A Lot More Activity

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Hey all,

I started Friday with a relaxing morning; lie in, journal writing and massage in the hotel, which wasn't as relaxing as I had hoped for!! I got my back massage and a few knots worked out, but also got a bum massage which was just weird!!! So I told them to get back to my shoulders!!

In the afternoon, Matt and I want climbing with Paulo, our guide from yesterday, and his mate Oscar. Matt was already wrecked having just got back from white water rafting, and it was also his first time climbing outside. The site we were at was just stunning, the rock face was 100m high with a raging torrent of water going through a gorge in the middle. It was about 3pm when we got down there so the sun was still high. We were only climbing about 50m up so Paulo set up the top rope first- by freeclimbing up and clipping in to a bolt in the middle. We found out that they were both ex- Ecuadorian champion climbers. I climbed first, the first route wasn't that hard, maybe 5a. The difficut bit was climbing in very hot sun on basalt rock, which has no friction and heats up in the sun pretty quick!! Matt had it a bit harder obviously though he got to the top no bother. Then I did the second route, maybe 5b. It was a tricky start involving a few leaps of faith and slippery feet, and then it was alright 'til I got to the crux halfway up. I was stuck there for ages!!! Finally managed to crawl my way over it, and straight to the top. I was knackered when I got down again took me awhile to get my breath and feeling back into my fingertips!!! Matt tried it but his arms were dead from the morning so he had to back-off. I tried a third route 20 minutes later but had no power whatsoever in my arms!! It was great though, we were well pleased with ourselves!!

Went to the hot baths after to relax the muscles, they were about 42degees so we didn't stay for long or we would have boiled ourselves. Then we went out to dinner and onto the Jack Rock Cafe to pay the guides. It was a really good night, had a good few cuba libres, a long pool session with Oscar and his friends, and then onto the lepreachan bar for dancing after!! We thought it would be terribly cheesy but it was actually a really good bar, half outside with a bonfire, brilliant music and a great atmosphere!! Paulo knew eveyone so he got us all a free shot- a flaming combination of tequila, orange juice and something blue. We had to drink it through a straw to avoid the flames at the top and it was disgusting!!

We went upstairs after where someone kept buying cuba libres (or possibly free from the barman), and we danced 'til four in the morning. We got some great salsa lessons, and were passed around from one guy to the next for a dance!! Good fun!!

We managed to make it back to the hostel, and had two hours sleep before we had to get up for the long ride to Cuenca. It took 12 hours, awful. I was still drunk when we got up so slept for a good bit and then downed about a litre of water, and didn't need to pee for most of the journey!! Stopped at the Ingapirca ruins for an hour for a quick tour. The whole site is shaped like a puma - one of the Incan signs for strength, the other symbols are the condor and the snake. The temple of the sun had four niche windows which were designed exactly so that the sun would rise and set in them at the four most important times in the year - summer solstice, winter solstice, and the two equinoxes. It was freezing up there and we were looking away early to continue our sleep. We finally made it to Cuenca at 9pm last night and slept so well!!

Today we mostly shopped for food for the next three days. We also went to see the panama hat factory, but the it was closed as it was a Sunday. We got to try on a variety of hats in the shop instead though!! We stocked up on rum for camping at Punta Sal in Peru, leaving Ecuador already!! I know I will be back though, at least to banos!!!

Orla

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