Bathing in baños

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  Baños, Ecuador
Friday, September 12, 2008

We arrived in Quito, ecuador and settled in to a lovely hostal in the old town. we had a good time wandering around the old town, a beautiful colonial city that feels more like somewhere in austira than central or south america. there are beautiful parks, and old churches and monastaries which are a good change from the typical concrete monstrosities we have seen everywhere (including the new part of quito) finially we can get a good meal for $2 and a decent hotel for $12. this should take some pressure off the old budget. We had a bit of a scare one night around 8pm when 4 of us were wandering around the main street looking for food (no one eats that late here) when we got robbed at gunpoint by two young men. it was really sureal because we were just off a busy street and there were other people around us, but they just looked the other way while guns were shoved in our faces and we were forced to empty our pockets. one of our frinds had a phone and some money stolen, the other claimed to have nothing, simon had a wallet that only contained two fake student idīs he had just bought which he asked to have back (and got it!) and lindsey was the cleverest of all as she hid the purse we carry our money in behind her back while they frisked her

busy market

!

the next day we visited the metad-del-mundo (centre of the world) landmark. we learned that that calculation was off by 240 metres, but we still had a good time jumping back and forth over the equator line and behaving like silly tourists generally. we then went to the real landmark at which we refused the $3 price to see water flowing straight down a sink and an egg balanced on a nail... we learned that the local people had a unique astronomy as this is the only point on the equator where there are mountains, and so are reference points to track the sun. there is an ancient monument that marks the exact equator (confirmed by gps) as well as the equinoxes and other interesting movements of the sun which i have forgotten. also from here they can see all of the constellations in both hemispheres. take THAT european astrology!  

next we went on a four day tour to the amazon basin. simon expressed his displeasure of package tours, but was pleasantly surprised to really enjoy this one. we stayed in basic accomodations and saw some staggeringh sunsets and loads of crazy animals including the saci monkey, squirrel monkey, wolly monkey, night monkey (heard not seen), black mantled tamarin, 2 toed sloth, hawks, kites, kingfishers, the tropical cormorant, toucans, red and yellow headed vultures, tiger herons, flycatchers, bats, blackbirds, caimans, turtles, amazon boa contrictor, a HUGE agouti and some pink dolphins

guardian angel

. simon stood out as being the only person to det a discernable photo of a pink dolphin (and even so it was a bit out of focus - those suckers are FAST) simon had his leatherman stolen during the 2nd to last night, but otherwise we had a fantastic time and took some phenomenal photos. 

next we went to baņos in equador (where we are writing this) we had a little rest, lindsey tried taffy for the first time (and loved it) we went on aan 18 k bike ride to see a waterfall (our bums are still sore) and stat in some piping hot people soup (volcanic springs) before plunging into icy cold water. really wakes you up! on the last day we went for a hike, and after losing the trail a couple of times we split up, simon saying he would go back to the hotel as the path was not easy for a boy with no balance. lindsey continued on... on the way back simon found the correct (marked) trail and decided to do the hike rather than wait around... as it turns out simon finished the hike while lindsey did part of it then ran back to meet him.... he was late... sorry hun.

 

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iglesia

simon wants to buy this building

trainer cleaning

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