Cuenca

My favourite town is Cuenca, it just looks nice, has a few rivers, surrounded by mountains and there is live music on the street. After a 6 hour bus trip I dropped my bags off at the hostel and went for a walk. There was a nice viewpoint 50min walk from my hostel I read. The last part went up. At least 300stairs I had to climb, just to figure out that there was a gate at the end so you couldn't even get to the viewpoint... It was nice that they put a sign on the beginning of the stairway that said the end was blocked. I had just ignored that sign, because why would it be blocked? Anyway 0-1 for my stubborness.

I had dinner on the way back, went to the park, listened to some music and went back to the hostel. There I got some bellypain and the feeling that I needed to puke in a while. Something was not good. I went to the toilet multiple of times and got diarrea, pretty bad. On the way to the hostel I was thinking of getting new water for my hike the next day but thought.. I will do that on the way to the station. Well that was not the best idea. I could have used some fresh water that moment. When I went to brush my teeth my dinner came out. What was I glad that I had a sink in my room! And luckly the toilet was just next door.
In my travel first aid kit (you never know when you're travelling) I put some Norit .. nice! It said: 6-9 tablets... that I thought was a bit much so I took 3. But they also came up straight away. In the meanwhile I went on and off to the toilet. I hadn't eaten a lot the last couple of days and that day I didn't drink much water either. My stomach normally doesn't get bad so quickly.

I ate half a banana and went to sleep. A few hours later I woke up, went to the toilet several times and went to the kitchen to boil some water to drink. But the kitchen was closed. So I ate an apple because I needed to get some fluid inside of me. A few hours later I woke up again and ate the rest of the banana. The fruits at least stayed in! 
I got up to get some breakfast (was included), drank 4 cups of chamomile tea (kamille thee) and went back to bed. The walk could wait till the next day. I felt a bit better already but still my belly was a bit sore. Around midday I went out of bed to go for a walk (first made 1,5l chamomile tea to take with me). I wasn't hungry but had to eat something and found a nice place where they had amazing chickensoup! Just what I needed! I feld a bit weak in my legs and because it started to rain I went back to the hostel and jumped back to bed again. Around dinner time I got up again because I was craving for pizza! Something different then all the rice and chicken I had.
I didn't want to over do it so I just had half a pizza and the other half I took as take away. 

Now my legs felt normal again so I walked through town to the rivers and did some stairs. I passed the test!
The next morning I got up early to take the bus to the National park Cajas, which was an hour drive. The walk should take me 3-5 hours. I got a bit lost after 3/4 of the track, had to walk up a hill to get back on the track again *thank you maps.me. And that was the moment I decided not to walk at this altitude anymore (4000m), it was SO exhausting. At the end it had taken me 2hours (I had a little short cut by getting lost).

When I was back in town it was raining a lot. With thunder and lightning (very close). I had my poncho with me so I put that on before I started at the 2km walk to my hostel. My pants were soaked and my shoes where two little swimming pools..

I was glad when I had a warm shower and ate the left over pizza! I could have eaten another one so that was a good sign.

The last night I ended with a recommendation of one of my friends, Nienke, to go to a restaurant and order Coyo. Just so I could tell that I've tried it. 

Yeah.. been there done that!

Don't think I will ever eat it again, but it was definitelly an experience!