I just arrived at Banos. It is a small town 3 hours driving south of Quito. The town is right by the active volcano Tungurahua. There are pictures of it with lava slipping down on the wall of Hotel La Floresta where I am staying. It is just beautiful.

Jose the tour guy for the volcano said tonight is cloudy and there is no visivility :( I just spoke to Pablo his causin again, he sees some hope. He is coming to meet at the hotel in 20 mins.

The town smells like fresh rain and trees, mixed with the delicious smell of barbeque made by a local woman by the bus terminal. Barbeque is on 'zoghal' and the kebab tastes organic and smokey. It is a mix of chicken, a small piece of a delicious sausage, a small potato, and a piece of green pepper, served with mayo.

There are lots of suvenir shops around the bus terminal who sell a colorful mix of local sweets (dolces) as well as lemons and mandarines stacked on top of each other, and what seems to be the speciality here, 'nei shekar'. People are as friendly and as helpful as everywhere else here.

The bakery nearby had run out of bread, but still smell like fresh bread, yummy.

The hotel - La Floresta is literally on the last street of town meeting the edge of the mountain. The mountain is on the South side of the city. The hotel is clean and beautiful. like a 3.5 or 4 star. Beautiful ambience made with wooden chairs and doors and wood-woven armchairs and nice music playing in the background. It is quite quiet though. The room is huge, a 3 bed room, again beautiful and clean. This place and Cascafesu has been the memorable (on the happy side) hotels (so far I should say, let's see about the hot water here, they promised available hot water on the phone).

Tonight is the only night I have here. I so want to see the lava live.

There is no time for reading about and selecting who I want to meet, I'm leaving shortly. I'll choose based on what I'll perceive.

I am at Otavalo (pronounced Otabalo), a small town in the Northern highlands of Ecuador know for its market which is the biggest in the Andean area. I have little time to write.

The market was colorful. People are beautiful and very friendly. Bargaining is a must, quite like Dominican Republic. There are astonishingly beautiful local girls who smile with all their soul. With sun-burnt faces and shining black hair. I was shocked with the beauty and 'shaffafiat' several times.

Darn this Internet cafe is closing down.

There is a village nearby that I want to see. I hope I get to visit it tonight.

I could use a loooot more time at each stop in so far.

Got up at 6:30am this morning to take the bus. Checked out, filled the watter bottles (off that 'atighe' tap on the water filter), then took a taxi to Quito's Northern terminal, whose name I don't remember now. Before we go, I went to the nice bakery on Catolica Avenida which I found open at that early time of the day.

They had fresh bread off the oven. Was lovely. Fresh bread is one of the good things on earth. Unfortunately they didn't have any chicken/turkey salad.

Turkey Salads were created out of a chAgh salamati. The cachier called someone who spoke English who said something to him after speaking to me. He went to the sandwich area and made 3 sandwiches for me with the lovely fresh brown bread I found newly today on their fridge.

The taxi was waiting for me with my suitecase in the trunk.

The drive to the station took about 25mins. The bus was an old one.

When on the bus I was having the time of my life. The road was lush and beautiful. Much like roards in 'shomAl', but with multiple mini-mountains on the side, covered with greenness. The types of trees are different than those in shomal. Not sure about their name. I even saw palms among the trees.

After a while I enthusiastically thought of the lovely breakfast that was waiting for me. Then there was that moment ....

The bag with the bread and the sandwiches and the salad and the fruites weren't there. Daaarn! I left it on the back seat of the taxi at the station. It was a moment where I was deeply sad, and laughing with myself at the stupidity at the same time.

For the next half an hour every now and then the picture of the bread and the meat hanging out from either side of the sandwith with lettus and tomatoes flashed in my mind.

The bus stopped just outside Quito to pick up some on-the-road passengers. A girl helped me find out how long the bus is going to stay. "3 mintues". There was a kiosk 50meterse back. I ran for the kiosk. All there was was buiscuits and cookies and chocolates. I found small bags of peanuts. Picked two of them and ran back to the bus before it leaves with my suitcase in the load area.

