Cuenca, Chimborazo, Coast, Guayaquil

There was a national downhill competition in Ecuador 7 hours away, so all the riders from Baños and I went to a city of Cuenca which is considered to be the most beautiful colonial city in all South America. The city is alright, I didn't enjoy it that much. It had a very beautiful main square with a big cathedral and a nice park, but other than that nothing special, and I didn't feel safe at all. At the competition, my heart just stopped watching the riders jump up 2 meters at high speed, then landing on a steep trail which leads into a sharp turn. Or go down a 80 degree hill full speed between the trees.

Beside Cuenca there is a national park which is considered to be the most beautiful park in all Ecuador, so of course we went there. I really really liked it :) It's on a 4000 meter altitude, so it's pretty chilly. When we got there at 8 am, I almost froze. I tried jumping up and down to warm myself up, but because of the altitude it was impossible. The park has 200 lakes, it's flat, and it changes the landscape pretty sharply from a desert like to forest to swamps (which were a lot of fun to jump across) to mountains to rivers and blue caves. It was my favourite hike so far! Part of it I think is because it wasn't uphill :) I really enjoyed the day, but the 8 hour bus drive back almost killed me.

Beside Baños there is another volcano Chimborazo. With it's height of over 6000 meters and location, it's the closest point to the sun. We rented a car from baños, put the bikes at the back, and drove and drove. It was pretty expensive, and I brained washed everybody that I want to go, so fine, we went. But when we got there, the whole mountain was covered in clouds, and it was raining, so I got very upset :(( We stopped at the refuge, and there was another refuge 1 hour up. I started feeling dizzy right away because of the altitude, but it wasn't as bad as Cotopaxi volcano. I said to everybody that I want to go to the other refuge, to kill some time, so hopefully the clouds will clear up. We hiked up, and everything around was just white, we couldn't see not the mountain, not the refuge, nothing, just 2 meters each direction :( When we started going down, there was more and more visibility, and by the time we got onto the bikes we could see the whole mountain right in front of us :) It was beautiful. We rode 1 hour downhill on the road, with the car going behind us, not even 1 meter was up :) And it was so beautiful, the fields, and cows, pine trees, and then after some curves the mountain. The driver said that sometimes we were going 70 km/hr! Also in this area there are a bunch of wild llamas, so tried to chase them, but they're too fast for us :)

Now off to the coast. Sounds like a good idea! The bus leaves Baños at 7:30 pm and arrives at the coast at 6am. How am I gonna stand that bus ride I have no idea. But actually it wasn't that bad. I feel asleep pretty easily, and we arrived at the destination at 5am. Some people got out, and we're still sitting. I asked if we are in Salinas, but we were 15 minutes away, so I kept sitting in the bus. But then the bus turned into a little street, turned off the engine, the driver went onto the front seat, lied down and started snoring. I looked around, and everybody does pretty much the same. What the **** is going on??? Apparently 5 am is too early, the taxis are expensive to get into town, there is nothing open, so the bus waits until 6am in a little city nearby for things to open up. It was such a weird experience. I never seen anything like that before :) Finally 6 am comes, we went into the city. It's 6 am, and the whole place is alive, with a bunch of people doing sports on the beach. But the beach wasn't that nice, and the water dirty, and expensive hotels all around. so we just had breakfast, and continued to the next most touristy city (I think), Montanita which is 2 hours away. I've never seen so many tourists in my life. The town is only something like 4 by 4 blocks, with nothing but hotels/hostels/bars and restaurants in it. There is no space to walk on the streets and the beach is packed! I have no idea how such a little town can hold that many people! It is so hot in there, with a bunch of bugs flying around. We walked around, and went to sleep at 9. Thank god our hotel was off the center, it was Saturday night, and the whole place was one big party. We could hear everything, all the laughter and music, but the loud fan in our room and our exhaustion put us to sleep pretty fast. The next day we went surfing, wooohooo !!! The lesson was pretty cheap, 2 hours for $15. I really enjoy surfing, and after a short while, I was getting up every time :) But then the waves changed, they got much stronger, so I had to jump like 5 waves until I got to the spot, and by that time I was already exhausted, and also they moved closer to the shore, so there was less space to surf, and when you fall, you fall into a 10 cm water and hit the sand pretty hard, so that was the end of surfing for me. At the evening there is a street with 10 stands or more that serve alcoholic drinks with fresh fruits for $2 :)) What can be better than that? I ordered mango daiquiri of course :)

The next morning, I got tired of all the heat and sweat and bugs, and we decided to catch a bus to Guayaquil, which is the biggest city in Ecuador. What a good move! The hotel has A/C, and I felt like a person again. This city has the most beautiful waterfront I've ever seen!! I'm still wondering how the cities in the first world countries just don't care about things like that. And 3rd world countries create these million dollar unprofitable projects that are just so amazing, only for people's pleasure. It's about 5km long, and every detail is so well thought of. It's very modern, and has such a variety of architecture and different design ideas. It's very green, and there are flowers, and flowered trees, and palms growing on some columns, fountains. It's indescribable! We were walking back and forth, back and forth for 2 days.

