Yesterday I left Cuenca and Ecuador. This was my last week of teaching in which I finished my classes, took exams but was most of the time busy saying good bye to all people here. Which is not an easy thing after six months of living in definitely the prettiest city in Ecuador. Now the time to travel has come and I decided to do the first leg of my itinerary together with Chelsey, one of my friends and colleagues at CEDEI. She's joining me on my trip to Machu Picchu after which she's going back to the States.

So after all good bye parties the final thing to do is: pack. Pack all my stuff and leave my house. My last afternoon in Cuenca is kind of chaotic as i need to get a lot of things done. I spend it picking up my last paycheck, getting a haircut, getting food, paying my credit card bills and enjoying my last coffee in the beautiful downtown. Just before leaving my house I say good bye to my roommates and then head off to take a cab. The taxi driver tries to charge me $3 for the ride, which I refuse to pay as it should not be more than $2. I'm not gonna get gringo-taxed on my final day here! So I let it go and take the next one to the place from where the busetta (mini van) to Guayaquil leaves. Guayaquil is Ecuador's largest metropole and from there Ill fly to Lima. When boarding the busetta and driving off, the sun is shining.

The enjoyable ride through Cajas National Park to Guayaquil takes three hours. I meet two friendly Ecuadoreans and one Argentinian guy and we talk about South American economy and politics for about three hours, killing time. In Guayaquil I take a taxi to a very nice hostal called Manso. It's near the Malecón, which is a main tourist strip near the Guayas river side. In the hostal I run into Chelsey and we go out to grap some food before going to bed early. However, when entering the hostel's dorm room, someone else is lying in my bed. As it is already past midnight the hostel manager decides to give me a private airconditioned room straight away, which I truly appreciate.

I get up at 5:00 am and meet Chelsey a 5:30 in the hostel lobby to leave for the airport. At Guayaquil airport everything goes according to plan and when entering the waiting room near the gate, I'm surprised to see a bright blue KLM MD-11 aircraft waiting to take people to Amsterdam. For a second I get the tempting feeling to board it, but not now. Once we get on the plane there appears to be a delay of at least one hour. Since we've got only a two-hour planned layover in Lima, we're afraid to miss our flight. The friendly crew, however, tells us not to worry and everything will be fine. We leave Guayaquil with a 45-minute delay. At the end of the flight we're assigned the front seats of the business class, so we can make our way out of the plane first. So far so good.

Immediately after landing we're the first to rush out of the plane, run towards the migration, being the first to arrive there. They give us our stamps quickly after which we make our way to the baggage belt to pick up our bags. Leaving the secure zone I just ignore the final customs check and we run towards to the check-in counter of the next airline to check-in for our flight to Cusco. They tell us we can still check-in but won't get meals on this 50-minut flight. As if we care about this major punishment. Time before departure: 40 minutes. Then we run into the security check, which turns out to be very inefficient and slow at Lima airport, but we get on the plane on time and we even get served some decent empenadas and cookies. No punishment here.

Arriving at Cusco the landscape has turned dry. The darkish-brown landscape immediately reminds me of the landscapes in southern Italy and Spain. The landing in Cusco is challenging. As common in most Latin American cities, the landing strip is in the middle of the city, but before touching down the airplane first has to make a bunch of spectacular maneouvers in order to descend with an uncomfortable steep glideslope and making it to the runway. Getting off the plane it's warm and sunny and we start exploring the city by walking away from the airport, as we're not going to pay the 20 soles tourist fee that taxis are asking for the ride. Thanks to Chelsey we're getting to see the great neighbourhood of San Sebastian on the other side of town, but after walking around with our baggage for a while we decide to jump in a taxi and get into our amazing hostel uphill in the San Blas neighbourhood for only 7 soles. Cusco is a small town packed with tourists and is the gateway to Machu Picchu, the city that was rediscovered exactly 100 years ago. It's incredible to be so close to the remnants of what once was an impressive Inca city and which I'm about to see now!