Getting rural on on the equatour.

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Hello. First, photos that accompany this are at Equadorphotos

Have been nowhere near internet this week, this is the first computer ive seen since I left Quito! The bus to Latacuñga was uneventful(mostly because of the boatload of immodium i shovelled down before we set off, but got to town fine early enough and went for good pizza in town, before being in bed very very early, to compensate for being mildly silly and naughty the night before.

Next morning was a bus ride to a place called Zumbahuha, which is in the middle of absolutely nowhere and consists of 2 (basic doesnt do them justice) hostels, and one restaurant (I use restaurant in the loosest sense of the word, they had dogs and chickens wandering in and out, and the set menu was set on the grounds that that was all they had. This was soup (OK) and chicken and rice to follow. Chicken and rice. I have eaten so much chicken and $%!&(MISSING)ing rice in the last 10 days if i ever have to eat it again i´ll be sick.

Anyway, as we walked down to the village from the "bus stop", we heard the sound of quaint local music from the village square. Brilliant, we thought, a little vilage party. What was not brilliant however, was the fact that for the remainder of the day (we arrived at lunch time, just in time for some rice with a portion of chicken), the band would be playing the same quaint (by quaint I of course mean really annoying) music through a massive soundsystem outside our window. This was bad. What was funny however was how drunk everyone was (we were the only 3 tourists there) at lunchtime on sunday, having been going since saturday afternoon. They were all dancing and throwing their trilby hats (i dont know why everyone wears these) in the air like they just didnt care. One young man dropped a whole case of beer on the floor, which mostly exploded, before looking confused, then lying down next to it and fixing the problem by going to sleep in the spillage.

The afternoon was spent laughing at the drunk people, reading, and lounging in the hostel (the tour of the whole town took roughly 4 minutes), before a suspect dinner of pollo y arroz in the one restaurant with chickens, and a drunk man asleep with his head on the next table. The power went out midway through the meal. Funny.

Good sleep however, and the next morning paid a man not very much money to take us to the town/village/5 buildings in Quilatoa. The truck ride was very nearly very good fun, as we were just on the back of his 4x4 on a very bumpy road, however it started raining. Oh well. Luckily I´d worn jeans so that was super. Got to the biggest hostel in town (one of 3, the other 2 buildings being "restaurants", with some shed things around) which despite lacking some conveniences (water, toilets etc) was lovely. Double bed each, wood burning fire in the room (was chuffing freezing everywhere else) however for 4 pounds we got dinner bed and breakfast, all of which were pretty good. If slighly ricey and chickeny. Spent the afternoon doing absolutely nothing except playing cards and, actually, no that was it. There is sod all to do in Quilotoa when the weather is like that.

Quilotoa is famous (sort of) for the big blue lake that is in the crater of an old volcano. the day we arrived was crap weather so we couldnt see it, however the next morning (after a sensational sleep), we had a great view, and walked down to the bottom where someone (definately me) went swimming. It was very cold. Very. After this (was only about half ten, had to get up early for breakfast of unusual omlette / carrot combination. Walk back up crater (400m) was substantially harder than walk down. After this began hike to Chugchilan.

Beginning of walk was interesting, as we were going off the lonely planet description, with no map or anything, and the description relied quite heavily on being able to see things. We couldnt see anything. Got misty and rainy. This resulted in scrambling down various big muddy walls which were definately not on the path, before seeing the big path about 3 feet away. Eventually could see vilage (views were amazing by now), however we seemed to be on the other side of a very big canyon to where the village was. Odd... Went along a bit more until we happened across a young boy, who said he was going that way. Good, we thought. He then wanted 10 dollars for guiding us past the robbers that were often at the bottom of the canyon, which he pointed out we now needed to cross. The way down to the canyon was mental, very very steep, and we ditched the small child when it became obvious that there were no robbers, and that he was a scheming little shit. Walk up to nice hostel was very hard work, and we were very pleased to get there. This place was a little bigger, but i´ll tell about that some other time because im in the galapagos at the moment and got to go back to boat with the VERY VERY VERY old people im on this trip with. They are literally almost dead. Oh well...

Back now. Was good trip.

Anyway... Chugchilan. Good hostel, was quite wet tired and smelly, but they had a hot water shower (amazing) and a real toilet that flushed. This was very exciting, and they also gave us lunch, admittedly chicken and rice, however we were very hungry by this time so it didnt matter.

