parte 11b

On the way back to Baños, Tungurahua (the volcano) decided to take up smoking and was puffing smoke in everyones face. Kidding. It did start puffing out smoke though, so that was neato.... Still I didnt get to see it all at once, but it was cool to see it in action.. sort of.
Later that night Janna and I hopped onto a Chiva(a tour truck/van thing) and went up a hill to try to see the volcano. Sometimes at night you can see it glowing red. Unfortunately by the time that we ran back to the hostel to get warm clothes and a blanket the clouds had rolled in, so we didnt get to see anything. It was still fun to go up the hill... There were about 6 chivas that went up to the top and the people on ours were singing and dancing and yelling at other chivas as we passed them:). It was funny.
The rest of the trip consisted of eating at Rico Pan and Casa Hood (a really neat little place with incredible food and killer chocolate milkshakes), wandering around and doing some shopping, exploring, and people watching around town.
A treat that they make there is Marcotcha (NO idea how to spell that). Its a taffy and they pull it by hand from hooks on the walls of their shops. People do it all over the place and there are lots of different colors. Sometimes they gave us tastes. It was so yummy when it was still warm.
There was also lots of sugar cane and fresh fruit for sale around every corner

One afternoon Janna and I were sitting in our room at the hostel when all of a sudden there was this burst of hysterical laughter. It was so loud and so hysterical and carried on for so long (probably about 10 minutes) that we couldnt figure out what was going on! After a little bit more time it started to sound like a combination of laughter and a woman's shrieking. It was making me uncomfortable. After looking out the window and seeing noone I still couldnt figure out what was going on. Janna went out on the patio and the laughter stopped. The only living things outside were the 4 little green parrots that lived at the hostel. Janna finally decided that the laughter was the birds since every time that we opened the room door the laughter would stop. I didnt believe her, but the pattern of laughter and silence continued as we closed and opened the door. Finally I peered out the window from behind the curtain and saw one of the parrots making the noise... I still cant believe how much like a human being that thing sounded.

Other Highlights from our time there included:

• The CUTE little boy on the bus back to Guayaquil
  
  
  
  
  
• The guy yelling RIOBAMBA RIOBAMBA RIOBAMBA out the bus door as we zoomed through small towns
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The extreme beauty of the countryside as we drove through the mountains.

they eat roasted guinea pigs in the mountains**

We also passed some DOLE banana plantations on the way home.