After a long delay at Cusco airport and an interminable ten hour wait at Lima airport, we finally boarded our flight to Quito, Ecuador. Unfortunately our arranged pick-up wasn´t there, which we weren´t too thrilled about seeing as it was 3am and Quito has a bit of a reputation, but it was easy enough to get a cab to the Secret Garden Hostel.
We spent four days enjoying doing very little except wandering around the Old Town part of the city and generally relaxing. The couple that started the hostel in Quito also have one up in the mountains, near Cotopaxi Volcano, so we arranged to spend a couple of nights there as well.
The Secret Garden Cotopaxi is set in beautiful surroundings in the middle of nowhere and we stayed in a little private wooden cabaña, where the view from the bed went straight over big fields to the domineering, snow-capped volcano. In the communal area you could find, a big log fire, tasty homecooked meals and four great dogs. Whilst we were there, we climbed up to the 5000 metre mark on the volcano in some quite bad weather (actually I did about 4,900 and had enough but Ben managed to climb to see the snow line) which was the highest I have ever been. Fortunately, we turned down the horseriding excursion that some people we met went on, as a crazy bull scared their horses and one girl was thrown. Luckily, she was just a bit cut, bruised and shocked, but they were pretty upset that their tour leader abandoned them at the first sign of trouble and pegged it into the next field!
After Cotopaxi, we headed down to a town called Banos (which means 'bath' in Spanish) which is nestled in a valley underneath another volcano and is famous for it's naturally heated baths. One morning at our hotel, we signed oursleves up for a steam bath, which we assumed would be some sort of spa or jacuzzi. Instead we were shut into two wooden boxes with holes for the head, steamed like vegetables and systematically removed in order to wipe ourselves with freezing cold towels and, finally, to be hosed down with a icy pressure washer. It was unexpected, but quite refreshing. We also tried out the public hot pools, featured a pool over 40 degrees that was quite nice for a short while but made me rather dizzy when it came to standing up. There were some nice cold showers there too, with water straight from a neighbouring waterfall, which took a bit of bravery to get under.
The, it was back up to Quito for a couple of days before it was time to jump on a plane to the Galapagos islands.
