Well, it was a fun but long day! And it hasn’t really ended yet. Jerry and Mario (our friend/driver) are in the pool and sauna in our hotel in Banos. (The n is suppose to have a wavy thingee on it….) Jillian has met up with her PLU buds, and they are off to a volcano tour (and dancing later on). Tungurahua is right above Banos which is in the huge valley between all the mountains…. And Tungurahua is blowing ash right now and has been for a week and a half. The last serious eruption was in 2006 and folks had to leave the area…. Geez… no one told me that was a possibility….
We left at 8:30 and just getting out of Quito was a pain! Traffic out the gazoo… and on a Saturday. They don’t have much regulation on auto/truck emissions and it’s bad. Some trucks and buses just spew black fumes. I finally realized that’s why many of my pictures of scenes seem like they have a veil on them. We headed out finally on the motorway…. Up and down hills….stopped for some ice cream at on small town… pretty good stuff. Then on to Quizapincha via Ambato. Jillian’s host mom’s sister lives in Ambato, but in Quizapincha there are marvelous leather products…. So many…. Had to drive up a1300 feet in height of winding, skinny roads to get there. Then, when purchases were complete… back down and a bit of backtracking to Ambato and up a dirt road to Tia’s home. It was very nice. Lots of property around them…. Use to be her grandparents and they are selling some parcels. Beautiful view of the area’s valley and mountains. Her husband made us a great Cuban meal. We hated to eat and run, but that we did. Took way longer than normal to get to Banos, traffic, road repairs, etc. but we made it. In one small town there was a little bull fight going on… pic doesn’t show it too well. Got some pics of the mountain with the ash. Glad I can’t see it from Banos itself….
Also, finally met up with the missionary I had brought some stuff for from Mia in our church, Dallas. A 2008 PLU grad coincidently…. She works in Shell, about an hour away from here. We chatted and, when she and her friends didn’t know it, we paid for their meal…. Felt good.
Anyway, looking forward to dinner soon and upload some pictures…. Yes, a good day!
what neat experiences you're having! happy to see the new bridge picture too. Our bathroom test concludes that the water drains counter-clockwise... and yours?
ReplyDeleteThank you SOOOO Much for meeting up with Dallas!! And I am laughing SOOO Hard right now, that you said it took longer than normal to get to Banos. My guess is that it actually didnt. :) The roads and traffic are ALWAYS like that. Basically even though "Shell" Is an hour from Banos and Banos supposedly about 3-4 hours from Quito it still takes 7-8 hours to get to Shell from Quito. Go figure. Its Ecuadorian Math, kind of like Ecuadorian "time" and toilet paper... non existent. :)
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