March 9th 2009 - The Bartender

We woke early to have breakfast in Tena for the last time. I’m sad to be leaving the Amazon, it is so incredibly beautiful, I wish that the view from the hostel dining room could be my view every morning. I was disappointed that I hadn’t seen monkeys or the cheeky Toucan since the first day but at least I have seen them. The journey to Banos was quality. The countryside was so picturesque – we were travelling through the Oriente (comprising the eastern slopes of the Ecuadorian Andes the lowland areas of rainforest of the Amazon Basin and it was beautiful. Waterfalls streamed down the Cliffside and whenever we went through a tunnel I got sprayed with water as I had my head poking through a window.

Banos looked a lovely town from our brief walk to the hostel, although quite touristy with many shops, bars and restaurants compared to the places we had been outside of Quito. There is also a beautiful waterfall in view which leads to some hot springs. After dropping our things off we headed into town and I went straight to a hairdressers to get rid of the fuzz on top of my head. A nice little #2 later (which only cost $2!) and I rejoined the group. Most people liked the fact my hair but Chloe did not appreciate the shortness of my locks. The afternoon was relaxed, I did some journal writing and began reading ‘Angels and Demons whilst Sally and Mia made Pizza. For tea we went to the lovely ‘Casa Hood’ restaurant where I had a Mocca Shake to wake me up, tomato and mozzarella to start and Sea Bass a la Espanola for main – delicious! The fish on this trip has been absolutely amazing.

Some of us went to play pool and have a couple of drinks in a bar – actually the bar in this blip but we were served by someone slightly closer to the legal age! Hilde knew the place well from previous visits to Banos which meant we got to interact with the locals a lot more than usual. We played pool against each other and against the locals with Europe coming out on top in most of the matches. Sara taught me the ‘Boot Dance’ which I didn’t do too badly at considering I was drunk but sadly I cant remember now. A good night was only really darkened by a chat I had with some of those who were left about Chloe – it seems as though the writing is on the wall for us I’m afraid. Hopefully things will be different tomorrow though.