This week was filled with a mix of work and play. Like I said in my last blog, I have been working with the maintenance crew at the hospital. The situation has been a good one, primarily because it has pushed me outside my spanish comfort zone. For the last three days I have been completely saturated by the language. Never in my life have I had to go three straight days without any English. It has been a test and straining at times, but my Spanish has increased exponentially. Because of my efforts I decided to reward myself by taking a trip to the city of Banos. Yesterday I woke up, grabbed a fresh croissant from my favorite panaderia (bakery), and caught the bus to Banos. The ride was entertaining thanks to a young man who stood at the front of the bus with a boombox and sang Christian rap the entire way. An hour later I arrived in the mountain town and waited for my buddy Jeff Vrenenburg to show up. Jeff and I were both on the Hope tennis team my freshman year. He is down here doing research in the city of Latacunga and Banos happens to be a cool town right in between our cities, so it was a good place to meet.
The day was filled with adventure and started with a nice lunch at the restaurant Casa de Abuela. After that we climbed a little over 1000 feet to a beautiful resort that looks over the city. When we got to the top the clouds were blocking the city at first but they eventually moved and gave us a great view. Unfortunetly, because of the clouds we didn't get to see the active Tungurahua volcano. At 16,480 feet above sea level, the volcano's top is snow covered. This little fact is interesting because although the volcano has not had a major eruption since 1918, its activity has been releasing a lot of ash and enough lava to melt some of the snow. Interestingly enough, the reason Jeff was a little late to Banos was because his bus had to take a different route due to the run off from the melted snow destroying one of the main roads. Sorry I don't have any cool pictures of the volcano yet, but you can check it out on GOOGLE!
At the resort we explored the grounds and had delicious strawberry smoothies before heading back down. Back in Banos we rented a go-cart and took to the streets to explore all the waterfalls that surround the city. When we got back we decided to end the day bathing in the towns hot springs. After that I caught the 8:30 bus back to Shell. A fun fact about the trip is that the road down the mountain back to Shell goes along a river. As you travel down the road you pass the villages of Rio Blanco, Rio Verde, Rio Negro, Rio Sucio (white river, green river, black river, and dirty river). Rio Blanco is the farthest upstream and Rio Sucio is the farthest downstream. I haven't confirm this but I have a hunch that the names of the villages might have to do with the fact that every towns sewage goes right into the river. In my opinion you don't want to be living downstream. Finally when I got back to Shell I went over to hang out with my friend Nora. She was taking care of Yarinah, one of the jungle babies from the orphanage, and it was fun to just relax after the big day and play with the baby. As always here are some pics. Grace and peace from down under.
Great pictures!!!
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