Example numero uno......
Our ground transpportaiton in Guayaquil....we had arranged for a van to pick us up at the airport, take us to where we were going to spend the night in Guayaquil and then drive us over the mountains to Cuenca the next day. The van people cancelled on us the day before we left because the place we had reservations was so horrible. Apparently, when you post pictures and descriptions of your hotel on the internet...it doesn´t actually have to be pictures or descriptions of your actual hotel. The van service refused to go there.

So the plan was....get off the plane, go through customs, and then figure something out at 1:00 AM in the most dangerous city in Ecuador with LOTS of luggage, a bike, 2 dogs and ´victim´written on our foreheads. I HATE THIS KEYBOARD!!! Unexpectedly, there was a van waiting on us (the ones that cancelled) and basically said...yeah, we are going over the mountains tonight. Rain and mudslides....no problemo

Example numeron dos..... At every juncture where we could and should have met some kind of difficulty or been charged extra....... everything went right...I mean EVERYTHING!! Is that even possible? Yeah there are some really interesting details that were on here before I lost most of the blog content.....tough. The keyboard is real sticky too. I am going to boil my hands when I get back to the apartment.

Example numero tres....Arrived in Cuencaabout 5:00 AM. Raining. (Remember extra bags, bike and dogs?) Dark. Locked out of our place because our tenant had upgraded the locks and we did not have the keys. FYI....nothing in old town was open...nothing. A couple hours later all was good.

No sleep for more than 24 hours!

Example numero quatro...friends had a surprise ´welcome back´ dinner for us. (More lost details.) It was fabulous! What a great welcome.

Random fun fact.
Brennie has learned 2 new words and has used them to rename the dogs. The dogs are now Bugger and Wanker. Look it up if you don´t know.

THAT´S IT! I AM DONE WITH THIS F....ING KEYBOARD! What an absolute nightmare this has been! Spell check is flagging evry word (not spelled right in spaninsh). Tough. Sometimes I wish I drank.