Day 7 - Baños

The karaoke hangover kicked in properly just after an amazing brekfast of refried beans and eggs, so we dicided to ditch the urge to raft/mountain bike/hike the volcano and instead spent the day playing cards (uno - thanks anna) and drinking tea. Recently got bang into drinking black tea out here - mainly because the milk is condensed, warm and rotten. A quick walk around the town and you realise pretty quickly that we are well insignificant compared to the volcano. It dominates the whole place, and there are numerous evacuation routes around the town. But the place is cool. Colourful, vibrant and social.





Had dinner with my new favourite woman, Dee, a south african who knows pretty much everything, and is a bit of a nutter at the same time. She told me that the volcano was a woman, that it has a menstrual cycle and spits lava once a month, and that the town is situated in the womb of the mountain. she's a special one. and I love her. Gonna stay at hers when I go to south africa next year, ain't i?



We decided today to shoot off to Riobamba, where we can do the Devil's Nose open-top train ride (down a mountain) tomorrow, so we're about to head to the bus station. But before we go, we wanted to try out the natural hot springs here. the water was boiling. hotter than a normal bath. both sam and I came out pink and steamy. On a bit of a downer, Joubin's digital camera got nicked from there, so he's a bit gutted. Its funny. the people here are so lovely and welcoming and nice. But you're always looking over your shoulder. You can just tell that maybe one in every 100 people here are out to get you in some way. Its scary.