After a very wet day in Banos on Saturday it finally cleared late in the afternoon. We decided to go for a walk across the river, in the hopes that we'd see the volcano, clouds permitting.
Banos is built right to the edge of the river, with a series of waterfalls that reminded us both of a city in Star Wars (which one, Star Wars fans?). It's a lovely effect, heightened by the lush vegetation all around.
This was supposed to be a gentle wander up the road a little way. However, the hill beckoned and we kept climbing and climbing and climbing . . .
The ample reward was a fantastic veiw of the volcano behind it, steam puffing forth from the top.
In the picture below you can see, or try to see, where our previous walk to try to see the volcano went. It started in the town, climbed the little ridge with lights on the far right hand side of town, traversed across the steep hillside to the buildings on the left (Runtun village), then climbed and traversed back to the right again, ending near the white building in the center of the picture. The large white buildings are actually greenhouses, growing a variety of fruit and vegetables.
Of course there was a little snag with this veiw. We were a long way up and it was now rather dark. We'd come prepared with our headlamps, but somehow walking all the way down again just didn't appeal that much.
Fortunately, just when my legs were telling me that they'd done enough, a ute drove past. The whole climb had been on a cobbled road with only a handful of cars, so I was rather glad when they obligingly stopped at our waving.
Perched on the back of the ute, cool mountain air whipping past, turning and turning down the switchbacks we had hardly noticed climbing up, finally coasting into town to leap out, call a hearfelt "muchas gracias" to the driver and be in the thick of roadside stalls with hot smoking grills - well this was what South America should be.
It was time to pack up and move again, this time for a month at Hacienda La Alegria (which seems to translate to The Joyful Hacienda). It was not the most pleasant bus ride, neither Ben nor I was feeling well and there were a lot of roadworks to slow us down, plus downed powerlines at one stage.
Plus it was a little unnerving to think that we were headed somewhere for a month with so many unknowns - what would it be like? What would the people be like? We would like it? Would we like a month there?
Off the bus and into a taxi, though this time it was a white ute, a change from the yellow taxis that inhabit the rest of Ecuador. We quickly found out why - the roads here are all stones.
We left the main highway and bounced and juddered for what seemed like a long time. It was really raining by now and quite a lot colder than Banos. Finally the taxi turned one last corner and we could see the hacienda for the first time. It looked beautiful, but not particularly populated - our only greeting was from two big dogs - who were extremely happy to see us, at least.
Finally we found the kitchen, and were greeted by Mauricio, one of the family. He was extremely welcoming and showed us to our room, then showed us around the hacienda. The main house is over 100 years old and was built out of adobe, which means the walls are extremely thick. It is full of the family's history.
The hacienda is situated at 2,915m and this was very noticeable with the temperature - it was freezing. The down jackets were extremely useful.
The owner of the hacienda, Gabriel Espinosa, turned up later in the evening. Our first volunteering job was to be models in a series of pictures for promotional material! It was all a bit last minute as the photographers were meant to be at another hacienda, but the owner had broken a rib. We quickly decorated areas, then sat in them and tried to look natural. Honestly, it wasn't easy - it was freezing outside, but we didn't think down jackets set quite the right tone so took them off for the pictures. I still wasn't feeling that well and hadn't even had a shower or washed my hair - no-one told us we were going to be doing it, we thought we were just helping to get the rooms ready.
It was quite funny, sitting on the deck, freezing cold, sipping coke out of wine glasses and trying to look like we were having a wonderful time . . . what would we have been doing on a Monday evening at home in New Zealand?
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