I decided to pick her up this time and with the company of my friend set out over the Cajas to Guayaquil. We left Cuenca around noon and made it there in 3 hours.
For anyone with a gps (Garmin) I would recommend the Ecuador map from Skytec. Juan my co-pilot has this and brought it along so I was able to see it in action before I bought it.
(Contact Augusto Jouvin at skytec@ecua.net.ec or call 593-4-28-84-915)
We parked at the airport and spent the afternoon at the Malecon after going to the gps store to get my own copy of the map. The Malecon is a sprawling walk of about 3 miles along the Guayas river. If you have never been I recommend a visit. You can google it to see some pics and read about it.
Donna's plane was delayed a bit and we got on the road at about midnight headed home to Cuenca. After a brief 5km stint through some dense fog we were again in the clear and had no problems along the way. Made it back to town at 3am and in bed at 4. It was along day but worth it to wake up at home.
The road construction is done and it is a nice ride. There was a spot where a land slide had occurred with the road down to 1 lane but there was no difficulty passing. It would certainly be a whole lot different driving up in the fog, this would be an unnerving ride.
Just an FYI it is more or less 200km from Cuenca to the airport in Guayaquil. With a diesel I made it there and back on a 1/2 a tank of fuel. Over 2 hours on the ride home are UP, WAY UP hill.
Oh yea the map is $100 bucks downloaded to your unit or $120 for the map on an SD card. You get free updates for 6 months. If you have a car and a Garmin I highly recommend it.
