It was a day off for the men in Ambato, so David, Andrew, Yvon and I decided to take a day trip up onto the mountains a little village called Banos. The hotel was very helpful in getting us a taxi that would drive us the hour to Banos and back and around 9:30am we were off.
The trip was very scenic with high mountains on either side of the road. High above Banos was the active volcano Tungurahua, which is currently in an active phase with eruptions happening between 1999 and current day (village was evacuated in 1999 when it became active again). We saw the lava rivers to prove this. On this day there were no eruptions to speak of.
The village itself was quite nice with lots of little shops, adventure guides and restaurants. After a quick walk around and a look through a very old church we decided to hike up to the observation point on one of the near by mountains. The walk was tough to say the least as the steps were very steep, but once reach the look out was quite amazing as you could see the entire region around Banos.
We finished up our excursion with lunch in the village and were surprised to find English speaking staff and entirely English speaking patrons. It was quite the change from what we have experienced so far in Ecuador.
While we were off in Banos, the girls made a trip to the leather market just outside of Ambato where they did what they do second best (squash being what they do best), they shopped.
Upon arrival back in Ambato it was noticed by the girls that David, Andrew and Yvon were quite burnt from the sun and it became the joke of the night.
In the evening it was time for the women's final between Tara and Samantha Teran of Mexico. Unfortunately Tara lost 3-0 in a hard fought battle and had to settle for the silver medal. After the match we went out for a team dinner at the nicest place we have been to so far and ordered way too much food.
Tomorrow the teams start with the men playing at 12:00pm and 6:00pm.
I will post some photos from the trip to Banos tomorrow.
That's all for now,
Aaron
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