More photos from my first trip

I decided to pop into the internet cafe to put up some photos for my loyal readers :)
I also realized I forgot to mention a couple of things in my post below about the end of my trip so here you go...
When we went to lunch with the guys after rafting, we had a delicious lunch. It looked a little suspicious (as in we had no clue what we were eating) but it tasted great and we were starving so we ate it up without asking questions..generally my policy. After our plates were licked clean we were told we had just eaten monkey skin (piel de mano)...yum!

And now for a mini civic lesson. Yesterday was a very important voting day in Ecuador. They elected a new Assembly which eventually they hope will replace the current Congress which operates similarly to the US system with parties. Apparently the party system does not work very well because it is all political infighting (sound familiar?)so the president called for this new Assembly. This is what I gathered from taxi drivers in Cuenca and Guayaquil :) The streets were all packed with people and traffic yesterday as people were out to vote - pretty cool.

The other interesting/funny thing about the vote is that we found out about it Thursday night while we were at dinner. The English maitre de came over to warn us that no alcohol would be sold in Ecuador for the next three days because of the vote on Sunday - no craziness in Ecuador before the big vote!

Ok on to the photos cuz I know that´s what you want...don´t forget to read the rather lengthy post below for the stories behind the pictures. And if you want chronological order, look at the pics starting at the bottom.

Our feast in the mountains

The Incan road in the mountains outside Cuenca

After the breakfast shots and before the dancing in the mountains outside Cuenca..

Monkey Face (Cara de Mono) orchid in a greenhouse in Cuenca

The domes of the old cathedral in Cuenca

Views from the mountainous part of the trainride

Countryside during our trainride - one of the conductors rides on top

The rafting gang..Juank is on the left (hopefully he´ll take us to the jungle)