Baños to Riobamba

Caught sick in Riobamba. Arrived yesterday afternoon with a wicked cold and hacking cough that started sometime in Banos, possibly after a night of heavy drinking and heavy smoking with some American dudes we met on a rafting trip down into Puyo. We´re staying at this crazy hostel by the Name of Hotel Oasis, which seems like something directly out of the Shire with a seven foot high ceiling, round doors, and stained glass windows. Danny and I joked that we might just encounter some hobbits or dwarfs during our stay when an elderly American man with a foot-long deep white beard exited from one of the hobbit holes.

¨Good day young gentleman,¨ he greeted us with the tip of his hat.

My god, what is this place? So, before the sickness we were enjoying our time thoroughly in Baños doing all the touristy things we could, including waterfall tours, volcano tours, mountain biking, white water rafting, and of course South American bungee jumping. Had I had time to think it over I probably wouldn´t have jumped off the bridge, but we were on a tour of some local waterfalls when the chance greeted me with open arms. It´s not quite bungee jumping in its standard context, but rather something more fiersome altogether. You see, you stand atop the railing of the fifty-foot structure, then on three you leep forward in Superman-style when the cord catches you and you swing towards the opposite side of the bridge. So, it´s more like a bungee jump with a rope swing thrown in just for kicks.

Although, we were enjoying our adventures in Banos thorougly, our budget necessitated that we leave the day we did. It might not seem like much in the States, but I swear I must have forked over $150 dollars for all our expenses in just a five or six day period. So, yesterday we caught the bus south to Riobamba where sickness unfolded and we were able to meet up with my good friend Veronica. We must have spent a good two hours with our sniffling noses and hacking coughs before we could find a decent restaurant and a mutual place to meet up with Veronica and her close friend Natalie. I tried to explain to Veronica that we were eating at a place called ¨Benny´s¨ when in fact it was by the name of ¨Bonny`s.¨ This cost us some time, but everything eventually work itself out.

So, Veronica and I had our somewhat awkward reunion after seven months apart. You see, we had a two week fling on my last trip to Ecuador and spent many months in contact after my return to the States. She´s a beautiful, intelligent, funny and charming woman and I once thought we would pursue a relationship, before she decided that she wasn´t really in love and that it was merely an illusion. But, we remained friends as well as friends could remain over such a distance, emailing one another ever so often and sharing our lives with one another. So, we meet up last night and I finally figured the whole thing out: my infatution was merely that and there´s no way we could be together, sadly, unless one of us made some serious sacrifices. Love trumps all, but distance in accordance with a the language barrier is a serious force to be reckoned with.

After the awkward series of pool games at a local pub, we caught a cab back to the Shire and retreated into a night of painful sickness. I barely slept a wink with all the coughing, as Danny lay sick with an upset stomach possibly induced by the mushroom soup he ate for dinner. Awoke, or should I say got out of bed at around 10am and shuffled off to a local supermarket for medicine and water. Spent all day in bed recovering from our illness, as the medicine took hold and Danny vomited the wretch churning inside his stomach. Just now managed to get out of bed, shower up, and make it over here to this internet cafe to write up this blog. We don´t plan on spending much more time in Riobamba, I suppose I´ll meet up with Veronica tonight for a coffee or some dinner, but we´ll be heading out to the coast either tomorrow or Friday when you´ll be hearing from me again.