Cuencstas

After our slightly tearful goodbye with the Angeltio group and reuniting with Jesse, we flew back to the mainland and hopped on a bus to Cuenca, a charming colonial city up in the Ecuadorian Andes. Cuenca was a nice landlocked refuge to regroup after our 2 weeks of  island hopping.  Colonial architecture, cobblestone streets, traditional handicrafts and indiginous culture was about all we could ask for.  We managed to find an amazing apartment style hostel and happily planted ourselves for about 5 days exploring the city.  We be Cuencstas.

On our final day, we were sitting in the little cafe under our balcony enjoying some jugo when suddenly Jesse lept up and yelled "JESSE!?" It seemed like an odd thing to yell one's own name in such a shocked an questioning tone, but then suddenly he was high-fiving some random dude on the street who we soon learned was also named Jesse.  Mystery solved.  Jesse and Jesse met each other traveling in Thailand a year ago and now just happened to run into each other on the other side of the world on the same street here in Cuenca.  Disney didn't lie, it really is a small world after all.

Turned out the other Jesse had been traveling for a few months with his 2 cousins Cassie and Mary and they, like us, were headed south to the Peruvian border in a few days.  After a night of hookah, poorly played pool and beer bonding, we persuaded them to take a quick detour with us to the town of Vilcabamba before heading to Peru.  That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship...