We got up this morning and had lovely showers, loads of hot hot water before heading back up the 89 steps to have breakfast. The guy at the desk in the hotel told us that we couldn't miss Cafe Bananas, just head up the steps and walk straight. We did as we were told and couldn't find the cafe anywhere; we had to stop of at the book store to ask directions. It turns out that the cafe is right next door to the book store but the sign saying that it is Bananas is on the inside wall. This is fine once you know where it is but doesn't help much when you don't. We had a nice continental breakfast once we got there, croissants, cheese, jam, coffee and fresh juice. The breakfast was included in our hotel stay but if we had been paying it would only have cost us about $2.50 each for everything; it's a good job we are going to be doing a lot of walking down here as food is so cheap I can eat all day non stop.
After eating we headed back into the book store. It's actually run by a couple from Chicago who have been down here a while. They are both very nice and had a lot of useful information for us; Carol even made some phone calls to help us find a place to live. It would appear that we'll be visiting this place quite a lot in the coming weeks.
we spent most of today just wandering about taking in the city. It's nowhere near as big as Quito but it still bustles along at a fairly good place. It's really simple to get around once you understand the way the city is laid out and it would appear to be almost impossible to get lost. Mike seems to have his bearings about him alot more here already than he did in Quito where I was the one with more directional sense. The streets here are long and somewhat narrow with stores lining each side selling a little of everything. There are some lovely looking bakeries and there seems to be an ice-cream shop on every block. There are people all over the place either rushing to some place else or sitting on the roadside selling something or other. There are alot more women here dressed in their traditional dress, except here the women wear knee length embroidered skirts and stiff white Panama hats with blue or black bands. Some of the older woman or tiny with grizzled faces; they look like they've had hard lives in the outdoors which is probably the case. Even so, they seem to have no trouble carrying huge baskets of fruits and vegetables and other things around on their backs.
We got the name of a real estate person today and so we have him on the lookout for someplace for us to rent for the next few months; hopefully he can find us something in the next few days although it's getting busy here at the moment as carnaval is coming.
When we got back to the hotel this afternoon Andre at the desk told us he had good news for us and he offered us a room with a view. It is so much nicer than the room we spent last night in, we have a window that overlooks the river, the views are lovely. It was very good news as we get to stay here for the next 5 or so days.

Mike: I have to keep Becc on a leash, she wants to go in every bakery. I expect she will by the time we're done!