Quaint Cuenca
Before I forget I wanted to let you know about my splashing jump in the galapagos... For some reason i thought it would be a good idea to jump off the top of the boat... So Carlos the bartender led the way with a nice front-end normal dive... I got up there and so didnt want to do it - the water seemed like such a long way away! - plus i was worried i was going to land on a cruising turtle or something! But do something everyday that scares you, so off i jumped, and somehow managed to do a butt-flop (accompanied by a nice little squeal)! no idea how i managed it. The other 2 that jumped off managed to jump a lot more gracefully than I - and no bruises as a result! It is amazing how hard water is! :)
Anyway back to the point of it all... Made it from Quito to Banos on the bus without getting anythign stolen (apparently notorious for that)... The volcano was smoking, but no light shows or anything while i was there.. Did a waterfall tour with only 2 others - an american girl and a german lady... lucky the german lady could speak a little english and spanish so she acted as interpreter between us and the guide... Then had a massage that evening - lurvely! Did an eealy morning hike in the surrounds the following day before catching the bus to riobamba. On the bus all the gringos were seated at the front so i found out that the devils nose train wasnt going due to a landslide :( So 3 UKs invited me to join them to Cuena - 6hr bus ride more... it was loooong. We arrived about 11pm and went to a hostel that a lady was offering brochures for at the bus station. It wasnt great but we were tired... Two of us shared a room - had a huge window that spanned the length of the massive room with only a net curtain so didnt matter whether you had the light on or off... and it was on a main road so could feel the trucks and buses go by and the car alarms sounding... and had a coolish shower in the morning as couldnt figure out the electric shower... Anyway wandered round Cuenca with them the following day and did dinner which was nice... Just stayed at the same hostel as we were too lazy to move and the owners were nice. They left early this morning to make their way down towards Peru... I slept in til 7am, had a shower (hot this time as had been told how they worked - only slightly turn the nozzle on?!) - and right in the middle just after i put shampoo in the power goes off - so had to rince with icilces - brrr! Then had a Cajas NP tour - glad to do the tour as was really misty and apparently people get disorientated with all the mountains and lakes around so better to have a guide - and had a pretty good group (altho one girl my gosh she could talk - didnt stop the whole day!) and the scenery was stunning. Cajas was main reason for making the trek to Cuenca. The guide was really good too. Cajas is where Cuenca gets its water - all protected and best water in Ecuador. Has condors as well (condors mate for life, they fly around together 3-4yrs before breeding and if one dies they dont 'marry' again and soemtimes the other one suicides by plunging to its death - doesnt open its wings up).
A few people from the tour are staying at the same place as I am tonight (I swapped to a fancy place - posada de Angel) so probably do dinner with them. Have a flight to Quito tomorrow at 6pm (thought that was better than 10hr bus ride for the sake of $50). the leave for caracas via lima the following day - exciting stuff!
later!