Shishi

Hi all…
Its feels like I haven’t written for a while… but maybe its just so many places ago…
I think I wrote from Quito, so I will try to go through all my way to here to the amazing Galapagos icelands… its four in the morning now and Im a bit sleepless… but just because I went to sleep early last night… and Im using a friends leptop.,,so Ive got planty of time to write ☺ but you don’t have to read t all ;-)
So from Quito I went t Latcunga.   It’s a small town, and the were supposed to have a big fastival on november 11 , and the was a nice crater (Quilotoa, I uploaded picture with the two little boys, who were actually working on the family the took us there)  and a big market around… It was really nice other than the fact the they decided to change the Fastival date so people wont get drunk during the week… and we were looking for a fiesita… for my birthday, so we moved on. We, by the way is what was left of the group we started in Quito, we travelled together for almost a month…
From Latacunga we went to banos, It’s a another small town, but a really nice one it a bit truistic as it has many attractions around it. Its surrounded by green mountains. The view from the hostel was amazing, a waterfall in high green mountains, we got stuck there for a while… travelling terms.  In Banos we started but celebrating my birthday. It was the first night there… and we left the hostel looking for a place to party. After covering the only 2-3 ‘major’ streets  we discovered that its not a party town… it was completely dead. But we didn’t give up and found a karaoke bar. When we entered the operator was playing solitare on the karaoke computer… and he was probably about to break is record, because he was preaty disappointed from us coming in… but after a few songs… he had better reasons to hate us ☺ but it was a nice party.  Until 12:00 when day close everything to save energy. Equador has a different way to face the water crises (thay also have a dry year) and since there electricity is base on water… they just shut the power down in every town for 4 hours a day or so,,, and tey force all the business to close by ten midnight in banos). Other than that we did everyday something different. (by now we is mainly mat and I) one day we took a quadbike (traktoron) and wrode in the amazing view…just like trveling in a picture… we cot to this wood house on almost the top of a volcano. There was a swing the that makes you fel like you are on a rollecoaster, its on a steepy hill and amazing view… the next day we went rafting. Luckily since Eqador has a dry year it wasn’t that dangerous, but it was really nice. The next day I jumped from a bridge (its like bungy) it was realy the scariest thing I did so far… just jumping from a 100 m brigdge, hanging on a few ropes… handled by to yound equadorians… and for 15 dollar… but as you can read I leave to tell… and it was really exciting… and offcourse… amazing view. I also uploaded a picture…
The next day we rented motorbikes… I took a 400cc Honda monster, which was nice but I still miss the fazer… and we rode in the mountains between waterfalls and again… amazing view.  We also went to the hot springs here, which is kind of the main attraction , and its nice as its near the waterfall… but the dead seas one are much better :-)
From banos we moved to Cuenca. By now my favorite town. It’s a colonial town, like most of the towns in latin America… but it was one of the rich ones. Just walking in the streets is amazing… buildings… courches… there is also a river that crosses the town but it’s a bit dry this year. And offcourse… amazing view. Also, less then an hour drive from this town there is an amzing national park called el cajas, I actually went there twice… the first time we started hiking in a cloud more or less… and in the middle it started raining… we finished the short trail wet to our bones. And it was all my fault because when we left the guys wanted to take raining coats, and I said there is no need sonce no way Im hiking in rain… but whem we got there it was to tempting and we decided that it going to get brighter any minute. Since the way back mean waiting on the road to a bus that might pick us up… we hichhiked… and so there were the three of us… on the back of a truck … in the rain… there was a point that the driver stoped and just gave us a peace of nailon to cover ourselfs…  it was colllllldddddd.  After that Mat and I splited. He went to peru and I was heading to Galapagos… but I already met some other guys that we travelled with before… so I joined the the next day to the same park. And it was completely a Chavaya metakenet.
We and a really nice sunny day. And we took the longest trail. And it was really amazing. We climbed a little and got to the top of the park , 360 degrees view… amazing…

From Cuenca I went to Guiquil which is really not worth mentioning. As all the big cities in latin America, these is one of the places that you here all the scariest robbery stories about… and I didn’t like it from the first second. Well… there is a really really nice tatelet on the beach, and its not like  gave it too much chance… but…
Anyways, I got on a Sunday, meaning to book the flight to the next day (you know me, I could have done it a day before, but I left it to the last minute…) and aperanly all the travel agencies are closed on Sunday. But after spending one day in this city, where even the internet was closed on Sunday I packed my stuff and went to the airport trying to get a flight… and after two hurs and 2 full flights, I was on my way to Galapagos!
Well… The Galapagos is a Coplete different story. And Im still here. And you are probably tired of reading. And Im a bit tired of writing (although its not even six, so I don’t have anything better to do… ) but anyways… that’s it for now.

The link for the pictures :

http://picasaweb.google.com/shimritashraf/Banos#

Enjoy. I did . ;-)

Shishi