Guayaquil

OK - just kidding, we were only in Guayaquil  for a total of an hour.  We flew back from the Galapagos to Guayaquil, Ecuador's second biggest city and its main business area, instead of Quito.  We heard kind of mixed things about the city, so we decided we would just take the bus to Cuenca without spending anytime in Guayaquil.  By some colossal bureaucratic slip-up, they built the bus station within walking distance of the airport, so we hoofed it over to catch a bus to Cuenca.

The bus ride to Cuenca was about four hours and, holy shit, was it a nail-biter.  The bus went from sea-level to 9,000 feet in what must have been about 100 kilometers.  Almost the entire length of road was under construction, there were sheer cliff walls a thousand feet high, and our driver was a madman.  When you see all of the locals on the bus clench their seats and throw up the Hail-Mary's, you know it is bad.  On the positive side, it was a beautiful ride - we went from wet, sea-level tropical to high-alpine dry in the course of a few hours.  The sun was setting out over the coast, throwing shafts of light on to the steep canyon walls we where headed over.  Luckily, we made it to Cuenca in one piece.