Banos

Last weekend was Carnaval here in Ecuador, a holiday that apparently began in pre-Colombian times to celebrate good harvests. To celebrate, the ample food was thrown around. Today, this holiday has evolved into a mixture of Catholicism and indigenous religion and is celebrated for at least a month. People nowadays throw water, foam, eggs, and flour to celebrate. Fun fun fun. I went with 10 other kids in my program to Banos for the weekend (it was a 3 day weekend). Banos is a small town in the Andes, south of Ecuador, renowned for its natural hot springs. I was very much surprised as to how touristy the area was when we got there, but it was nice to not stick out so much as gringos once in a while. We stayed at a really cute and cheap hostel in town and over the course of our stay, met some very interesting people. The first morning we got up really early to go to las piscinas (baths). They were kind of sketchy facilities and lots of Ecuadorian men wearing speedos, but the hot baths were incredibly relaxing. The reason the baths are so warm is due to the volcanoes that surround the town. There have actually been some evacuations in the past 10 years because of possible eruptions of the volcanoes! We went on an awesome hike up the side of a mountain (good workout) and had beautiful vistas of the whole valley. After napping in the afternoon, we went out for dinner and had fun dancing techno until 2am.
On Sunday, I got up early to go for a run. People must have thought I was the crazy gringa. I was chased by some perros, but threw a rock at them and they left me alone. Later that day, we decided to go for a harrowing bike ride on a road heading away from Banos. While cycling, I received a huge bucket of water thrown upon my head. Fun. The road was quite scary, seeing as Ecuadorians are horrible drivers. There were several times when huge trucks would pass and we had to just keep pedaling for dear life. Another really popular thing to do in Banos is go bungee jumping. We met a German girl at our hostel who hung out with us (she had been in Colombia and Ecuador traveling around by herself for the past 3 months) and she decided to jump. So scary, but she loved it. On the road, there were many waterfalls and beautiful views of the river. That night, when we went out to go dancing again, Carnaval was in full swing. Walking down the street, we were covered almost instantaneously with foam from Carnavalers. Hair, eyes, arms, mouth, ears, we were covered. Thankfully, being inside allowed us to get away from the craziness.
Now we're all back in Quito, buckling down with school stuff. Yesterday we planted trees for the whole day and I'm very sore. Hopefully, I'll be able to have some free time to hang out some more with my family. I would love to go to a Liga game (the futbol team here) because I hear they are beyond crazy!
We're learning a lot about the environment here and how interconnected the politics are with issuses surrounding it. The biodiversity here is beyond comprehension and I wonder how we can save it... Thoughts?