Mouth of the Abyss...Amazon Here We Come.

Our third day we went to Banos, south of Quito at the mouth of the Amazon. It was a cool resort outdoor town. It did take us four hours to get there but so worth it.  We past the tallest volcano, Cotopaxi, on our way. We were going to go, but we didn't want to hike because we were so tired. Anyways we went to Banos because it is famous for it's own volcano that creates hot springs. I was determined to go because I've never been to one and everyone bails out on me when I get a group to go with me. These hot springs were special because the Virgin Mary had shown up and performed a miracle next to the pool house.
 We walked around the town, had a volcanic stone massage with a facial for $25 which was pretty good considering it wasn't really a native thing for them (massages);saw their local church and many water falls.  The thing I loved most was all the art work on the walls. Sure most people think that's trashy, but it was actual pictures instead of scribal marks.

Look Cotopaxi in the distance!

We went to this awesome  vegetarian restaurant where the owner invited you into his home and made the meal from his garden (which was quite extensive and he let us in to look at). The best thing was his cat jumped on Chante and she screamed, shoving the cat off of her as though it was a tiger. I was laughing so hard I choked. Ride home was long and relaxing and for watching almost three Transporter movies in Spanish, pretty good. Chante was shocked after third one started and asked if there really was a third one. I told her that I think there may even be a fourth.

The park where the Virgin came, next to the city laundry.

The next day we decided to stay in Quito since we had spent no time in it. We went to the National Basilica which was amazing example of architecture. I went nuts on pictures, so thank goodness for collages.  The best part of the is Basilica is that no one is there protecting you. You can climb all over this extremely tall building with no one to watch you. You could jump off because very few things are cornered off.  I never paid money to climb Notre Dame but looking from the bottom up you could see that it was roped off all over the place. There were amazing views and I was able to get a few artsy pictures. It was the most impressive thing to see in the city.

Because of the Spanish Conqustiors Quito is heavily Catholic. They could not be out done by Europe for gaudy churches. I liked their churches better because they weren't competing with other European countries for which decoration or feat in church was better. It was more "I love my church so I'm going to put every single precious thing I own into it whether it is necessary or matches the current style of the building." The pretension was missing, that was it. Even though it wasn't my style of gaudy; it worked.

Moor Architecture right of the Independence Square

Cathedral of Quito

The last day we were there we went up to the TeleferiQo which is a tram that takes you to the tallest mountain/volcano in the city. Again picture crazy, but the mountain was 13,000 feet. The Flight Attendant in me needed a picture of me on my phone since most of the cell towers were on this mountain. We could hike higher than that, but we didn't really want to because it was so cold, despite the sunshine.  We found ourselves walking a few feet and our ears would be popping. You kind of have to be fit to live in this city.  I will say that I didn't have pressurization problems at work for like a week after this trip.

Using my cell phone above 10,000 feet.

You could hike up to that top mountain.

The crazy part of this touristy place was a church. They didn't even really have a touristy place except a gift shop and food, but there was a place to worship. A nice place too. I don't know if people came up Sunday and worshiped cause they would literally be closer to God or why it was even there.

It was hard to get pictures because the clouds kept getting in the way of Cotopaxi, tallest Volcano in the country.

After the TeleferiQo, we bummed around old town and had a run in with the gypsies.  They were shoes clearing boys. The only English words they knew were "We need money for lunch!" they said this as they were eating ice cream. We (Chante) talked to them, they said they came from school, clearly not in any of the uniforms we watched kids from school walk around in (our apartment was near an academy), and it was to early for them to be out of school and they were dirty; we knew they were gypsies.  They kept trying to talk us into getting our shoe shined even though we had running shoes on.  Finally I caved because they entertained me and I would pay for that. They wanted to charge me $5 for a shoe shine and probably for each boy to do a shoe. We both scoffed at that, but I told them I would pay a $1 for the whole process (50 cents per boy). As they were doing their job some man came and started to yell at the older boy, the boy yelled back. The man came and stomped on the boys ice cream cone (he'd put it down on the ground while he worked). I was shocked and yelled "hey" the boy really started to yell bac. The man came and hit the boy. Chante and I then both yelled "Hey stop that! Don't hit him. Leave sir." The man said "You dont' know who they are. You don't know." I said " Yes I know who they are. I've got it under control. I understand what's going on. Just leave." He left, but our fun was ruined. I wouldn't let the boys finish their job. I pulled out my dollar coin and handed it to the older boy. He quickly took it. The younger boy asked for his dollar and then whined when I wouldn't give him one. I told him that wasn't the deal. He whined and whined until I look at the older boy and asked for the dollar back so I could split it (come to find out it was all we had and couldn't split it) the boy said no. He and I argued (and I was pissed at his selfishness) until he was made a mistake and dropped the coin while he was cleaning up and I snatched it back. The younger boy magically produced two 50 cent pieces once he found out I didn't have change. I gave them each one and sent them on their way. It was an adventure for sure.