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Published: February 22nd 2006
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Hola,
Hello again everyone. Today I am in Cuenca in southern Ecuador enjoying a sunny day on the cobblestone streets of this small colonial city. Two days ago, in Baños, Tessa and I ended up doing a one-day horseback riding trip (because our 2 day was cancelled due to weather) and having an amazing time. Meeting our extreme-sports enthusiast of a guide, Jose, at about 12:00 noon we geared up and mounted our horses (mine's name was Pinto, don't remember the rest) at Jose's ranch just on the outskirts of town. The first thing we did was ride through the streets of Baños, sometimes trotting, getting ourselves positioned to start on the trail accross town. Soon, though, we were on the trails happily trotting and cantering along a slim, winding road which offered some fantastic views of a river-carved (but very very deep) valley to our left. It was amazing to see that such a small river could dip such an enormous canyon given enough time. We were told by Jose, who spoke a good amount of English, that we were now in the "run for your life" zone of Baños, an area known to be clobbered during any erruption
of the nearby, very active (keep reading...) valcano nearby, Chimborazo.
After about 20 minutes along this valley and some flower lessons for Tessa and extreme-sports stories for me (which is funny because Tessa rides a kick-ass sports bike in London and does not particularly like flowers) we dove up another, most deserted road snaking upwards onto the mountain facing Chimbarazo. Jose had told us that we would soon get a great view of the valcano and that it had errupted earlier on. But having arrived at our first dismounting stop we discovered that not only had it errupted (don't worry, no lava) earlier in the day but that it had, and would continue to all day, errupt every FIVE MINUTES or so (something Jose says he hadn't seen in 7 years, talk about luck!) offering some amazing sights and sounds. Some erruptions were a whitish-gray, meaning that the gasses were quite light, explained Jose. Others, however, were quite dark and, if it weren't for the bright, whispy-cloud ridden sky behind it, quite ominous looking. I have a vivid memory (and picture, I hope) of a dark gray erruption shaped like a fist punching upward overtop a mushroom shaped earlier
erruption. Wow was that cool!
At the same site we had an amazing, 400 meter high view of Baños, a city comfortably nestled between Chimbarazo and a nearby peak. Jose told us that he had paraglided, most dangerously, from this spot and landed on the roof of a church. His second - yes, he did it again - attempt when a little better, landing on a soccer field, but he did almost spin out of control... he told me all of this with a sort of Ecuadorian equivalent of a California surfer sort of look on his face, which sported some radical sunglasses and was partially covered by his bandana and beard. Great guide.
The way down the mountain, some 3 hours after starting, was very nerve racking, at least for Tessa and me!. We lead our reluctant horses down a very steep, very rocky, very narrow path for a couple of hours, not once fully trusting the security of our horses (mine slippped a couple of times... yikes!) mostly because, only feet to our right, was a hundred foot steep drop down the side of the mountain... "eassssy boy, eaaaasssyyy...."
In the nighttime we met up
with Jose for some much needed Cerveza at his cousin's bar and called it an early night, because the next day we were to head to Riobamba to stay the night and hop aboard the devil's nose train to Alausi, where we would catch the bus to Cuenca... so that ALMOST happened...
after a major scare with our bags at the bus station (they had switched the buses after we had put our bags aboard and gone for a coffee, making us think they were stolen when returning) we did in fact make it to Riobamba in time to get an early night at a decent quasi-hotel. However, after getting to the train station at 6:30 am, we discovered that the train had been reduced to just one car because of the rain the night before and we were SOL. So, taking the bus to Alausi, we did manage to get some fantastic views and get aboard the train to take the last 2 hours of the ride. The train (actually a school bus converted to run on rails) did give some great views, but overall was disappointing and really not worth waiting around all day. So, disenchanted and
tired, we borded the 2:30 train to Cuanca arriving at 7 pm unhappy and exhausted. Taking a taxi to a decent looking hostel (more of a hotel) we splurged on a large room with three beds (the third being used for luggage - how decadent?!?) I finally found something to make my day. Nervously stepping into the shower I discovered the best shower I have had in my entire time here and even, I dare say, ever. Reborn, I strutted out of the shower, turned on a made-for-tv-movie and fell asleep early.
Today Tessa and I are just checking out the city and getting prepared for our two-day hike in Cajas (pronounced Cahas) national park tomorrow down the Inca road (littered with ruins). More on that later, it's time for lunch (Balon de verte, mmmm)
Ciao for now
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