Avacados

Hello everyone,

Farmer Andrew

Well we have arrived in Baños today. The bus ride was alright except we expressly asked if it was a direct and express bus from Quito to Baños. We were assured it was. Well it stopped everywhere. I mean EVERYWHERE! To add insult to injury when we got to Ambato we were told to get off the bus and escorted to another bus to get on for the rest of the journey. This second bus was already leaving the bus station so we got to experience a "bus slop" personally. Let me tell you it is not fun to get three children all laden down with knapsacks on to a moving bus! --The kids are incredible! (We are going to try to secure a direct bus for the way back on the 7th)

We arrived. Found ourselves a hostal and then went out to explore the town. Baños is very close to the jungle. You can take jungle tour here. There is also a fairly active volcano here. You can take night viewing tours. Brett is very keen on going horse backriding one day too. There is apparently a great place for massages right next door to the hostal which I might have to check out. A dozen roses here are $1 -$2 US (I'm hoping to get some.....)

An interesting thing you see here in Baños is toffee making. Kids stand in store doorways pulling toffee on a wooden peg. I'll get a picture for you. There are also coffee and cocoa plantations nearby. Oh ya the title of the post is Avacados because there is a huge avacado tree right outside my bedroom window. (I'm going to try to lean out and pick one before we leave. I'll let you know how it turns out!) Man the avacados are twice as big here as I have ever seen in Canada. Olga made us papaya juice the other day and the thing was huge. I mean the size of a very large zucchini!

I better go. There are other people waiting for the computer (or computadora in spanish). I'll see if I can't add some photos while I'm here. Take care!