One Step 2

PRE-ANTISANA REST DAYS

We left the 400yr old Hacienda for a new one closer to Antisana. Estalin has left us alone here in this crazy, surreal, place while he goes back to tend to business in Quito. I feel like my parents have abandoned me on my first day of school.

After playing around on the climbing frame for a while, we go for a quick lunch. As we enter the restaurant, there is music blaring. I’m thinking, this is a bit weird but a bit cool. Then we sit down and the music goes off. And a documentary about birds comes on – a black and white, English documentary dubbed over in Spanish.

So anyway… after lunch we went for a gentle stroll in the rolling green hills above the hotel. At the end of the track there was an old house in disrepair, but it looked like it couldhave some squatters. Philipp was the brave one to approach the house first, armed with a big stick. Tim and I both argued this would do nothing to fight off whatever crazy drug lord was napping inside, but apparently the stick was for dogs not humans. That still left us with nothing to fight off the humans then! We hung about for a bit as Philipp climbed to the top of a big lava field to find yet more lava at the other side. Tim was getting increasingly freaked out about what could be lurking around the corner. We made a mad dash back to the hotel for dinner.

It was quite cold back in the restaurant and what we were all really looking forward to was a nice warm drink. We ordered our food, but were told that we could not order hot drinks until after dinner. We thought this was a really weird rule but it later transpired that the only employee with the skills to make hot drinks would be busy cooking our food. It seems really inefficient to have 3 members of staff on shift with only one able to cook and make drinks! Anyway, we soon found a way to put another staff member to use… he can light the fire to warm us up!! Our table was sitting about 2 feet away from the fire. The guy came over with a massive carton of petrol and proceeded to spray severeal glugs in the general direction of the fireplace. In my head, I thought ‘maybe not a lot comes out with each glug’. Oh boy I was proven wrong with the tiniest strike of a match. Fireballs came flying, a trail of petrol along the floor lit up, and I jumped about 2m in the opposite direction. The guys reaction – ‘oops, I scared the girl’. Philipp didn’t stop laughing about this for the rest of the holiday. He’s probably still laughing about it now. Thank God we all survived long enough to watch the bird documentary for a second time. After dinner, we all retired to our rooms to make use of the luxury jet stream showers. Another very odd string to this hotel’s bow. This place is so weird. We can see why Estalin didn’t want to stay here with us.

Tim also reminded me over dinner that we’ve officially experienced all 4 seasons this trip. It’s something to do with crossing the equator and crossing the summer equinox. I think it was autumn when we arrived in Quito, then crossing the equator took us to spring, then on 21st June it became summer, then we crossed the equator again back to winter. Or something.

In the morning, we have time for breakfast before Estalin picks us up again. The fire guy has set the kitchen on fire now, so we can't go inside because of all the smoke. One last shot at the documentary before we go?? Pleeeaaassssseeee??