Hot Springs & Ecuadorian Buses

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Hola mes amigos!!

So I somehow survived the week of spanish lessons, although being hungover anf taking 5 hours of Spanish lessons is somewhat like hard work!! Went out on Wed to LA Reina Victoria (The Queen Vic!!) which is an English bar in the touristy area, complete with union jack flying outside!! Met up with Hannah, Steve and a few guys Steve had met, played darts (I got a bullseye-check me out! lol) and onto a "club" which despite being in South America seemed to play all the chart dance from back home, a few salsa tunes in there from S America, but not the authentic experience I was after! I think perhaps some salsa lessons will be in order in the next few weeks

Anyhows, the spanish lessons passed, and I still feel utterley incapable of conversing with my host mother! I think more lessons are in order!!

So, following attempts to plan the weekend, a mad rush was made on Friday towards the bus station (in the South, and sketchy part) where Hannah, Claire and I boarded a luxury coach to Banos- and it was actually v nice, almost nicer than Iberia planes, but nm!! It was a shame about the bumpy roads, the traffic fumes and the hundreds (amost) of people that wanted to go on our bus = smelly and not too comfy!!)

Anyway, we arrived in 4hrs later (a short bus ride in comparison to many places in Ecuador!) and checked into a hostel in town, fairly uneventful evening followed, due to many bars being shut for the elections, booo!!

Saturday we headed out and hired some bikes $5 for the day!! Excellent! There was a little craft market in the town which we stopped at before heading out on a 20k ride to "the waterfalls of the devil" or something! Stopped many many times en route, stunning scenery, other waterfalls and cable cars across the canyon. We crossed the canyon at one point, with an American dude called Matt, and this pet monkey attacked my leg! I freaked out! Such a girl!! Anyway, finally made the waterfalls, were pretty spectacular before hitching a lift on the back of a local truck to town, with another american guy we met, much less effort!!
That evening we met up with the guys again at the Baths, which are open at night, with loads of different pools of different temperatures, but they were mostly lobster inducingly hot!! Was good fun as the pools were situated at the bottom of a waterfall in town that was pretty high and lit up to good effect!! Bumped into some other guys we met in Quito earlier, its a small place Ecuador!!

Anyway, had some dinner and collapsed into bed, quite relieved that there was an excuse not to go out and drink (elections!) Sunday we somehow got talked into climbing the volcano which overlooks Banos, and is still active, only it was about 5000m high!! We caught a ride up about half way up, and then started on a 4km uphill hike to the Refuge, only when 2 hrs later we hadnt made it (climbing at altitude is NOTHING like Snowdonia!!) we gave up! We found ourselves deep in the clouds, on a path that never seemed to end, and we figured there would be no view anyway! It was a hellish climb though, we encountered a horse tethered up on the path too, which was interesting!! Anyway, the descent only took an hour, however we had to descend to Banos, and the truck had climbed prettty high!! Thus, lazy as we are, we caught a lift with a local truck of Ecuadorians who were lovely and dropped us back about 50m from our hostel! Score!! A shower and dinner later we jumped onto a bus back to Quito, getting stuck in traffic, for one of many accidents (the drivers are insane!) and 4hours later we arrived into the bus station, and failed miserably at hailing a cab- they took the locals, but were arsey about taking us, gits!! Finally home sometime after 10!

Shall leave the rambling here, I will attempt to upload some photos soon, but this connection doesnt seem very quick!! Think we´re heading off to Riobamba next weekend for bullfighting and the Devils nose train journey,
xxx

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