Lost? - No, just exploring!

A cloudy start to the day and not fancying the bike ride to other waterfalls, we decided to have a walk up one of the mountains to a viewpoint high above Banos. A great view - of the clouds rolling down the valley. Volcano still obscured and silent. Decided to extend the walk further to what we thought was a nearby restaurant - turned out to be another hour away - and in the pouring rain! Big 'debate' over whose idea it was to carry on walking - and I thought it was a 'no blame envoronment'! but both agreed it was Ian's fault!

Fast disappearing view of Banos

The main benefit of the extended walk was for Tina to make a new friend. Matteo, the 2 year old son of the cafe owner who was very keen to meet us and to share his book and his first words in English. A really lovely boy who Tina just wanted to take home (think Madonna /Angelina!)

The cafe was very close to the volcano - the family really do live in fear of the consequences of another eruption - but still insist on living where they do.

Eventually arrived back in the town in time for a quick sandwich and our next outing - on horseback again towards the invisible volcano. A good 2 hour ride - Tina certainly got the livelier of the horses with Ian happy with his horse - 12 year old, docile and obedient. Managed to get the best weather of the day, stayed in the saddle the whole trip and was able to walk at the end of it all.

The ride took us over some of the results of previous eruptions and the guide cheerfully told us that if we heard an explosion, we had 2 minutes before the lava would reach us and it would certainly move quicker than our horses!

In the evening visited the hot springs again although the water was not as hot as last night. One of the pools went up to 43 degrees (too hot for us) although the water actually hits 72 degrees c before being mixed with the water from the nearby waterfall to make it bearable.

On the bus again tomorrow - off to the jungle for 3 nights - so a break from the blog as no electricity / internet. The prospect of shared rooms, canoe rides, jungle walks and no doubt bugs, bites and rain...and no world cup!