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19. - 20.12.2019: Zamora via Loja to Saraguro
We drove through fog back up to Loja and then along the Panamerican highway north.
There was quite a lot of road damage from landslides and the road was slipping in a number of places! We stopped at a sports centre in Saraguro and saw a children's Christmas procession. We got woken up in the middle of the night by loud, thumping samba music from a boom baster in a car and got woken up again at 8-45 am by someone else's loud music!! Time to get up and go!
The Panam took us up over 3000m, up and down, then up to 3450m. We encountered more road damage and then joined the main route that comes up from the coast just before reaching Cuenca.
We stopped at a petrol station for the night to try and watch our football team playing the last match before their long Christmas break. But the WiFi wasn’t that good so we basically watched the screen for almost 2 hours but only saw 5 minutes of football! Very frustrating, not least because we only managed a disappointing draw!
21. - 22.12.2019: Via Cuenca to Gualaceo and Sigsig
Afterwards we drove past Cuenca on the bypass and went to see some market towns. Most markets take place on Saturday and it was the last Saturday before Christmas so we went to Gualaceo and then Sigsig.
The next day we drove back to Cuenca but stopped for lunch en route at the Restaurant Alemán (German restaurant!) We had the daily menu - cheese soup followed by either chicken dish (me) or the pork (Kirsten) with rice and beans. Very nice!
Afterwards we drove to a campground in Cuenca where we stayed for Christmas but that's in the next report.
The indigenous Sunday markets in Gualaceo and Sigsig are well worth a visit.