There is also a hill with a very poor neighbourhood, so the city redecorated one street that goes all the way up, and created it into a bar/restaurant/cafe, safe and secure area. Gave all the houses a face lift. Every house has a picture beside it's door of how it's used to look like before. And there are gates on both sides which you shouldn't cross which lead into the original neighbourhoods, and you can really see the difference between the two.
In the afternoon, it was still hot, so we went into the mall, played bowling and saw Alice in Wonderland 3D. Everything was great except Alice. Such a bad actress! I can't believe they let her play alongside Johny Depp, what were they thinking!!??!!

pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/evadikushin501/CuencaChimborazoCoastGuayaquil#

Baños cont...

On Monday we went to Puyo to volunteer with the monkeys. It was fun at first (for me), but I couldn't stay there for a long time. There is absolutely nothing to do. It's just called volunteering, but you don't do anything, just live with them. I continualy asked for things to do, and the only thing I did was cut 4 little papayas. The monkeys are allowed in the house at night, so it's dirty! I couldn't stay in the house because of the smell, and needless to say my appatite dissapeared, although the food was excellent! Monkeys are super fun, they all have their distinctive behaviour, and after a short while I could recognize a few. There is one who is a bully, whenever some monkey does something wrong, 99.9% it's Milton, and you always hear it while out ... MIIIILLTOOOONNNN !!!! :))) Another monkey, Sandra, always likes to go on you and sleep on the legs, so the minute you sit down, oh, there she is. I liked another thing which was there, that is kind of a bear, but very very little, Roberto. He makes the funniest sounds, but when he bites (playfully), it hurts ! There is a room in the house for little of undeveloped monkeys. You can't take them outside with everyone, because the others will attack. There lived my favourite monkey Kika. She was different from everyone else. She had puffy gray fur, and looked double the size that she really is. For 2 years she's been in a cage with just a floor, so she doesn't know how to climb or to jump. Now she started climbing, but still is very unsure. She's so funny. She also makes very funny sounds, very different from other monkeys. I spent a lot of time with her, so she started to recognize me more and more, less scared, and more active. She even climbed on me, and one of the workers said that I'm the first person she climbed on :) When she'd be beside me, she would stand up, and start picking things from my hair :) Everybody who volunteers there is given a baby monkey to look after. We were given Alison. She's so cute :) She would always sit on our sholders, and it would be impossible to move her. She liked Eva and me, so we would switch in who would hold her. But once you try to get her down (and it's not easy) omg the screams! I don't know how a little monkey could make so much noise. She would get really really scared, start moving awkwardly on whatever you put her, and my heart would just break, and I'll take her back. So everything is done with her. Cook, eat, go to the washroom, and sleep :) During the night, we would put pampers on her :) First night I couldn't sleep at all, because I thought that I would smash her. Once I put her in the room with other little monkeys, and when I got back to get something, there she was, with super speed, running towards me, climbing on me, with her face in my neck, making sounds and shaking the head very rapidly (it means they like it) :)))There is also Lisa, a spider monkey, who you have to protect all the babies from. She has some mother instinct, so she wants to steal all the babies. But she's not allowed, because, she can go up the tree, keep them there, and once she gets tired, she'll just throw them down.Another spider monkey was kept in a little cage for I don't know how many years, so when they got her to the center, she was going through 4 months of physical therapy just to teach her to walk. She's always by herself outside, doesn't really communicate with anybody else. So they let her in at night. And it's so funny. She's a big monkey, with big big arms. So you sit on the bench in the house, and the minute you open the door, there she walks very determinatly, climbs on you, and hugs you with these huge arms (and she's almost the size of a human), and refuses to let go.Another monkey is a black capucino Lili, which fell in love with the owner Ivan. She would always sit on the window of the room where he is, and would non stop make these annoying sounds. Whenever he would leave the room, she would in panick run around the house, climbing all the windows to check where he is. When he's beside her, she would not allow any female go near him, otherwise she would attack. Once I was outside near Ivan, and Milton started to "play" with me, while almost tearing all of the hair out, and it's impossible to get him down. Other monkeys started to join him, and I couldn't handle them, I asked for Ivan's help, but he couldn't get near me because of Lili. Thank got Eva saw me through the window and came for help. It's pretty inocent, they don't do anything, but it's still scary when there are 5 monkeys on you, with all their tails around your neck, their feet and mouths in your face, and their grip is so strong, that you can't easily take them off.

