So this week we are making a trip through Ecuador to see the jungle, Quito and then I´m going to spend the last week at the beach.

First stop was Banos a little tourist town where they have natural hot springs and lots of pools to visit. The hot water comes from underneath a volcano that sits right next to the town. Since it´s a toruist town there are tons of nice little places to stay and really good food. If any American is looking for a quaint little place to go in Ecuador, I would highly reccommend it. Additionally it is only an hour from the jungle and you can even rent bikes to ride on the beautiful highway to the next town.

Pyuo was the next stop. It´s the first town on the border of the jungle. Here you can find a big river surrounded by jungle looking trees and lots of wildlife. I wanted to see some monkeys, so we asked around and they pointed us to ¨El Rescate de Monos¨ or the Monkey Refuge, where monkeys who have been saved from captivity live. They are monkeys who were ¨trafficked¨ as exotic pets, in shows or otherwise in captivity, and many hae been mistreated. There at the refuge they live peacefully and free in the jungle in a very large area that belongs to the refuge, there is an electric frence so they can´t leave, but they told us the monkeys don´t want to leave because they have food and everything there, a river, tons of trees and they have dog friends who live there too. There are about 50 monkeys who live there and 5 or 6 dogs and they are all friends. It´s really adorable. The monkeys ride the dogs like horses, they play with them, they clean they´re fur, and they give them kisses. You can see the dog-monkey friends in the pictures. At first I was a little afraid of the monkeys because they were jumping around and climbing up the people and one came up behind me and slapped a mosquito on my leg (that kinda scared me) but after I played with them a little I figured out they we´re like little kids who just wanted to play with you and swing around and ride on your shoulders. I thought we were going to see one or two monkeys, but there were 50!

Now we´re in Quito and today we are going to do all the tourist things there are to do. Yesterday I saw the north part of Quito, which is the nicer modern part, and the historic center, and today we´re going to go back and vistit the downtown again to see it more carefully and take pictures and stuff. If there is one thing I can say about Quito from what I have seen is that the churches are incredible. In Quito there are at least 6 or 7 big cathedrals and they are all hand built and it is an understatement to say they are ornate. I can´t get over how big and beautiful the cathedrals are. I´ll take some pictures where I can, but in some churches you can´t. Look for some pictures of Quito tomorrow.