After our exciting trip to Cotopaxi we found out some even more scary details from the two Swiss-girls that helped us up on the mountain. Apparently the guy who took Nigel down to the car said that he passed out on the way down... pretty scary! Especially cause the Swiss-girls (very experienced alpinists) told us that 60% of the people that get to the stage were they pass out don´t make it!!! I guess we both just realized afterwards how serious it was.
After another 3 days in Quito we took the bus down to Riobamba. The guys at the bus terminal that sell tickets are really irritating!!!! There´s a whole bunch of different bus companies operating on the same routes and of course everyone wants to sell their tickets to you. There was one guy who was especially keen on winning us over. It was incredible how many times he could say the word ´Riobamba´ in one breath. I don´t think I could say it half the speed he did. I got really annoyed after a while cause he wouldn´t even let us compare prices but would just yell ´Riobamba-bamba-bamba´into my ear!
The ride took about 4 hours. From there we hopped on the Devil´s Nose Train, the most difficult trainroute in South America. It takes 7 hours and you get to sit on top of the roof (gets kinda uncomfortable after a while) and enjoy the scenery. It was amazing cause you get to see so much more than if you´d just sit inside the train. The ride goes through massive canyons and there´s lots of indigenous people (especially kids) standing along the way waving and waiting for the tourists to throw down candies or lollipops.
Once we got to Alausi we took another bus (5 hours) down to our final destination for the next 4 weeks: Cuenca.
Cuenca is so much nicer than Quito! It´s an old colonial town with lots of nice buildings and churches. It also seems much more European than everything else I´ve seen in South America so far.
The hostfamily we´re staying with is really nice. The mom, Ruth, is such a character!!! She´s super cheerful and kept talking to us even though we didn´t understand a word at first. Then there´s Manuel, the dad, and Jose (17) and Juan (23) the two sons.
We have our own room with a private bathroom which is really nice.
The food we eat at the family is decent but it took a little while to get used to it. Cheese with honey isn´t a thing I´m used to having for desert, but oh well... different culture!
Another thing I´m still struggling with is the fact that you´re not supposed to put toiletpaper in the toilet but in a little basket next to it. The waterpressure of the drainage-system here is so low that it would get blocked up right away! Not a great thing to happen!
The spanish is coming along well. We just finished our first week of clases and it´s a lot of fun so far. The school also offers all kinds of activities outside the normal clases. Nigel and I are learning how to dance Salsa which is fun but hard if you´re not born with the South-American-hip-swinging-thing! :)
We´re planning on checking out Ingapirca (some old Inca ruins) on the weekend and do a bit of hiking and camping in the Canar area. Should be fun to get out of town for a bit...
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