And on to Cuenca....

We left our little mountainside town still not feeling 100%, but we wanted to make it to Cuenca by Thanksgiving. We feebly rode our bikes to a small crossroads town called Zhud. There was not much to see there but we did have a fabulous sunset. We met a local person who was trying to set-up tourism in the area and he set us up with a family to stay with. They had a beautiful and huge empty house. We simply made dinner and went to bed because we were so tired. The next day we had our last major climb before we start to descend out of the Andes and travel along the Coast. The road was still beautiful as ever with huge looming Andean valleys dotted by farmhouses and squared off by agriculture and pastureland. They were rebuilding the road in parts so it was a bit dangerous because one half of the road would be raised cement while the other half was pocked asphalt. We reached the top dead tired, but thankful for the upcoming downhill. As we were making our descent into Biblian a huge dump truck nearly ran me off the road. I thank him for making my day a little scarier. We made it to Biblian where once again the firefighters immediately agreed to let us stay the night in the station. We couldn't have been more thankful for a place to sleep, cook, and get a warm shower. Merilee, however, was still feeling pretty bad and couldn't hardly dress herself because she was so bloated. Kinda funny.

Onwards we pushed to Cuenca where we had another warm showers contact. In Cuenca we met up with Miguel and Carmen. They had a little guest room prepared for us and are eager to practice their English and talk with us about our trip. They have a youthful yappy dog named Cooper.

In other news it was Merilee's birthday on Turkey day!!! I prepared her a nice roll with a match burning in it to make her birthday wishes. Now those of you that know Merilee know she is a cake fiend. I have to hold her back every time we pass a pasteleria. Of course, for this special occasion, we make the exception to go buy cake. What happens next is a shocker...Merilee opts for the birthday baguette and gruyere(spelling)! A new birthday tradition is born!! Later, we prepared a Thanksgiving dinner of spaghetti, mashed purple sweet potatos, and bread and butter.

Cuenca is a neat little colonial city. It was formerly an Incan city named Tumipamba. Even more formerly, it was a Cañari town named Guapondelig before the Inca's conquered it. The Inca road runs through the town connecting it to Quito to the north and Cusco to the south. Yay history!!!