Baños is fuños

I'm happy to report that the most exciting thing we've done all week is unpack our bags! After visiting the Galapagos Islands we decided to spend some time lingering in the town of Baños, Ecuador, which means we are experiencing 2 weeks of pure, revitalising normalcy. There is something deeply satisfying about hanging clothes in a cupboard after 6 months of digging around in a backpack, and I'm ashamed to admit how thrilled I am to be able to leave the shampoo bottle in the shower. We've also found a lady in the local market who sells huge glasses of fresh juice for $1, so we visit her every morning for breakfast. Daily routines: another one of life's unappreciated pleasures.

Baños is Spanish for baths, and the town is well named as it has loads of hot pools that are naturally heated by the local active volcano. We visited some of the baths last night after going for a run, and did the hot/cold/hot/cold water dash (Chris said it would be 'beneficial'...definitely the kind of benefit I can do without). The hottest pool was a scorching 46 degrees, and the coolest one next to it was what Kiwis call "refreshing", but everyone else calls "flippin cold". We had a self-imposed limit of approximately 2 minutes in each pool. Unfortunately I didn't realise I'd hurt my knee during our run until it got aggravated in the hot water, so now my leg kind of resembles an overstuffed sausage. But that's beside the point! The point is: volcano water is fun!

At the moment we're studying Spanish for four hours each morning at a language school, then use our afternoons for homework, runs, hikes, naps, movies, hot pools or whatever the heck else we feel like doing. Life is sweet! The cafe down the road shows a different film each afternoon - arguably the greatest idea anyone ever had - so we get to hang out with an iced chocolate or a bowl of guacamole and nachos and watch whatever happens to be playing that day. The films are hilariously diverse, ranging from travel docos to Casablanca to The Full Monty. We were in the middle of eating dinner the other night when a loud and extended sex scene came on during a Korean period flick. Awwkward - it put me right off my soup.

Low point of the week: our hostel room backs onto the road, and some awesome, beautiful, thoughtful person (ooh sorry, I pressed my sarcasm button by mistake) has a car parked outside with an alarm that goes off every time a truck rolls past...which would be about 10 times a night. The worst thing is that it's not just one car; there seems to be a series of cars with the same problem. Any suggestions as to how to destroy  Ecuadorian car alarms will be met with thanks and payment in fresh juices.

Studying hard or hardly studying?

Delish options at the juice stand

Baños - nestled in the mountains