Monteselva Banos

Voor het weekend had ik afgesproken om samen met Carla naar Baños te gaan. Carla was er ook vorig weekend bij, maar had eigenlijk nooit veel met haar gesproken. Tot nu dus...

Carla stond me om 8 uur op te wachten op de Plaza Grande. De eigenlijke busrit naar Baños duurde 3 uur (3USD). Tijdens de rit komen allerlei verkopers (van ijsjes, chips ...

... and whip it onto a hook on the wall. My guess is to soften it up...not really sure.

Our Adrenaline Rush X 2 or 3 (Mike)
The two of us decided to book something pretty thrilling in Baños after sitting around in Quito. When Mike and I say thrilling....we mean it. Instead on one activity we booked 2 or 3. First we booked a go-cart to rent and buggied around the winding roads between cascades and waterfalls and through ...

... br>
Wednesday night was ladies´ night in Cuenca (cheap drinks) so we met Daniel again for dinner and I tried a few of the local cocktails which were very similar to mojitos, just without the mint. We had a good time chatting with him about travels in Europe and South America and finally returned home at about 11.30pm, as it was a school night!

The next morning we met Paul, a 20-year-old student from Cleveland who, along with 20 of his university peers, was also taking a ...

... the infamous Devils Nose part of the journey. We decided we would and could make our own way by bus to Alausi tomorrow afternoon. So we bought tickets for the Alausi to Sabambe rail trip tomorrow for $23.40, which involved the tourist office reserving the tickets and us going two doors down to pay for the tickets at the bank, where a hundred other locals were queuing, still we had tickets.

We were wondering what we might do this afternoon or how we might ...

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On Sunday we hiked up to a lookout point called Bellavista - it was a very strenous experience for total non-sporty people like Cat & I, but we felt great once we got up to the top and took in the surroundings and the amazing view (sorry, i´m rambling on about how "amazing" everything is..!)

On Monday we wandered around the town doing various errands before getting the bus to Puyo to meet the Arajuno Road Project coordinators...

I would like to think I am over my jet-lag, but I'm awake at six and as soon as we can get the hot water to work for a shower (I gave up hot Africa for the cool Andes - what was I thinking!?) it's off to see the city. G has been in Cuenca studying Spanish for the last six weeks. When he arrived, he could say "I am fluent" with a big grin and that was about it. Now, he's talking circles around me as I try to dredge up verb conjugations and keep French words from slipping out of ...

... hatte - und die
sind jetzt natuerlich alle weg! Das hat mich schon ein wenig aus der
Bahn geworfen, aber Hauptsache mir ist nichts passiert.
Eine
negative Erfahrung war dann auch die Polizei in diesem Land - sie
bemuehen sich ueberhaupt nicht, ja man koennte sagen, es interessiert
sie eigentlich gar nicht. Sie haben eine Anzeige aufgenommen und das
wars wohl fuer sie...frustrierende Gestalten.

... an verschiedenen indigenen Stämmen erhielten. Bei unserem Stadtrundgang mussten wir im sehr luxuriösen österreichischen Cafe Sankt Florian einen Stopp einlegen um wieder mal ein wenig Heimatluft zu schnuppern.
Am (Samstag)abend nutzte ich die Gelegenheit um ein bisschen durch die tollen Bars zu ziehen, während Stefan zu Hause das Bett hüten musste. Begleitet wurde ich dabei von Mark, Paul (aus London, den wir seit Riobamba ...

... which i will upload later. we stopped off for barbeque fish which was the best thing i´ve had this trip but in fairness i hadnt eaten since the night before and this was 3pm. On the way home we went zip lining. this involves getting a cable car across this canyon then hooking yourself up (superman styley) and then flying back across afore mentioned canyon at a speed of 250 metres in 10 secs....you do the math. again no fear, the scariest bit was getting off the ...