What A Wonderful World

I apologize for such the long gap between posts. The internet here has been having problems, so I haven´t really been able to spend all that much time online.
I had an absolutely amazing weekend! KK’s boyfriend is back in Quito, so we did most things this weekend with him. First on Friday night, the three of us went out to Diablos, a new club that has great drinks. The owner is Cuban, and after talking to him, Craig wanted a Cuban cigar, so we went looking for one. It was rainy and cold, so we only walked about a block before we stopped under heated lamps. We decided the bar with the heated lamps looked cool, so we went in. I ordered French fries, a martini, and an amazing Oreo cheesecake. It was so worth it, everything was amazing.
The next day, the four of us (KK, Craig, Marie, and I) packed our bags and headed for Banos, the city that has Tungurahua, the currently active volcano. It started out great as the tunnels in Quito were filled with water, so we had to wade the water in the taxi. We caught the bus, and we paid this dude who we thought (we as in everybody on the bus, not just us) was the guy who was collecting money on the bus. It turns out that dude wasn’t really working for the bus company, so everybody on the bus got robbed $4 by this dude. Then, we spend SIX hours the bus in what should have been a 4 hour bus ride. Why? Because Tinguraguhua decided it was going to throw a fit and cause a landslide, so the road going into Banos was blocked. No worries, we had fun standing and fooling around on the bus. By the time we got to Banos, it was almost 10 at night. We quickly found a hotel and paid $3 for a tour that took us to a mountain high over Banos. On the mountain, we could see the whole city of Banos. We could also see Tinguraguaha, the smoke, and faint orange glow of the lava coming from the cauldron of the volcano. It was well worth the $3.
The next morning, we did some shopping after breakfast. I bought a shirt, a leather coat, and some souvenirs for my family. Next, we headed over to the thermal baths. These are truly amazing. In case you don’t know, Banos in Spanish means baths, which is what this town is famous for. The water from the baths all come from the volcano, and the one that we were in was about 118 degrees F. It was so relaxing and filled with minerals. We stayed there for about an hour. After changing and all that, we decided to rent dune buggies. This was probably the best adventure ever. We rented the dune buggies for 3 hours, Marie driving with me as the passenger in one and Craig driving and KK as a passenger in the other, and we drove to a waterfall. At the waterfall, we took a tram over the river and the water fall to the other side and then back. It was really fun. We also had a picnic lunch right by the waterfall too. Afterwards, I drove the dune buggy back. It was so fun, even flooring the petal we were only going about 10 miles an hour. It was especially fun through the tunnels. The dune buggy adventure was probably the best part of Banos. Afterwards, we stopped for more food and taffy (which is also what Banos is known for) and then headed back to Quito. Nothing exciting happened on the way back, except that we saw a flattened tractor trailer bed. We got back into Quit around 9, and by the time I got home it was almost 10. But it was well worth it. I had an amazing time. I will put photos up in the next few days, either when I go to an internet cafe or if the internet starts behaving.
Tomorrow night we are celebrating Marie´s 25th birthday. We are going to Rusty Burger, this amazing burger joint, then we are going to buy some beers and drinks and go to my house and hang out for a bit before going out clubbing. It should be fun. We plan to live it up as much as we can, because we all have less than a month left here!