One week in

It´s Tuesday and I´ve been here for one full week. I keep thinking of funny or possibly even wise observations that I want to put on my blog, but when I´m sitting here in front of the computer they all seem to vanish.

I´ll settle for letting you know what we´ve been doing. We left Quito on Sunday afternoon. We had a 3 hr. bus ride that took us to Baeza. It was pouring rain when we got there and we slogged around town looking for a place to stay. We found a pretty nice place at the end of the main road and checked in. The owner´s children where the only ones there and they couldn´t locate change or an actual key to our room. We decided to let this go for the moment and since it had stopped raining we decided to walk around town some more.

We found a hiking trail off the main road. It had some historical information and looked nice and official so down we went. It turned out pretty good. We ended up at two nice waterfalls. I´m the grey and blue spot at the bottom. After our hike we found a cool little restaraunt and ate dinner on the porch, with amazing views of fog covered mountains, instead of taking pictures of them I photographed my dinner.

We woke up on Moday morning in Baeza to another grey day. After breakfast we hopped a bus to the trail for the largest waterfall in Ecuador, San Rafael Falls. It was a 2.5 hr. bus ride and a 30 min hike and it was worth every minute. It was definitely one of the more impressive things I´ve ever seen, and the sun came out for the whole time we were there. I don´t know how to give you a good scale for it. MUY GRANDE. We can´t post a picture as of now. Maybe next time. After getting back to Baeza from the waterfall our bus dropped us off at the crossroads about two km down a Big hill from town in the pouring rain. We hiked back to our hotel took hot showers and had a big dinner. It was good day, then Katy asked me to cut her hair, and I said yes. oy. not a good idea. terrible idea. I cut maybe 3 to 4 inches off, she asked for like maybe half an inch. Anyway, we didn´t break up. I´m forgiven. The haircut is cute, just way shorter than it should have been. So far most scared I´ve been in Ecuador is of my girlfriend after I gave her a bad haircut.

Today we got up and had breakfast and then caught the bus for Tena, a town on the edge of the jungle. I´m in a little internet cafe in Tena now. We´re staying at this awesome little hostal, run by Germans, that has a nicer kitchen than my Mom´s. It´s on a hill outside of town and has hammocks on the porch and more nice views.

Now for a list of random facts about my trip.

1. When traveling, even if you don´t get more stuff, your backpack gets larger and lumpier everyday.

2. Don´t cut your girlfriends hair, ever.

3. There are only 24 oz. beers in Ecuador. They cost one dollar. A 12oz. beer is rare, they´re called cerveza chicas, we all know that means girly beer.

4. Americans should travel more, outside of America and Europe. There are tons of Australians and Brits and Europeans down here. Our hostal is full of 17 yr. old British kids, by themselves. Almost no Americans. It would do us good. The most Americans I´ve seen was a herd outside the McDonalds in Quito.

5. Ecuadorans are very nice people. They have constantly helped us out every time we´ve asked a question.

6. I didn´t need two pairs of shorts (Mom).