Day 5

We still don’t know what “Grande animale” was but it spared us! However, the muscle aches not. I feel pain in my whole body as I crawl out of the tent. The great view of the Chimborazo compensated only briefly. Christian, on the other hand, seems fine, he is washing his hair with water from the river. For such an extreme degree of hygiene, I don’t feel ready today. We filter water and cook tea. After that, we will continue but very slow today!!! My legs are hurting and they feel heavy.

We are having our lunch break quite early in a little village. Immediately we are surrounded by a pack of children in pretty red ponchos. They are kids from the local school and they have their lunch break as well. They stare at us and our luggage curiously. We stare back. And finally, we tried to talk to each other. But with no luck, since we can’t speak Spanish. Finally, they bring a blond girl, about our age. It’s Anna, she is also from Germany having a year off and working for that school. That’s so awesome. She is taking us to her class and show us around. Christian is the star in the schoolyard. All the children want to try to carry his heavy backpack or at least hold his GPS. The classroom is really basic and sometimes there are just separated only by a curtain. All kids from this school (about 60 children) are following us. They seem really proud of a room where they make their own cheese and the one full of guinea pigs. They are properly fed and then eaten on the occasion of the next school festival. Well…

Somehow nobody seems to feel disturbed from our visit. Anna is telling us sometimes the all the lessons are shut down because for example of a football match which will take a month. So who is saying the Germanys are crazy for football.

We are talking a lot with Anna about the life here and the people who are living here. We are so fascinated.

Suddenly Anna is telling us she also wants to go to Ambato. So we are deciding to go with her. After a short time, a car came and took us with him. We are allowed to ride in the loading area. The track is bumpy and curvy. But we are happy. And my legs are glad for every meter we are driving. In the afternoon we arrive Ambato. But we are not staying long because we want to take the bus to Baños.

Baños is about 40 km next to Ambato and really close to the active volcano Tungurahua.
How active he is we can see already on the bus. He is erupting right in front of us and we can see the huge ash clouds! We had never seen something like this before life. The other people in the bus are not caring that much. This seems to be normal here.

Baños itself is quite touristy. People here are speaking English. We are looking for a place to camp close to the town. And we discover a lot of huge waterfalls. As it gets dark, suddenly illuminated fireflies light up. It’s magical!