Day 38 - Don`t Rob Me!

Struggled outta bed at 8am this morning for a bit of brekkie & packed up. It`s time to hightail outta Quito before we eventually get robbed! Everynight up on the terrace in the Secret Garden you get told another story of some gringo getting mugged coming home from the club or their bag/pockets slashed on the bus or some other random scam. Thievery is an artform here! You have to respect some of their methods in a strange way! Well an artform sometimes or else they just stab you in the face & rob your bag!!

We grabbed a taxi over to the bus station which we had been warned by Santiago our Spanish teacher is "....muy muy peligro!" I getting sick of hearing that word Peligro about Ecuador, but it turns out this time it was particularly fitting! This bus station was like a zoo, except the animals weren`t in cages! I felt like telling the taxi driver....feck this get me outta here; back to Hostel - VAMOUS!!

We ended up sitting around the station for an hour with all our worldy possessions, felt like we were getting sized up by everyone around us! After the longest hour of my life some young guy signalled us towards a bus & we ended up bumping into Team America from Cotopaxi who were getting on the same bus. Bus drivers are absolutely nuts here, think it`s something to do with the competition between companies. We spent the next 20mins trying to get out of the bus station while other drivers pulled out & reversed out in front of each other & refused to move slamming on their horns; I miss Bus Eireann! One of the yanks - Adrian told us a story about their bus driver in Colombia getting into a machete fight with another bus driver on the side of the road over road rage!

We got to Banos 3hrs later after driving 90mph the whole way! We desended about 1200m coming down through the Andes to get here so some amazing scenery. Banos is set in a valley at the foot of the active Tungurahua volcano, with it`s most recent activity resulted in the town being evacuated for 2 years! It was evacuated again in Aug 06 for a few weeks. The main attractions here are a string of hugh waterfalls & the volcanic baths.

We checked into Plantes y Blanc Hostel with the yanks, myself & Ro were standing around in reception while the rest checked out the rooms. Some middle aged man santered in & stood around behind us before he decided to try & swipe my bag from right in front of us! Worst thief ever he would last 5mins with the pros in Quito! I just pointed at the bag & he was like "Kay?" dropped the bag & headed back out the door. This was a nice hostel but the view from the roof terrace has to be seen to be believed, the town is encircled by mountains & there`s a waterfall dropping about 80m behind the hostel that lights up at night!

We passed by a barbers down town & decided it was time for a tidy up. I decided to get my head shaved to scare off any possible muggers. Came out pretty nice, Ro reckons I look like a cage fighter; that was just the look I was after! Charlie got another shave & Ro got a serious crew cut (you could set your watch to it!) so we should be safe enough!

The nightlife is pretty dull here, so we joined the Americans for a carton of wine down the local park. This was our last night with the Americans & were pretty close now after bonding at Cotopaxi & laying their pet duck to rest! So we thought we`d make the most of the night by stocking up on cartons of wine & vodka and heading back to the hostel terrace for some good old drinking games. This got out of hand fast! After going through most of the wine on the terrace & picking up another American - Ellen from NYC, we headed down to our room after being asked to leave the area. We finished up around 2am, so much for our plan of going to the baths at 8am tomorrow morning! Good night though, gonna miss Chris that crazy yank!

Joe