pix at http://picasaweb.google.com/ed4330/EcuadorPaseoDeLosMonos#

After 3 days I was done. I got so bored. The monkeys are super fun, but for 2 hours a day, not 24. So I left to banos to wait for Eva there. In banos I had so much energy after not doing anything at all, that for 3 days after I couldn't stop jumping and dancing, and all these sports. I would finish one, then relax for half an hour and couldn't wait to start something new. Good thing that there was a festival in town, so all the nightclubs were open every day. I went out 6 nights in a row, which is very rare for me :)
In banos, the extreme sports continued :) I got into mountain biking, went with 8 guys, and I was the third one after 2 guys who are good! Yippeeee !! :)) Of course my hands hurt like crazy cause it's all downhill, so all the weight is on the hands, plus I pushed the break all the time. What else? Went rock climbing again and again, I love that thing. Now I pass pretty easily the 2nd wall, so onto the 3rd and 4th. Tried the 4th one, but got stuck in one spot that just takes all the energy out of you. There is nothing to grab, the left foot goes into some 2 cm crack, the other one of a vertical slippery wall, there is nothing to hold on to with the left hand, and all the power goes into the right hand. Yeahhh ... I tried and I failed again and again :(((
Did canyoning 2 more times. One canyon is great! There are so many waterfalls, and many jumps, and a zipline. The water is so powerful. Exactly how I like it :)
Also went on horses. At first I was so scared, we started galoping the minute we got onto the street. I was just holding tight to the horse and almost screaming :) But midway the trail, I was kicking the horse to go faster :)
There is an amuzement park in banos, it looks childish enough. So we get on a pirate ship that swings from side to side. But as usual, we don't sit on the bench, but at each end there is a cage for people to stand in. So I stay in the front, and it's pretty scary, I am almost horizontal when it goes up. Then in the middle, people decided to change places, so I went to the back ... holly thing, I flew like 20 cms into the air, my hair stood up. Just 1 meter back and what a difference! I grabbed onto all the bars that I could, grounded myself, but still flying from place to place. That was scary, but a lot of fun ! :)
Also went paragliding. It's alright. We waited for such a long time for the wind to calm down. Good thing we had warm suits, otherwise I would freeze. The day was super clear, the volcano and other snow mountains were just infront of us. It was perfect, except it didn't erupt. The parachute was a little bit scary, when it was on the ground, it was windy and it looked like a wild animal. I was a bit scared at the beginning, but once in the air, it was a smooth ride.

Eva, Geoff and me went to the Quilatoa volcano 4 hours from Baños. The road there is so beautiful, it's considered to be one of the most beautiful roads in Ecuador. The bus was funny, it was full of indeginous people all dressed alike. In long skirts, golfs, old lady shoes, something very bright on the top, a gold necklace, and a green hat with some feather. They were closely examining us while we were examining them :) The driver helped with people's lugagge, and I look at the door, the driver is there while the bus is going. I look at the drivers seat, and there is a 13 year old boy driving it !!!! OMG!!! And the road is not straight, it curves and on a mountain! But, he's a good driver :) Got to Quilotoa, it's freezing in there! The whole year, it's between 6-12 degrees, but at night it felt close to 0. Inside the hotel was warm, and that's where we stayed. The price included dinner and breakfast which was one of the best dinners we ever had! It was really a home made, with a good taste, variety dinner. In our room we had a stove which Geoff forgot to refill during the night, and as the night went on, Eva and me got closer and closer to each other in bed :) The crater is 2 minutes from the hotel, and it's beautiful. The elevation is 3800 meters, and I had a similar feeling as in Cotopaxi. Went up very very slow, and breathed very very hard. On the top it's beautiful. It's a crater with a lake in the middle. But other than that there is not much to do. In the morning we went to look at some canyon 2 hours away, and went back to baños. There are not too many pictures as I accidently deleted them :(

More pictures added to baños albom