Ive been slack

A quick disclaimer to start with...
I don{t seem to have an apostrophe, theres a key that looks like an apostrophe but its actually a bracket. So thats my excuse.

On our only full day in Banos we went on a waterfall tour in the morning which was nice, we were in a open bus and it was quite a cool day in the mountains so was a bit unpleasant and the waterfalls were pretty but iguazu falls really changed my perspective of waterfalls so nothing can compare. We went in a cable car across the canyon for $1 which was fun but we were disappointed when we couldnt get off on the other side to look around. we just pulled up at the platform, a woman took our tickets and then we were sent straight back again.

That afternoon Claire and Katrina went paragliding but i, after much internal struggle decided to go quad biking instead as anthea wanted to go and i was torn between the activities. We had an awesome time, we were timid at first driving through the streets of Banos. To be fair we didn{t really know the road rules of banos and they dont bother telling you, all they say is this is ignition, this is accelerate this is brake and off you go. We knew enough, i.e that we drive on the right side, which was a novelty and and felt very unnatural. Once we got to the main road out of banos we wenta bit harder on the accelerator but as our bike had no odometer we werent sure how fast. We went up a track up a mountain called bella vista and it was so amazing, the views over banos were excellent and there was so many beatiful things to look at on our way up. When anthea was in front of me she would point out things to look at, a dog there, pretty flowers there, waterfall over there. the paved road turned into a cobbled road and then a dirt path and then eventually just disappeared. I tried to continue on the grass but got stuck and as they hadn{t shown us any reverse function we had to push the quad bike to turn it around. Going back down the mountain was sooo much fun, we accelerated as much as possible and it felt fantastic. (it wasnt too fast mum :p)
That only took us one hour and we had two hours so we decided to head up a different mountain that david had suggested for a different view of banos. We were driving up for about 10mins when we hit the clouds and it became freezing. we kept going for a couple of minutes but the acceleration was a very stiff lever and my hands were so cold i was struggling to hold it down. plus we had dogs barking at us and we could hardly see. This is where things got interesting. Anthea carried on down the mountains no problem but i was struggling, i felt like i was rolling too much like the gears werent slowing me down at all so i kept gaining speed quickly and my brakes were bad so everytime i hit them my bike would skid, Anthea was so far ahead i couldn{t see her because of thick cloud but i found if i kept pumping the brakes i sayed in control. Anthea was waiting for me a bit further ahead and i found she was not having any issues so we just carried on very slowly. On the edge of the road was a sheer cliff face so i was being very careful. After a couple more minutes i stopped and turned the engine off and then attempted to start it again and the engine wouldn{t turn over. So my bike was officially dead. I rolled it to the closest driveway and got on the back of antheas bike. When we got back to te office with just one bike the woman hardly looked surprised, we told her it had broken down and she just said ok, how far away is it? It felt like this was a fairly standard occurence for her. But thats south america for you, no real safety standard. But the good news is i didnt die and i had a great time!

That evening we us 4 girls, plus jill and patricia and david went out drinking. We went out for dinner first and I had a baked zucchinni cheesy dish. Then we went to a bar called the leprecaun which was really cool, through the main bar is an outdoor bar with an open fire as well as an upstairs bar. We were given a welcome shot called A Bob Marley and then we each got a cocktail. I choose sex on the beach and it was fairly nasty. Then we met up with terry and ken two guys from our tour and terry bought claire and i antoher drink. After about 4 drinks we were about ready to dance so we went upstairs where we had such an awesome time. Guys in south america really know how to dance. So us girls just alternated partners and they taught us how to salsa. Even thouh i was fairly hopeless at dancing i still loved it, they would dip us and spin us and they were so good at leading you hardly had to do anything. It was the most fun i{ve ever had dancing and now i want to take salsa lessons. At 4.30am the bar was closing so we had to leave although we were very reluctant, and we walked back with david to the hotel.

The next morning we had to be up by 7 to go white water rafting and even though i had drunk 2 bottles of water before bed the night before i wasn{t feeling fantastic, especially seeing we had had less than 3 hours sleep. but turns out white water rafting is a good cure for a hangover. The cold water really wakes you up. We were only level 3 rapids and it was a great first experience for rafting but now im ready to try level 4+ or 5 because i found myself wishing the rapids would be bigger while we were doing it. But we still got a few good rapids that would wipe us out with water although we never fell in, I was surprised at how steady i felt sitting on the edge of the boat because i assumed it would feel unstable. A couple of times we were told to jump out of the raft just so we could practise the technique of pulling us back in again. The water was cold but with the wetsuits it was unbearable. We rafted for about 2 hours and by the end we were feeling exhauted. So when we got back into the van after i was absolutely wasted. i struggled to stay awake during lunch and then we had to go back to the hotel collect up our things and get on the bus the riobamba. That was about a 2 hour bus ride, of which i don{t remember much anymore, it was fairly uneventful. I was very much just looking forward to seeing a bed.

We got to our hotel and decided to go out for dinner as a group so david took us to an italian restuarant that had fantastic pizzas. On our way home they had a performance of traditional ecuadorian music at the train station so we stopped to watch for a while and they sounded amazing. I was so impressed with the guitars and the flutes, it sounded so perfect that if we couldn{t see them performing we would have assumed it was a recording. We went to an internet cafe but i lasted all of 5mins there because i was feeling quite sick, i think a mix of lack of sleep, rafting exhaustion, change of altitude, and perhaps drinking a bit of river water from the rafting (i couldn{t avoid it) caused me to feel quite unwell so i went home and talked to claire who read me a chapter of her book, the poisonwood bible and then i went to bed.

The next morning we had to be u at 5.30 and i still wasnt feeling fantastic and it seemed we were all suffering from some cramps but fortunately they seemed to pass during the day. It was a bit disappointing because we were due to go on a train ride from riobamba to cuenca passing through the devils nose that day but due to landslides we had to bus for most of the trip. We took a bus in the morning to Alausi and from there took a tram like train to the devils nose just to see it and then back to Alausi where we bussed to Cuenca. The scenery on the way to alausi and on the tram was very beautiful, greem hillsides with the indiginous people wearing there brightly coloured traditional outfits. It was so interesting to see these people, and we saw alot more of them in Alausi as we walked through the markets. I think they were as fascinating to us as we were to them. Our bus ride to Cuenca was horrible, we had scattered seats all overthe bus just wherever we could fit so I had noone to talk to, the engine brakes sounded like a kettle boiling over and they were almost constant throughout the trip as we seemed to be going forever downhill. People were standing in the aisles and they have no idea of personal space so they would lean right over you and one man pretty much used my head as a tripod when he was pointing something out to anther person. Another man had incredibly bad breath so i lept praying he would stop talking. Outside everything was white as we were driving through cloud so there was nothing to see, my mp3 payer was dead, i didn{t have a book. i would occasionally fall asleep and then wake up when someone bumped me, my neck would be aching and id usually find a boy staring at me. One little boy who walked past had the dirtiest stickiest hands as he was eating a lollypop and he kept overbalancing and reaching out for me. So i was incredibly relieved when those 4 hours were over. It seemed that a lot of our group were equally miserable and its not comforting to know the buses will get worse in bolivia.

Our hotel in Cuenca, where i am now, is so fancy looking. We feel like it is too fancy for us but its nice all the same. Again we decided to go out for dinner as a group but we had 2 hours free before that so i used that time to have a shower, feel fresh again and have a quick nap. Afterward i felt soo much better. So that evening we went out to a nice ecuadorian restuarant and David told us about our options for the next day. Afterward he asked us if we would like to go out for a drink at a bar so claire and i went with Henry, a tour guide from a different company and david would meet us there. Henry was so nice, very charming which is also very typical of south americian men. At one point he was telling us a story and then he just stopped talking and looked completely shocked. then we realised some of his tour group had come into the bar and he had told them he was feeling sick and wasn{t coming out that night so we had to move to a table in the corner. David would call every 20mins to tell us he was on his way. We stayed at the bar til it closed at 11.30 (sunday) and thats about when David showed up. Fortunately we found another bar that was still open and we stayed there for a few more hours, didnt drink quite as much as the other night but we cleared a space so we could pratise some more salsa. It was another great night and this time we got home at a more reasonable 1.30.

Ill have to finish there, but i also have to say i have absolutely fallen in love with Ecuador, the traditional people and rich culture, mix of old towns and new towns, the markets, the beautiful scenery, the amazon, music, charming guys, salsa dancing, its just incredible, and David who made it all so much more interesting due to his massive knowledge of the plants animals, landmarks people and culture. He has been a fantastic guide and i dont know how any other guide will ever be able to compare. Knowing that tomorrow i have to leave is a bit painful even though im moving on to Peru which is meant to be equally amazing. It feels like this every time we move on somewhere new becase we can{t believe that anything can top the experiences weve had.