Banos (cont.)

After returning from Banos last night on a long and hot 4 hour bus ride, I am now in Quito. The title of this entry is Banos, because as I learned this morning in class, the Spanish don't put "el" in front of their cities. So the last entry more closely meant "the bathroom" than the city of Banos (which is named for its therapeutic baths nonetheless).

So on our last day, Domingo (Sunday), we ponyed up 30 dollars to take a 4 hour horse ride up the side of a Volcano. Banos, as a few of the pictures will illuminate, is under a very active volcano. There was actually a small eruption a little over a year ago that killed 5 people while burning 50 more. Ever the more eager to get closer to it, the three scottish/american girls I have been traveling with and myself jumped onto some very fit horses that took us straight, and I mean straight up the side of this volcano. There were no switchbacks, and you had to learn forward to give your horse better balance so it wouldn't fall backwards. The closer we got to the top, all the trees and grass turned a muddy gray color, obviously from the dust that perpetually emanates from the mouth of this volcano. Closer to the top, the grass and trees disappeared, leaving behind a desolate wasteland more akin to mars than Ecuador. When we finally stopped, we were about 200 meters underneath a cloud of dust, and our guide informed us that it was too dangerous to go any further due to the thick volcanic ash that would compact in your lungs until you simply lacked the ability to breathe.

The other pictures I am going to put up are from a 4 hour hike we took on Friday around Banos and a bike ride on Saturday to see some amazing waterfalls. To whoever is reading this I hope you enjoy, and I am trying to set up a Picasa account so that I can put up more images as they come along. I'm trying to set up ahttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.photo.gifn international cell phone that is cheaper than my AT&T account right now, and when that comes I'll let you know!

Take Care!
Merrill