Later on the bus stopped in a village that reminded me of "Kalardasht", two locals hopped on the bus with baskets of food. One selling small tied greenish plastic bags filled with something that looked like beaf and something that looked like some grains poped into a white round shape, wasn't pop corn.

The other one was selling a small back of goodies: a full load of a salty white roundish pealed bean which I later learned is called "Cho cho", a small topping of salty roasted corn, and a slice of orange on top. Cho cho is just delicious. It did well at the top of the waterfall just before sliding down. Leo loved it too.

I met Claire from Alaska on the bus. She was in Costa Rica for 2 weaks and was going to stay in Ecuador for another two weeks volunteering in a house in the forest.

Ah, I forgot about this:
When the local food sellers were on the bus, the driver started the bus before the locals get a chance to get off. They may be notorious for staying on the bus so long, I don't know. They jumped down the bus ast he bus was moving with noticable speed!. Like parachuters hopping off a plane!

Mary has a guitar. She is going to bring it later in the evening. I'm going to play for us at the cozy restaurant once Suzan and Louis close for the evening.

Turns out Suzan is a musician, so is her husband Louis. They have been performing 3 years ago before they moved here and started this business.

There is something magical here.

I am in love.

I feel like I only need one thing now. And a couple of little ones. Oh my god, those little ones.

There are two adorable puppies around here. Suzan's God daughter is a sweetheart. I am in a state hard to describe. It is very pleasant.

Roosters sing (sing? what is the verb for that?) on the name-less alleys. People laugh from the buttom of their hearts, Suzan does, so does her God daughter, forgot her name.

It's been a while I haven't been around such a bright laughter. Reminds me of days we went travelling with friends back in Iran. Safa, that is it.

Life is vibrant here. Suzan is in the bussiness of life. She provides laundry service in the basic form where the dirty clothes are moved in a "tasht", tea, food, music, a lovely atmosphere in the place, and information on the activities in the area.

Life is vibrant here.

Kids are wet on the streets under the forest rain. One running enthusiastically, one singing along a favorite cartoon on the TV, one calling her mom when I enter the little homey shop.

What a bliss it is to real-ize a want. This is what we are here to do. It is like activating an atom which is full of energy, like expanding from inside out.

Here love rules. Where things are simple and on a bed of sweet juicy calm connection.

It is not easy to describe. It is effortless. It is natural.

I have a hard time describing it.

I feel like I have a lot to write and I don't have words for it.

Darn, the owner of this hostal said about hot water "just let us know when you want to take a shower". I forgot to tell him when I came out to fing the Internet spot.

After visiting the oldtown I took a taxi to SuperMaxi, a (I believe) chain super market. You could find everything. I came across a handful of fruites which later I learned are unique to Ecuador.

Wheat bread doesn't seem to be very common here.

The line ups at the "Caja" (cash registers) where CRAZY! a good 5,6 full carts lining up in a curved form squeezing together with the line up of the cashier nextdoor was behind each. It was there when an old native woman pointed to my selection of fruits and described them for me in Spanish! One of them looks like a cactus with pin-like 'button"s on the surface. She warned me that this can hurt your hand, be careful.

The taxi from there to the hostal got lost! He didn't know the street name and didn't seem to pay much attention to the map I was showing him. We did a good large circle looking for the place before I see the supermarket again in front of us! He was constantly speaking in fast Spanish. He found the street after that large loop quite quickly.

The owner of the hostal wasn't too happy when I asked him to use the kitchen to cook the inviting fish schnitzel I had bought. He didn't offer the kitchen. I ended up eating something else. He wasn't generous when I asked for a dish and cutleries either. He asked me to wash them afterwards. Obviously I wasn't impressed about the service.

I passed out after eating.

Tomorrow is going to be an out of town trip.