La Estacion Riobamba

... satirical sketch of health and safety. So the warm up was fine, the safety briefing taxing (as in spanish), and the fact that we had to put our own harnesses on was slightly worrying. The sliding over a waterfall without ropes just to get wet was bearable, and abseiling down a slippery 10m waterfall was fine, even with our guide giggling and saying his only english words - no problem. The real treat of the day was saved for the final waterfall ...

... the new town. Our first impression: Baños is, through and through, a town of tourism. An overwhelming number of shops cater to tourists, either through offering activities and adventures (white-water rafting, canyoning, ATV-ing, etc), touristy trinkets, or overpriced (by South American standards) food. After perusing various shops and stalls for an hour or two, we ran into something I´d been waiting to see: roasted guinea pigs. When the Ecuadorians cook up guinea ...

... person and climb up behind the waterfall. The spray saturates you at this point but it was wicked.<br><br>After you get back from the fall you flag a truck, they normally hang out waiting for a ´fare´, who will chuck your bike on the back of the truck and drive you back to town for a dollar. How cool is that?<br><br>After an active morning we thought we deserved a bit of a relax so we headed to one of the thermal baths in town after we got back ...

... half a meter of the edge. It was amazing to see. When we were doing the switchbacks the switch guy opened the back door and let me sit out the back as the train decended. I thought it was great fun.<br><br>The ´train´ goes down to Sibambe station which is the border between coastal and mountain regions. Apparently you can stay there but I didn´t see any sign of this and I can´t imagine why you would want to, its nothing but desert ...

... even if it involved a huge detour, it would still be preferable to this. <br><br> We got back to the start of the detour and the workmen let us through the roadworks in the opposite direction to the traffic flow, advising ´despacio´ which was not as horrific as it sounds as once we have weaved our way through the short stretch of single lane traffic, we had the pleasure of being one of the first to enjoy the ...

... no trouble finding food and snacks for the next couple of days.<br> We ran into Dany again, who had just come back from the Galopagos. She was back in town to meet her roommate Maria and start on a trip together going through South America. Jen cooked up a spaghetti dinner for us all and we made plans to walk through Quito&#8217;s old town together. &#8230; assuming Andy is feeling better.

... to find a good meal in our part of town. Mom and Skippy wisely opted not to have dinner with us- not-too-appetizing meat and fries, so we brought them bread and blackberry cheesecake. As a rule of thumb, we tend to be awoken in the mornings by either honking horns, church bells or roosters in any place we visit. Roosters here. <br> <br>There are some lovely city squares and attractive colonial architecture here, but not much for us to do but rest.

... war<br>der einzige Gast (wie mir schien, seit Monaten) und die Betreuung war<br>total persoenlich. Mir wurde die Farm gezeigt, die frischgeborenen<br>Kaelber, ich durfte das Melken ueben (naja...schlechter Erfolg).<br>Am<br>naechsten Tag war dann der eigentliche Grund meines Besuches, ein<br>Reitausflug, angesagt. Pferde geputzt und gesattelt und los gings. Mit<br>Westernsaetteln, was ich ja gar nicht kenne...und die Wege waren auch<br>etwas ...

... so i plan to oblige and hope it works out. cross those fingers! on the way here, a black cat crossed our path. i kind you not. i have never seen a cat in ecuador and of course it starts like this. then, on the radio the annoucer kept on say ¨what happens immediately after you die?¨ . this kind of freaked me out...it is scary when a man is repeating this over and over again in spanish which you are hurreling down a moutain.

... to a stream, and the other was only feet away from a cliff edge! And the stream led out to the cliff. So my choices of where to try and hack my way through the thick damp undergrowth were either to go for the cliff side, and hope I don't slip and fall over the edge there, or towards the stream, and hope that I don't slip over there and get carried by the current over the cliff. Needless to say, this was half-way up a mountain in the middle of nowhere, so there wasn't ...