Banos

  Banos, Ecuador
Friday, August 10, 2007

Hola todos
I'm back in quito for the weekend, may well do another volcano tomorrow, though this one has a nice cable car going most of the way up it so that will be nice. Biggest exciting news is that after nearly 12 weeks in the country my clothes have gone to a laundry - yipee! I carted my entire backpack down the hill and in a few hours will be the proud owner of hopefully some cleanish clothes - some thinga re beyond help I think. My also treat myself to some new socks this weekend. Come to South America - see the laundry.

So a couple of weeks ago I went to Banos which has some cool (and hot) thermal baths and spent one of the days cycling towards Puyo which is on the border of the amazon area. Had one hair raising trip across the valley in a rather rickety looking bucket type thing on a cable.

Then to celebrate being still alive ans stuff we all went out for a couple of well earned cocktails, and then severl more probably not really deserved or needed. This did result in the bizarre sounds and sights of several Brits singing the J.Lo classic "Jenny from the Block" in a small bar, much to the amusement of the locals. Other memorable karaoke classics had to be our "My Way", the grease megamix and several attempts at some Spanish classics, and not so classics.

The hangover next morning was helped greatly be sitting in a steam box for a few minutes with regular dosings of cold water in between, including being hosed down with what could accurately be described as a power washer and sitting in a bath of cold water massaging the stomach. There was a purpose to all this - it escapes me now.

Football - the Ecuadorians won their first match for a bout 7 weeks, largely due to the fact that I have been recruited in the summer transfer window due to a lack of willing Equatorians - think 6 losses on the bounce is too much for them to take. So I scored my first ever goals in Equatorian colours - narrowly missing a perfect hat-trick by the width of a crossbar...

Then I fell on my wrist and spent the rest of the week unable to work due to a slight inability to hold anything. C'est la vie.

Anyhoo, heres some perty pictures.

a. man taking photo

 

b. rather dodgy looking transport

 

c. good view tho

 

d. more dodgy ways

 

e. big big waterfall - devils someut

 

f. at the end of the ride