DAY 26: In modern life, the "norm" is to work most of the time, with a day or two off to "smell the roses." Well, as I've been "smelling the Ecuadorean roses" all this time (as well as the bus fumes), I needed a day to just do some work. So I took a day "on" in Cuenca.

I gave up my hostel's sixth floor view of the New Cathedral (picture above) and the Iglesia de San Francisco and left Chris, Anita and her friend (who had also arrived in Cuenca and stayed at the same hostel), and moved across the street to the hostel where Pepe was staying at. For just a dollar more, I got a private room, free breakfast and a terrace with a view of the San Francisco market. The room had a desk, which was perfect because I just stayed in and worked on some projects on my computer.

I did manage to take a couple of breaks to wander the streets. I walked through the San Francisco Market and the nearby flower market at the Plazoleta del Carmen. I wandered off the Lonely Planet map to a quiet residential neighborhood devoid of tourists. I saw a woman in a red dress rush down the cobblestone street and wondered why she could be in such a hurry in such a laid back city. Perhaps she forgot to add the fabric softener.

PEPE HAD GONE ON A DAY TRIP to the nearby Incan ruins of Ingapirca, but I caught up with him back at the hostel. He said the site was sort of a let down and felt ripped off plunking down a whole ten bucks on it. On the upside, he also said that he ran into Anna from the train ride and invited me to meet her for dinner.

"Alright, what do you feel like having: chicken...or chicken?" I joked. Actually, it wasn't that much of a joke because one thing about Ecuador so far is, if you want to get by on cheap meals, you are going to eat a lot of chicken and rice. Sometimes your chicken and rice entree is preceded by chicken and rice soup. I haven't had a milkshake here yet, but I'm sure they'll manage to figure a way to put chicken in that too.

Anna knew of a place nearby that sold meats other than chicken and so we went there. I had a fish and shrimp ceviche while the others had pork and fish. It was a welcome change -- finally, something that didn't taste like chicken.

Afterwards, we went to Wunderbar, a bar that seemed out of place in Spanish colonial Cuenca. Anna said it could have been a bar in Berlin or something, with this Euro motif and paintings on the wall. Despite the Euro feel to the place, we were the only tourists there. We sat and chatted over Pilseners and Clubs -- the two Ecuadorean beers -- about travel and life in Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

We bid Anna farewell since we were all to go separate ways, but I made tentative plans to meet her in Berlin in the summer of 2004, if and when I make it over there.

Right now, that seems like twenty years away.