Singin in the rain

Our day started off smoothly yesterday upstairs in the cafeteria drinking strong coffee and having a fruit salad! I chatted with a Canadian couple in their 50's who have been exploring South America for the past several months. The woman shared her bread and peanut butter with me and then I noticed it was 10:05am and I was late for our excursion! We went across from the hostel to the excursion agency to get a briefing on the vehicles and a map as we didn't pay extra for a guide. There was 1 ATV available and 2 buggies so we hopped on while it was drizzling and took off! We picked up speed once we left the town and started heading up the mountain. After about 20 minutes of driving and waving to the passerbys, we arrived at our first destination- zip lining! Maria set us up in our gear while the rain got harder and heavier. I was surprisingly not nervous, just excited to go head first on my belly down a 1000 meter zip line over rough rapids. The view was beautiful but I should have worn my sunglasses- not for the sun because it was raining cats and dogs, but for the rain! Zipping down the wire made the rain hit me pretty hard and it hurt! I landed safely and we hopped into the car of Maria's brother who drove us back up to where we left our vehicles. We continued on our journey in search of waterfalls and the famous volcano speeding down the road at about 80 kph through tunnels and around curves. Every once in a while we'd get a line of cars trailing behind us but we were good about pulling over slightly to the right so they could pass us. At 11:45 am, only 1 hour and 45 minutes into our excursion, my ATV broke down- and just 5 minutes after Tash claimed that her buggie was acting funny. I broke down in someone's entry way to their restaurant (thank goodness- or at least I thought so). I hopped off my POS ATV, and began walking in the direction we were headed hoping to find that Tash and Holly noticed I was no longer following them. Before I took 10 steps, the owner of the restaurant came running after me yelling at me to move my vehicle from his driveway. He mustn't have noticed that I am a woman and that my ATV weighed nearly 1/2 a ton. I pointed to the 2 other unblocked entry ways to his restaurant (keep in mind there was NO one parked in his lot) explaining that I wasn't going to move my ATV if his non existent customers can use the other free entry ways. He was not to pleased and started yelling louder. I decided to cooperate and let him know that I was not strong enough so if he wanted it moved, he needed to help me. He didn't hesitate to come get the ATV out of his driveway. I walked towards the girls for about 5 minutes and got to a tunnel. I had no idea how long it was, so I opted to walk back to the restaurant where I left my ATV with the ATV nazi. I whipped out the cell phone that the woman with the agency gave me in case of emergencies and attempted to figure out how to make it work without any characters on the buttons which had clearly been rubbed off after 8 years of use- that's how old this cell phone model must have been. After only 10 minutes, the girls came to fetch me and I was still unsuccessful with the cell phone usage. I frustratingly asked the Ecuadorian man to assist me to which he replied that I was out of range. I then asked if I could please use his phone to which he replied 'for $1.' I was appalled! You're charging me $1 to make a 30 second phone call. I threw a fit about how expensive my phone call was going to be and he came back with an attitude that if I didn't want to pay, he had no problem with me not using his phone. Ugh! Wy can't people just be genuinely friendly and helpful!? I aggressively placed a Sacagawea coin in his hand (Ecuador uses U.S. currency because their currency has failed miserably) in his hand. The man didn't seem to appreciate my aggressiveness and threw the coin back at me! I decided to play nice considering we were stuck on a mountain in the rain without any access to a phone. We made the phone call to the agency and after waiting for 1.5 hours and telling Holly she wasn't wallowed to buy a snack from the nazi, our rescuers finally arrived! Even though I asked if the vehicles would be ok in the rain, it turns out they act up if it gets too wet. The woman pushed some buttons and twisted some knobs and told us she'd follow us back to make sure we didn't break down again. Tash had gone back early because we had 1 working vehicle and she had been sick all morning. So for $35 for a 3 hour activity, we only actually used half of the time for adventures and were laughed at when we asked for a partial refund. Tash had gone to bed in hopes of sleeping off her illness and Holly and I went to the Turkish mineral baths to shower our skin with goodness. The Turkish baths overlook a beautiful waterfall and we enjoyed 30 minutes of relaxing until the facility closed for cleaning before reopening in the evening. While walking back to the hostel we passed about 89 places offering massages so we checked out some prices. We decided that $25 dollars and 80 minutes of massages, reflexology, and facial scrubs was a pretty good deal and chose to indulge ourselves! After 80 minutes of heaven, we went back to the hostel to shower and relax before going to dinner. I skyped with Hariel for the first time in over a month and got lots of updates about her job in the hospital and all the babies, her roommate drama, and school! I love my sister! We went to Samurai Sushi for dinner where a native Canadian living in Ecuador decided to open a sushi restaurant with an Ecuadorian twist. It was delicious! We came back to the hostel to find 2 new English blokes in Tash and Holly's room and we chatted about travels for a while until Gary, another English bloke convinced us all to go to The Leprechaun, a popular bar for backpackers with a bonfire in the garden. After a pineapple margharita and a beer, we walked back to the hostel and went to bed at 1am! It was such a lovely evening with friends. Tash Holly and I have an 8 hour ride bus this evening at 7:30pm to Montanita, Ecuador to spend a few more days on beautiful beaches before going up to the capital, Quito where my friend from UMD is currently volunteering. Life is good =)