Day 7 Sunday

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I woke up around 8 and headed out to get some breakfast. Upon arriving back at my hostel I was greated by a group of 3 people in the hostel who were sitting in the garden area outside. Naturally, I went over and began to have a conversation with them. One lady was in her mid to late 60s from Denmark and the other two were in their mid 30s from France. We spent an hour talking with one another getting to know eachother. The French people spoke practically no English and the Danish lady spoke English and practically no Spanish and verry little French. It made for an interesting conversation as far as languages go. I shortly found out that the French couple was going on a hike to the Virgin Statue and I decided to join them.



We started out on the trail which at first was pretty easy and basic. Before we knew it we were climbing a set of stairs straight up the mountain side, very steep trek. We treked up the stairs conversating in spanish (they had a much better skill set than I) getting to know one another. The trail was beautiful as it gave us a great view of the little mountain town and surrounding nature. Once we got up to the Virgin statue, took about 35 minutes we drank some water and took in the surrounding views. I finally got to see the valcano Tungurahua, which was beautiful. In the previous blog I wrote that the last erruption was n 1999 but it turns out it was in 2006 and is one of the most active valcanos in the entire world. Eventually we found a side trail and decided to check it out. It took us on a big loop back into town.



Uponarriving in town we found out that there was a farmers market going on a half block from our hostel and checked it out. There was a massive market with fresh fruits of almost any kind, vegitables, and fresh cooked pigs. We walked around and checked some things out. I ended up buying a big thing of strawberries, a mango, and some other fruit I did not know the name all for about $1.50. We then proceded to pay $2 for some fresh cooked pig (they would pull the meat off the pig) and put it on a plate of greens, patatoes, and corn. A massive plate and probably the best pig I have ever had.



Upon arriving back at our hostel I enganged in conversation with this girl. She was speaking French to the french girl I had hiked with and found out she was from Montrael Canada. So immdedaitely after that we started speaking in English and exchanging stories. She was 20 years old and her boyfriend was sick upstairs in her room. We talked for a couple of hours, eventually her boyfriend came down, getting to know eachother and planning a slew of activities forthe next day.

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