Mmm, this will probably be my only blog of interest from Ecua. So it goes. Here´s a rundown of the past few days in the sweet sweet village o' Baños:

6.14.04: I woke up groggily after four hours of a sleep frustratingly punctuated by the sounds of a rooster crowing faithfully every five minutes. Despite the cacophony, it was a pleasant morning: our hostal Plantas y Blanco (Plants and White), was fantastic: clean, cheap, conveniently located and with a glassed-in rooftop terrace allowing access to views of foggy mornings and crystal clear midnights.

The reason for my choice to cut short sleep this particular a.m. was to beat the alleged crowds of screaming children and PDA lovers to a Japanese-style outdoor bath, one of the few from which Baños gets its name, and one that had been specifically recommended to my because of its early morning access (4:30 a.m. go-time). My trip to this bath was solitary (three hungover roommates doth a solo venture make) yet great, characterized by a mix of the following: rain, fog, a rented towel, a $1 taxi ride, enduring many stares and questions, putting on Reina Elizabeth (as dubbed by my gold-toothed chauffer) airs, enjoying four hot-spring-fed pools of differing temperatures and varied cleanliness, and ending up super rejuvinated, despite my lack of sleep. The refreshing experience made me wish I'd spent more time at onsen in Japan. If only they'd been $1.60, too. Alas.

Once awoken, my roommates and I rented bikes/helmets/maps ($5 for the day) and ventured about 20 kilometers to see the waterfalls near the village. The mini-tour was awesome, fantastic, frustrating, redeeming, terrifying, and awesome again, in that order. Awesome: enjyoing the weather and the exercise (the former: erratic but pleasant, the latter: infrequent on this trip, partially due to the lovably booze-centric lifestyles of my travel buddies), Fantastic: taking a tipsy cablecar ride across a ravine with a waterfall view, Frustrating: experiencing the demise of my "brand new" rental bike, Redeeming: Our host Lauren's selfless act of returning my bike via bus as Jonah, Vin and I sallied forth without her, Terrifying: me leading our helpless pack of three through a pitch black, 1/4 mile long no-bikes-allowed tunnel, Awesome again: the rocky mile-ish long hike to see el pailon del diablo (the devil's cauldron, I'm told), an amazingly powerful waterfall located on the edge of the Amazon.

After well-earned showers, our evening included multiple failed nighttime bus rides and, finally, a successful one, and naturally I'm measuring success by its showing of the feature film The Karate Dog . . .

6.15.06: and at 7 a.m. we awoke in Guayaquil to embrace our FIFA viewing companions (a 1,000-strong emotion-packed crowd) for the 8 a.m. Ecua vs. Costa Rica world cup match (Ecuador, 3-0). Awesome. We actually watched this sucker at the Guayaquil Hilton (arguably the nicest hotel in the country), something I hadn't wanted to do but which ended up being pretty fun.

From there it was another four hours to Montañita, where we are now, for some hippie/rasta observation, humbling (in the sense of being completely overwhelmed by huge swells and a powerful undertow) ocean swims, intense viewing of more World Cup games (lots of Holland fans observing today´s match, though I was wearing Ivory Coast colors and secretly rooting for them), interesting interactions with the locals, and the six or seven power-outages. Wee.

I am NOT ready to come home. More Ecuador, please.

Heart,
Eliz