We got into El Centro a little early for our spanish lesson this morning so we went shopping for an Ecuadorian shirt for Mike. He got a nice dark green one that fits him perfectly, and I got a pair of strippy multi coloured pantalones; Mike haggled with the girl and saved a whole dollar off the price. After that huge saving we went to our Spanish lesson during which I think I was insulted. Our teacher told me that my spanish was better than my english, at least grammatically speaking; my english must be really, really bad if that's the case!
Since Mike was in a shopping mood we decided to go buy him a Panama hat. We found the store where I had previously bought my ring (sometimes here it's difficult to remember where things are since all the streets look similar especially when the stores are closed up) and it was open. The guy who makes the products was at the store today and he helped Mike pick out a hat and get one that was just the right size. Then he had to pick a band to go on; he wanted something traditional (plain black) but with a little colour so he got a black stripe with a with stripe on it, very classy. We had to wait while the band was sewn into place during which mike tried to haggle the price down; he didn't have any success here but he got a cool hat anyway.

Who is that handsome devil?

After we had lunch we went directly across the street for hot chocolate and cake. We didn't really want hot chocolate at that time but Leka's was supposed to have the best hot chocolate in Cuenca and this was the first time we had seen it open since we have been here. When we first arrived in Cuenca we were told that this was the place to get hot chocolate and so we have been walking past it on an almost daily basis but it has always been closed - I think the owner was taking a long siesta. Anyway we finally got to have some and I have to tell you I wasn't impressed; it's unlikely we'll be going back there any time soon, what a disappointment.
The last thing we did before heading home was stop off at the mercado to get some chillis and avocados. We bought two giant avos for $0.40 each, a bargain, and then went to a different stall for the peppers. Mike picked out 4 that he wanted and asked the price. We were told $0.10 for all off them, but when the lady put them in a baggie for us she made us pick a few more as we didn't have $0.10's worth. They are really sweet and honest here and sometimes I feel a bit guilty taken the fruit and veg for almost nothing.

Mike: Can't imagine how many we could get for a $1. I think we got the gringo price
on the avocados anyway.