After lunch read for a bit, played cards and faffed, after dinner of rough steak substitute and rice, some small yet enterprising girls from the local school came to give a dance show in the hostel. This was a bit rubbish, and they got some of them wrong, and I was fleeced out of 5 dollars, which annoyed me intensely. Little scumbags.

Another good sleep, then up early for another suspect breakfast before boarding the milk truck with another 400 locals and a chicken (who kept flapping on my leg and scaring the shit out of me when i wasnt expecting it). The milk truck was to get us to Sigchos, where there is nothing of note, apart from a bus stop back to Latacunga. The journey was 2 hours and brilliant fun, the truck had come to chugchilan to drop off pasteurised milk, and collect the fresh stuff (in a big bucket next to my leg, and not very carefully so that my jeans have a slightly odd odour). Was also quite bumpy, and Henrik ended up being relegated to the "hanging onto the back of the truck for dear life" spot, which amused Oystein and I very much. When we got to Sigchios, we were overwhelmed by how little there was to do there until the bus came. This was for about 5 hours. Luckily the Lonely Planet had recommended the best (only) restaurant, which was doing a familiar special that day. After the rice soup and chicken we sat and watched some 10 year olds playing football of sorts in the main square. For about an hour. this was dull after the first 5 minutes.

Bus back to town involved the equadorian man next to me talking to me in spanish, and after establishing that I didnt know very much, he opted for the unusual approach of saying more words, and faster. This was frustrating for all concerned, and was quite relieved to be back in the hostal chillaxing before going for big lasagne and yet another early night.

The following morning was decision time. We were either going to go to the Cotopaxi national park and try and climb the volcano (5900m, this is very high) or if the weather was going to be crap then go down to Baños for mountain bike riding.

This is irrelevant to this story, but am writing this in an internet place in Quito, and behind me is an american guy who is playing the same line of "the sound of silence" very very very badly over and over again on the panpipes and has been for about the last 15 minutes. It makes me SO ANGRY i cant explain. Honestly, its breaking me. May have to leave.

Did in fact leave. It is now later.

Anyway... Baños was duly chosen as the weather for the next few days was dodgy. Went to Baños, again on dodgy buses, however were rewarded with the best hostel in the world- plantas y blanco (plants and white. this is because it was mostly white and had a lot of plants). Rooftop terrace and amazing breakfast, as well as private shower and comfy beds. Sweet. This was a thursday night, so we just went for some mexican food (average) and for a beer and some pool in the pub we found. Earlyish night, leaving us lots of energy to tackle breakfast the next morning, which was epic. Two pancakes, an entire fruit salad on top, with maple syrup and coffee. Good.

Decided we couldnt be bothered bike riding, so instead hired 250cc scrambler bikes for the afternoon. This was one of the best things ive done since ive been away- little wobbly at the start (gears were a bit tricky when noone tells you there is a clutch), so stalled a lot, however got the hang of it eventually and instead of having them for an hour, we came back three later, and it was a lot of fun, apart from when we got chased by dogs. This was a little scary. In fact quite a bit of the start was quite scary, but luckily i was staying very safe.

After our manly biking triumph, we had a beer on our rooftop terrace, and wandered round town for a bit for food and drink, then passed some time before going for a few beers that evening. Ended up making friends with a local guy over some pool, who took us to his bar club thing, and gave us some free drinks. Again, good. Was a bit of a late one, and ended up having a substantial lie in the next day, pottering round the hostal and getting massages (cheap), before nice dinner and bed. Next day was a bike ride around the same route wed taken the scramblers, which was much more like hard work, and took most of the day. this was actually a bit crap, and my camera was dead so no photos. Bad. Went for fish and chips in the evening and read more of book (which remained very big). The following day was departure day, however we missed the bus (man in hostel was useless). This resulted in doing nothing all day (wed now done everything there was to do, so ended up playing cards , reading, and noncing about with a beer in the afternoon, then rock pub in evening, where i played pool really well. This was unusual. I didnt say it was unusual.

The next day was 1st May, which is a national holiday, where nothing at all happens at any time in any place in the whole country, and getting buses to Quito (my Galapagos trip meeting was that night, and was going on the 2nd) was tricky. Eventually got to Quito about 10pm (Norway stayed in a place called Ambato and are going further south i think) and checked into very posh hotel. Was very relieved to be there, even though had missed meeting. Onward to the islands...

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