Banos

Wow.  Been cool.  First, some parting things on Colombia, about things I found neat in Colombia:

• There are armed guards at all the bridges.  That doesn't make me feel safer.  
• You have to wear a vest with your license plate number in huge lettering when you ride on a motorcycle.  They say it's because the FARC and Narcs used to kill people while on motorcycles and nobody could get their license numbers.  Interesting.  
• They love billiards up there.  Tons of pool tables.  Even a little pool hall in the bus station in Bogota.  
• On the bus, there's a digital readout of the speed of the bus where everyone can see.  When it's below 80 m/h, it's green.  Above 80, it turns red.  Above 100, it just says "Alerta, Alerta, Alerta."  That's not really about Colombia, but it was neat.  

Okay, on to the bus ride.  First, a 23 hour bus ride from Bogota to the border town of Ipeales.  That's a long bus ride.  But it was awesome.  I met a totally cool French girl in the Bogota bus station who was also heading towards the border.  Julie has been traveling around the world for the past year, and was heading to Colombia from LA to meet up with some friends from France when she heard that they were still in Ecuador.  So, she was taking a bus from Bogota to meet them in a cool town called Banos, a few hours south of Quito.  By the time we were at the border, we were great friends, and she invited me to come to Banos.  And so I did.  

But on the bus!  GOD did I feel love.  Smiling and laughing randomly as I stared at the countryside.  Even freezing in the middle of the night, I was elated.  And I still feel it.  I sat next to a Ecuadorian from Quito named David, who at one point tried (of course in Spanish) to start converting me to Christianity.  He's a Jehovah's Witness, it turns out.  Later over breakfast, he warned me not to accept drinks or candy from strangers.  That made sense, as they could drug me and rob me of my enormous wealth, but what HE was warning about was them drugging me and robbing me of my LIVER.  And kidneys.  And corneas!  Yeah!  He was sure to let me know that the going rate for a cornea is $20,000 or $30,000 US.  Which is good news!  I'm almost out of money and my corneas are in really good condition.  

So, at another point on the first bus, get this situation... An American (me!) living in Costa Rica sharing some Johnny Walker Blue Label scotch and some conversation in Spanish with a Pakistani living in Paraguay on a bus from Colombia to Ecuador.  How international is THAT?  Very.  That's how.  

So, we got to Ecaudor.  After 22 hours on a bus and a short taxi/collectivo ride.  See picture.  Crossed the border.  Had a good conversation with a border guard checking my bag about two dollar bills.  He was fascinated because a) they freaking use US dollars here (who freaking knew); b) they do not have two dollar bills; and c) he had recently seen one on display somewhere.  He thought it was funny.  We laughed about something.  

Then I got in another taxi/collectivo to the next town, and was just able to get a half chicken to split with Julie before rushing to the next bus that was leaving for Quito.  In THAT bus, nothing exciting happened, really.  Just 5.5 hours or so of Ecuador.  Some good laughing with Julie, a quick view of a wall and some identical buildings in Quito.  We planned to stay at a hostel near the bus station in Quito. 

But as it turns out!  That bus station "no funciona."  It no longer exists as a bus station.  So we went to a new one, that is NOT in the guide book I bought online with mom's credit card.  And it's a long way from pretty much everything.  SO, we got there and a) realized that Ecuadorians generally view South as up, which is why I was so confused talking with David on the bus about the layout of Quito; and b) a bus leaves in 10 minutes to Banos, and we can even have time to buy four beers if we really hurry.  And so we did.  

And finally, at 2AM, 33 hours after I left Bogota, a bus dropped me and Julie off in the dark, on a street, next to what they called a bus station, in a town I'd never been to, in a country I've only taken a few steps in, where it smells like pee (a dog in the cargo hold peed on Julie's bag - not kidding), with nobody on the streets, and without a place to go.  I was on high alert.  Thank god I know ninja.  

There were three hostel signs within view in this 13,000 person town.  Two had big gates shut on the entrance door.  One had three hoodlum looking 15 year old kids in the entrance.  We went for that one.  Turns out they had a room with two beds for $15 - hot water and even a TV.  Perfect.  We crashed.  In the Hostel Don Diego.  It wasn't pretty, and the street was loud with trucks, but I was able to lay vertical and stretch out.  Awesome.  

The next morning we went in search of her friends, who were rumored to be staying at a place called Plantas y Blanco.  So we set out.   The town is only about 10 blocks by 10 blocks.  It's neat.  Plantas y Blanco was only about 7 blocks away.  We found it, they had two beds in a dorm with four other beds and a shared bath.  Cool.  The friends weren't here, but they had been.  

Okay, this is getting long, so I'll bullet:

• Found friends (three French girls), who had found another friend in the jungle (Alex from London).  
• Ate delicious lunch. 
• Went to hot springs bath.  Back and forth between freaking hot mineral baths filled with Ecuadorians and freezing cold shower from beautiful waterfall that I'm looking at now. 
• Delicious pizza for dinner on the brick sidewalk by the center park in front of the church.  Beautiful. 
• Looking from the hostel's rooftop terrace, I saw two boys, perhaps 9 and 11, pee on the street.  And when I say on the street, I mean ON the street.  In the middle of it.  Just stopped in their tracks, whipped it out, and peed in the middle of an intersection about 10 feet apart.  It seemed natural.  Later I saw a guy peeing on a building right by a crowded street.  Sober. Apparently that's in.  
• Meet up for drinks, pool, dancing with another new friend, Jenny, also from London.  Four crazy French girls, a cool young London girl, Alex, Brian, and a slew of others from Spain, Chicago, Switzerland, and of course Ecuador, doing tequila shots and drinking oversized beers while concentrating on the longest games of pool on a tilted table in Ecuador.  Neat.  
• Drunk.  Late.  Night.  Security guard.  Street corner.  Top bunk.  
• I had planned on going either white water rafting or mountain biking today.  But didn't.  
• Excellent conversation with an Aussie who just came over from Venezuela about the spirituality and socialism.  Good timing after just finishing the Celestine Prophecy.  

This town is absolutely awesome.  Hot springs.  Jungle.  Biking.  Bungee.  White water rafting.  TONS of hostels, backpackers, awesomeness.  You should definitely stop by.  If you're in the neighborhood.  

Oh, so the Celestine Prophecy is all about coincidences, and get this.  Five pages before the end of the book, a character exclaims "Onward and Upward!"  Now THAT is strange (read my last blog).  Still don't really know what that means.  

Tomorrow, I plan on waking up.