Hot springs, views and other sundry things

It has been a busy weekend again. Papallacta was really beautiful. The van trip there was occasionally hairy -- as Nikki put it ¨the lines on the roads are purely for pretty¨. Indeed! Yikes. But the baths themselves are beautiful and in such a stunning setting. Mountains on all sides, lovely landscaping... Nice and relaxing, thanks! My sanduche de queso left a bit to be desired (that was dinner), but the $20 was well worth it for the trip at large.

On Saturday Soni took me, Patricia (my new housemate), Cornelia (another student at our school) and her friend Cristine to Baños. We took the um, scenic route! Aiie. But we ate at what is apparently the best place in Latacunga on the way, and had very traditional roast pig, roast plantains, popcorn (yes, you read that right), another type of corn, and teeny tiny sweet empanadas. Yummy. The girls missed out not wanting to eat it. The baths in Baños were not so nice as the ones in Papallacta (as you will hopefully be able to see in the pictures!). In truth, I found Baños to be about as touristy as I expected, but it was still nice to go. On Sunday we went to the Pillons del Diablo (I think I spelled that wrong), which were cool.

The picture of Christoph and me is actually from the day we went to Sangolqui, but I had it with me today, so I thought I´d upload it while the uploading was good :)

The sunset picture of Quito is from the balcony of Cafe Mosaico, which has overpriced drinks, but really lovely views... I went there with some people after school last Thursday, if memory serves.


Incidentally, I´m having trouble getting the pics to go where I want them too, so apologies for the layout! And uploading the ¨medium¨ size pics was taking forever, so I changed to the small size halfway through... Hopefully it gives you a little sense of how things are though!

Finally, a pic of me in the mountains near Baños.