I'm aliiiiive!

Seriously, though. 

I'm being maybe a *tad* overdramatic but the sentiment nicely wraps up this week of extremes:  hiking into, out of and around crater lakes in Quilotoa; experiencing the sizzling hot (then cold) thermal baths of Banos; taking schizophrenic showers in hostels throughout; hoisting my suddenly outrageoulsy oversized mochila on and off buses (why o' why didn't I just take the smaller backpack??); and then last night -- pulling the ultimate of ultimate Saturday all nighters with a shaman.

"Hitting the road" after Quito has been full of adventure and I can't belive it's really only been a week since I kissed the Huayra Causay folks goodbye and started heading southward, towards Cuenca. The Andean vistas have been stunning;the Black Sheep Inn an impressive ecofriendly respite among rolling green hills; and Banos an unexpected pleasure perched among waterfulls on the slope of one mildly active volcano.*

And I've met the greatest people, truly the biggest pleasure of traveling solo, the hitting it off with strangers in the randomest of places. Like Daphne the professor of biology with the dragonfly tatoo on her way to Tena to find fish in the river (she did!); beautiful, tall Mariola from Holland who was heading to the same hostel in Banos so we ended up spending the rest of the week together; Bolivian-born Dan from Liverpool who joined us on several hikes there; Marion with the red flowing hair who was hiking to Bellavista alone that day too so we kept each other company; and Lila, who's somewhere on the beach and hopefully still meeting me Cuenca come Tuesday.

And then, the culmination of it all, my last minute detour back to Quito to visit a shaman.Mariola had gotten his name from a friend who'd attended a lecture of his in Holland and it was important that he came with references. The experience was probably the longest night of my life and I am still trying to sort out what I got out of it. But the sweat lodge alone with its increasing levels of heat was an emotional challenge I will never forget.  Along with getting hosed down on his lawn  afterwards while the sun rose slowly, brilliantly over Guapolo.   

So "I'm alive" is how I feel: happy and reflective and spent. Ready now too, to leave Quito for real and see if colonial Cuenca comes close as its alleged rival. 

(Wow, this coming week will end with me back in Argentina!)  Onward, onward.

Besitos.

* Btw, banos does mean bathroom in spanish but that's only because my keyboard doesn't have an "n-yey" sign so I can't spell the "n" in the name of the town correctly)