Hola Amigos, long time no talk, sorry about that! I have been on the go since spring break with hardly a moment to stop and think, but it has been absolutely amazing every step of the way!! I will spare the dirty details of spring break and give you some highlights.
We started our freedom in Quito by attending a futbol game, La Liga de Quito vs. Deportivo de Quito. La Liga won, and Deportivo fans were a bit angry...glass bottles flew in many a direction. Luckly we all made it out alive.
Sunday March 7 we hit the road for Cuenca. It was a 9.5 hour bus ride, through the Andes. A lot of fast acceleration followed by heavy breaking made for a stomach challenging journey. Adding to the fun was Home Alone 3, Home Alone 4, Dennis the Menace 1 and Dennis the Menace 2, all dubbed in Spanish blasting over the speakers. Not the best bus ride I have ever taken, but at least I could sit...
Cuenca is a UNESCO worldsite and once you experience its cobblestone streets and tranquil evenings it is easy to understand why. I really enjoyed our stay there, as short as it was, and may consider returning later on. Despite the tranquility we packed up and travelled to Banos on Wednesday. Banos is an outdoor adventuring mecca. While there we went hiking around Volcan Tungurahua, mountain biking past glorious waterfalls, and white water rafting on Rio Pastaza. Banos also has a great night life, though again details are unnecessary.
My greatest adventure in Banos might have been when Liz and I had the good fortune to cross paths with Carlos Sanchez. We were hiking to a town called Runtun in search of water and instead we found Carlos. He invited us to "La Casa del Arbol," and with nothing else to do we accepted the invitation, it was after all only a 45 minute hike according to Carlos. Along the way Carlos proceeded to ask us questions about the difference between male friends and boyfriends. He also asked about what we were studying. Unfortunately the conversation was rather one sided since everytime he posed a question he answered it for himself, but nonetheless Liz and I enjoyed it thoroughly.
45 minutes later, just on time, and after some very steep terrain we arrived at a sign that read "La Casa del Arbol" and pointed straight up through a cow pasture. Turns out La Casa del Arbol is a literal tree house that Carlos built. As far as we could tell he roams the hills around Banos inviting tourists to his tree house. Once there he made us Canelazo, a cider spiked with sugar cane alcohol. It's tasty but toxic. Then Carlos took out his volumes of visitor books and asked me to translate some of the entries written in English. I tried my best. Carlos, besides being the overseer of the treehouse runs a weather station at the top of the hill and watches the volcano. Interesting job, to say the least. The best part about the treehouse was the swing that hung from it, when you swang way out you went off the edge of the hill and it felt like you were about to fall off the end of the Earth. I doubt that any hike I take in the near future will be able to compete with the day I met Carlos Sanchez.
After our adventures in Banos came to an end we bussed back to Quito for a few days of class. We kicked off our Marine Biology course and left for the coast on Thursday March 18.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment