EL BANOS!

So after a full week of Spanish classes in Quito, and seeing as Friday was a National holiday for I´m not sure quite what, we decided to go on a trip to a Town south of Quito about 2 hours by bus coach. El Banos is a vacation spot for many people in Quito and situated in the heart of the Andes. Its a couple thousand feet below Quito so its a good deal warmer. The town is located underneath a very active volcano that smokes all the time. El banos is known for its phenomenal hot springs and actually feels a lot like a ski town in Colorado, except with a lot, I mean a lot less money. We got in yesterday on a 4 hour coach bus to the tune of 3 dollars and are staying in a nice hostel for about 7 bucks a night. Last night we went to one of the local baths and its wasn´t exactly like a spa in the states (not that I have ever actually spent a good deal of time in spas). The public pools were a dark muddy brown and packed with people. I was assured that the color was from the minerals in the rocks where the water came out of, so we got in. Little did I know, but the water was so hot that after about 10 minutes in the bath I had what I would describe as a mild sunburn all over the lower half of my body. Today we rented bikes for 5 bucks and rode about 10 miles down the valley to check out the local waterfalls and swim in the pools. Tomorrow we are taking horses up the side of the volcano for 4 hours for 20 bucks and then back to get back to work in Quito, but it was a nice first weekend.

Points
1.) Stewart teaches me daily animal anatomy by the different parts of chickens we find in our soup for lunch. Today, and I am not kidding, we found a whole chicken foot, half of a head, and a heart (we actually counted the chambers).
2.) Seeing as it is a vacation weekend, most of the Quitoians that come down here don´t have cars to get around, so what do they do¿ ride bikes¿ no, walk¿ no, take cabs¿ no, they rent big four wheelers to ride down the streets all night, I mean it is literally a sea of these things, old people, young kids, everybody just cruisin.