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Published: March 21st 2005
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Alli left Quito for the Galapagos on Wednesday, so the first part of last week was mostly goodbye festivities. On Monday, we went out for Chinese food, then Sébas and Jorge took us on a night tour of Quito by car, which showed me how much more I want to explore by daylight.
On Tuesday, we had a goodbye party for Alli / birthday party for Sébas at Jorge's apartment which lasted until morning (resulting in the first day that Julia or I have skipped school this entire trip). Alli left early Wednesay morning and we slept in......by evening we were feeling like ouirselves again and managed to meet Paul (from the Hostel Valhalla) and a friend of his for a couple hours since he was visiting Quito for the night.
On Thursday afternoon, I decided to check out March Madness in Ecuador and see how my picks in the SA Explorers pool were faring. There was a sign at the clubhouse advertising a bar nearby that was showing the games on satellite, so I headed over. When I got there, it was just me and a 22 year-old recent UNC grad who ended up running the bar/ hotel
for a family friend. Even without a crowd, we were having enough fun watching basketball together that he had no trouble talking me into cancelling my guitar lesson to stay and watch the Zags game. By the time the evening games started, the hotel guests started to join us. Since the hotel is right by the American Embassy, they´re mostly State Department employees staying two or three months, and they´re all from DC. I had a great time and came back for a couple hours the next afternoon before Julia and I left Quito for the weekend.
Friday evening, we took a bus to Latacunga to meet up with Sébas for the trip to Baños. When we got there, he was travelling around town singing and palying guitar with Jorge and Javier to raise money for Javier's sister to attend University classes in Latacunga, so we tagged along. There was a crowd of about twenty going around town with us and we all ended up at a neighborhood party at the last stop. Javier's mother offered to let Julia and I spend the night at their house, and the next day we left for Baños with Sébas and Amigo.
Baños is a beautiful little tourist town know for its waterfalls and hot springs. After grabbing lunch and walking around a bit, we got in the car and drove a short way to the falls. First, you take a gondola (basically a large metal basket attached to a cable) over the river, then walk about a mile down to the base of the falls, where you get completely soaked. At the bottom, there´s a wooden suspension bridge back to the other side and a steep walk back to the top. It was all just absolutely gorgeous, but I was a little scared when Amigo started rocking the bridge back and forth.
Afterwards, Julia and I changed into dry clothes and we all headed into town to find dinner and a hostel, the hostel part being harder than we'd expected on a Saturday night, then the guys headed back to Latacunga. Julia and I went to a couple discos, then called it a night. We got a late start the next day, but decided to walk to the Piscinas El Salado (hot springs) following a route described in my guidebook. The path must've eroded along the creek basin, because
it became pretty tricky at one point and Julia fell into the creek, permanently losing a sandal. I slid down to join her, but not with as much control as I´d hoped and I ripped my legs up pretty good. Luckily we wear the same size shoes and I had a pair of sandals in my backpack for her to wear the rest of the day.
Soaked and scraped, we decided to follow the steps belonging to a half-built house to the top of the ravine. Whe we got to the top, the gate to the street was padlocked, but we were able to climb up a pile of bricks and jump over the wall. We didn´t know it, but we were already most of the way to the piscinas, so we hopped the next bus to come along and were there in two minutes. We weren't that fond of the pools themselves and didn't stay all that long. On the way back, we had a great meal at Casa Hood (http://www.livetravelguides.com/south-america/ecuador/andean-highlands/banos/casa-hood/) before catching the 3 hr bus back to Quito. We got the last two seats, so we were up front with the bus driver for most of
the trip (an interesting, if kind of scary vantage point).
Next week, we attempt Cotopaxi (if the weather lets us this time).
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I am enjoying your journal very much and I feel like I am traveling with you. What a great adventure! - Cindy Layton