riobamba

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SO...my second day in Banos was full of...nothing really! Spent the morning wandering around looking at the twon and the arts and crafts and things and then went on a long walk across a rickety bridge and along a pretty river with waterfalls with an English guy and Maria and smoked a bit of weed whilst looking at the mountains it was rather nice actually!!c We didnt make it to he baths becuase apparently tthe evening is not the time to go..Its only emptied and refilled at night so morning is better..Again had a good night on the terrace just palying cards and things..Drugs laws depite all the chat seem to be really lax here..everyone seemed to have borught something over from Colombia (Dont worry I would never carry drugs in South America or posess them)

The next morning we didnt get up at 4 30 and go to the baths. We went at nine which proved to be too late! They were packes with Euadoreans and we weree the only gringas, and being scantily clad does not help with stares. The actual water was nice, one hot pool, one medium pool which was too full and a cold, but we only stayed half an hour because the ecxperience as a whole was extremely unrelaxing! Apparently Maira has been to the volcanic springs in a plae called papallacta which although much more expensive / dolloars are apparently really nice..maybe I will go there..
Our bus to Riobamba involved the characteristic panic at both ends where people tell you different places and times to catch the bus (some or all of which might be ok, but theres no way of telling) and then tell you diffrent places to get off, which again is hardly ideal.
Riobamba is big , grimey dusty (a characteristic of ecuadorean towns) and difficult to navigate. However as all these cities are builton a grid (Whcih i hate but i suppos e is useful if boring) We have found the main street which is meant to be safe. We checked in to a pretyty nasty hotl. It costs 6 dollars a night for our private room but the noise from the street is such that you may as well be outsie and you could never meet oyther travellers here. However there is n need as i am only here for a short time- There are no actual hostels in Riobamba.
Another thing i dont like about ecuador is the salty food. Granny would love it as she oversalts food, but everything you are served here depending on whether its meant to be savoury or swet either comes saturated with salt or sugar. The salt contet to me is so hihg that if i was at hand had accidentally put that much salt on my food I would make more rather than eat it. Im quite looking forward to cooking for myself, and I must remember t o start saying sin sal.-

The only good thing about our hotel is the cable tv. Despite the fact that until today I hadnt met a single person including in hostels or tourist information who spoke English, tyhey have all the american sit coms. We didnt really fancy venturing out last night...

It was a toss up between taking the bus and doing a bit of the famous train ride or going to see Chiimborazo. We decided to be a little active as we do a lot of sitting in buses and go to the mountain..

Today was exhausting but a good experience. Maria and I took a bus to Chimborazo (the volano whose top is the furthest from the centre of the earth) It was a local bus nd went through all these pretty villages where aeveryone is dressed in traditional costumes with little white hats anfd colourful ponchos. They are small scale farmers who lead their animals on a lead..tyhhe sheep are so well behaved! The patchwork of the fields is similar to here except its on nearly vertical mountainsides!
Ayway after an hour and a half we arrived at the entrance to the national park (the lady at the tourism office had told us that its an ok walk you just follow the 'path and the view is beautiful) It was like stepping onto the moon. A windswept dusty stony expanse of nothing ness where this bitterly cold wind just cut straght through clothes. Far from this easyish path we were expecting the man told us it was eight kilometres to the first refuge...across this nothingness! Having not acclimatised the walk was almost impossible. We started off ok but ended up having to stop about every 20 steps because our hearts felt like they might beat through our chests and our lungs might burst. It was a road,,but initially it felt scary to set off uinto this unhospitable environment. There are a few alpacas living on the rocks.,,but it really is horrible! ayway after a while we werent the only people on the road...taxis were driving people up ...but we got this wierd uyrge to achieve and turned down the lifts even thogugh we were almost passing out (i expect you know that quality in me!) we made it to about 500m from the refuge ,w e could see it but just couldnt walk anymore, and then an ecuadorian family came by and we got in the back of therir pick up for the last minute it took to the lodge.
Anyway they were so nice and interested in us and then the 17 year old girl spoke eglish so we decided to walk up to the second lodge which is on the edge of the glacier at 5000 and something metres, that almost killed us (and them) already exhausted it was another 3 k or so and i not only couldnt breath but i got some wierd nerve thing where my hands and feet were tingling as if i had hit my funny bone..
Anyway finally when we really felt another step wasnt possible we made it to the refuge and had the best hot chocolate ever...just because we neeeded it so much. Then a drama uinfolded when the family lost one of their sons so we helped in the search..It was awful we walked higher but the earth just sli'ps from under your feet and my lungs felt like they were going to burst and as much as i wanted to find the kid, I had to sit down or I would have fainted!
Anyway after 40 mins of searching it turned out that he had gone back down..
then we got a lift back to Riobamba with the family, which was intersting as the girl was telling us a bit about her life here in Ecuador and her plans to go to university, and how if you cant pay for education you get none They were so friendly though and wanted photos with us and were really helpful..it was a good experince.
Since then we've just monged out exhouasted watching a wierd cable film about a devout jewish girl marrying her dead husbandsbrother.

Yen is here (one iof the three others from the jungle and Sabine and Romano too. Remember they attempted to climb Chimborazo well they got driven up to the first lodge and then walked to the secoond, Romano could make it any further becaus of earache and sabine tried and made it two hours. We walked more than them and paid 2 dolars to get there,, they paid 200 dollars each,,,what a waste..
anyway,
Im going to go and find them, Im leavving (by myself to guayaquil at 4 30 in the morning (hopefully -Riobamba seems to be the only town where you cant pre book a ticket!!) then on from guayaquil to the coast for one night before getting the night bus back to quito..

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