weekend fun

david, our friend helped us make some traditional food called llapingachos...they are basically potato pancakes with cheese, avocado, eggs, a salad with onions and tomatoes, and some meat
this past weekend, beth, david, and i went to Banos to do some hiking...when we left, we didnt know what trail or where we would hike exactly...but i had some options. when we got off the bus from shell, i jokingly pointed up to some antennas high on a mountain and said that i wanted to hike up there. we looked around the mountains to look at our other options and decided that going up to the antennas would provide the best views. so, we started our hike uphill on a road that would take us there. after 1 minute, we knew we were in for a long and hard hike all uphill. we soon found out that it was a 8km hike....which isnt bad, but it is when it is all uphill and you are a little pushed for time. so, we decided that we would try to get a truck to take us up to the top and we would walk down. we finally found someone, after a few rejections (david said we needed to have on some short shorts :) hehe). as we were going up the mountain, we realized that it would have taken us about all day to hike up there! when we arrived at the top, it was worth it and very beautiful. it is a perfect view of tunguragua..an active volcano. it was a bit cloudy..but the clouds gave us a small peak at the volcano spewing some ash. it was a lot of fun!



so now, we were ready to walk down. i thought it was going to take awhile because it had taken awhile to get up there by car! i also thought it would be easy walking downhill...which it was...but the next day (and now) i could hardly walk! walking downhill for more than an hour works some muscles i dont usually push very hard apparently!
this was taken in puyo at a local concert. it was celebrating "dia de la mujer" which is a day celebrating women! they take it rather seriously here! every woman in the audience got a rose. it was fun! one of the bands sang spanish songs that we knew in english. after the concert, rachel, beth, and i went to get our picture taken with the band! it was very funny. we ended up exchanging emails and beth and i even went to see them lead worship at a church in puyo the next day! hehe...rachel and beth like to call us groupies....we gringas can get away with so much here!