high and scary

la-ta-CU-nga
la-ta-CU-nga
(think: ma-chu-CAN-do)

we did not go to latacunga. instead, we took a bus to ambato and from there went back to baños. yey, baños. it was prettier than i remembered it. and: different too. you may recall, if you are an avid reader of this blog, as you should be, that we narrowly escaped the disasterous eruption of volcan tungurahua the last time we were in baños, catching a bus to loja only moments before. directly after the eruption baños was declared a disaster zone. it cleaned up real quick but now, 4 months later, there are still entire fields and hills of grey ash. we saw this on the way in. all along the side of the road were petrified, dusty plants that did not really sway in the breeze. interesting. plus: there were less tourists there. this might be more a function of the fact that last time we were there it was august and there were a million american teachers vacationing there. but one must wonder if the threat of eruption dissuades tourists. fine with selfish little me.

but we went, along with our roomates sophia and merryn, and we had a great time. we did the same long bikeride we did last time (that i may or may not have blogged about), on the road that leads from the mountains to jungle. downhill. enjoyable. the road goes through oncoming traffic tunnels, under waterfalls, and around mountians. halfway to the jungle there is a small trail to a massive waterfall, Pailon del Diablo. last time we were there there were about 45 people waiting on line to cross the precarious rope bridge to catch a glimpse of the waterfall. this time, noone, save one lone, friendly man. glorious.

the rest of our time in baños was spent eating at this delicious continental restaurant. i wont mention the name because im not into advertising. but i will say that its a huge tourist place. last time we were there we avoided it because a) we were poor and b) we (i?) thought it was to touristy, sure to be a rip off. but it wasnt at all, and tourists are not always bad, and it was the best food ive had, possibly, since i left ny. we ate every meal there.

but then: we went to this tiny place in the high high lands called chugchilan. chugchilan is tiny, yet filled with plenty of travelers who, largely, fancy themselves hardcore and out to have a unique experience in the indigenous highlands. i know full well that i am not hardcore, but wanted to go anyway for the pretty views. it took 6 long, bumpy hours to get to chugchilan, during which we almost died 26 times. it was perhaps the scariest busride i have taken yet, or at least been concious for (bless the nightbus and dramamine), and there have been plenty of scary ones. but we got off the bus alive, checked into a hostel, at fried fish and eggs from a street vendor (necessary because there are no restaurants), and wandered past the 3 houses and 14 sheep that make up the town. we saw 3 people, all of whom were very nice. then we went back to hostel and sat near the fireplace, played cards and drank canelazo (ive told you about canelazo, right?). it was freezing. we were up at 3200 meters - i dont know what that is in feet, because i dont know math, but its alot. enough to make you feel very very cold. then at dinner we met the meanest person in the world, a peace corps freak from the bronx. he insulted sophia and was just generally horrible, in a peace corps sort of way. nothing against peace corps volunteers in genreal. there are some good, normal, cynical ones, but when they are horrible they are horrible in the same way. i cant really get into it now.

we decided to leave chugchilan for quilatoa, the "town" right next to the famous crater lagoon quilatoa. this required taking a 5 am bus 2 hours in the pitch black, freezing cold. fun. bumpy. again, we didnt fall of a cliff, but i dont know how. when we got off the bus the sun was just coming up and the ground beginning to thaw. we wer at 3900 meters,. do the math, if you can. cold and hard to breathe, and weve been living at 2500m the past 3 mths. but it was just beautiful. we could see mountains in ever direction we looked. we went into a very basic hostel (stone, no electricity or water) and asked to leave our backpacks there while we hiked around the lake. the proprietors kindly agreed but it was intoned that we should Buy Something. so we sat and drank hot tea and ate breakfast. we made friends with their cats and met a belgian couple who spoke perfect spanish.

after breakfast we set off for the lake. we walked up a small hill and there it was, far far below, blue green and surrounded by brown rugged ridges. we could see a white peak in the distance. we shouted and exclaimed for a few minutes and then set off to hike around its rim. after a few easy steps we met a dog, who was sitting regally, overlooking the miles of farmland below, seemingly supervising.he decided to join us for the hike and stayed with us till the bitter, bitter end of it. the hike quickly became challenging - steep and precipice-y. recall my intense, paralyzing fear of the precipice, as described by anthony in his entry about vilcabamba, back in july. but i was fine. great, even. although my chest was about to explode from the steep climb in altitude, i was so impressed by the dramatic scenery. the hike got more difficult, with steep downhills of slippery loose rock and sand leading right to the craters edge. we stopped for lunch and the belgian couple showed up with no water, smoking cigarettes and not panting. amazing. we left them, smoking their cigarettes, to get a head start. within a few seconds they caught up with us and plowed ahead. but then, we somehow got off the ridge and wound up halfway down to the lakes shore. this was Very Bad because we knew we had to get back up to the top of the ridge, and it was very very high and we were very very tired, and we only had an hour to make it back to catch the bus or else we would have to stay in cold, cold quilatoa and possibly miss our flight out of quito to colombia. plus, we had obviously lost the path. the dog was no help. he just kept following us instead of showing us the way, which he surely knew.

so we just kept going up on no path in particular, at times hanging on to nothing but roots of plants to keep from falling into the lake. i admit, this was when i lost my cool. there was crying and hyperventilating involved. i broke my phone too, but that was an accident. eventually we made it back to a semi path and climbed and climbed and eventually made it back to the ridge where we hightailed it and miraculously, caught the bumpy bus to quito. we forgot to say goodbye to our dog. bye dog.

halfway to quito we said goodbye to sophia and merryn, who were headed back to baños. in quito we quickly found an overpriced hostel, took showers and headed out for a well deserved mexican meal of fajitas and mora (blackberry - grow in abundance here) margaritas. in a few hours we will bid farewell to ecuador, at least for the next few weeks, and catch our flight to cartagena, colombia. more later....