We decided that this morning we would take the double decker bus tour around Cuenca; It was supposed to leave from Parque Calderon at 11 so we headed into town after breakfast. When we got to the Parque Calderon there was some huge parade going in that seemed to have every child from Cuenca in it. I'm not sure what it was for but it seemed that all the different schools from the area were marching through the city dancing and playing instruments. It was nice to watch, there were all ages from little ones who just marched to probably 16 and 17 year olds who were parading proper.
Some of the roads were closed for a while for the parade so the bus was delayed but it finally showed up just after 11 and we managed to get a top deck seat even though it was pretty full. The guide was speaking in both english and spanish but I couldn't understand either one so I didn't get a whole lot of info about Cuenca on the tour but it was good to see the city from a different perspective, especially the new cathedral. It has three blue and white domes but they are on the backside and it's hard to see them from the square when you are looking at the front of the cathedral. We drove around the old town and since we were fairly high up we got to see inside some of the apartments along the route; they looked lovely with super high ceilings, there seems to be a lot of renovation going on around the city though.
After heading out of the old city we drove through the metal workers part of Cuenca and then up the hill to Turi where we stopped for 20 minutes or so before driving back to Parque Calderon. We got back just in time to have lunch and as Mike didn't look to excited about having potato soup (I want to try it sometime) we went to eat yummy Mexican food instead.
we got to talk to Tal-y on skype today too (and mam and dad), although it took a sausage bribe to get her to talk to us, she just kept running away. Has she forgotten about us or is she still mad at us about the plane ride? We'll be home in less than nine weeks gorgeous girl.

Mike: Nice view of the city from the height of a double decker!