Bloody hell. I was woke up at 5:30am by a marching band and what sounded like a cannon firing, over and over. It finally stopped after 6:00, and I fell back asleep.

Up around 9:00, had breakfast, then met Jason at 10:00 am and rented mountain bikes. We biked from Baños east out of the mountains toward Puyo, on the edge of the Amazon basin. Awesome scenery, lots of waterfalls, including Pailon Del Diablo, an awesome thundering waterfall, where you can actually climb in behind the waterfall.

Up early, 4:40am, and walked to the road in front of the Black Sheep Inn. We waited and waited and waited, but no bus came. The bus finally rolled by at 6:15. $1 for the bus ride to Zumbahua. In Chugchilan, the bus stopped, and pigs were loaded onto the roof of the bus, squealing and kicking, as they were dragged by a rope around the neck to the roof.

Kirsty and me decided to do a "nothing" day, Lisa decided to do a hike from Quilatoa back to the Black Sheep Inn with four others from the hostal. They left on a rented truck with a guide at 9:00am.

Kirsty and me lounged in the yoga room, listening to music and reading all morning, had a cheese plate for lunch (there's a Swiss trained cheese factory out here in the middle of nowhere), then played a round of disc golf, the highest disc golf course in the world. Great course, very steep, and hazards include sheep, mules, cows and pigs.

Up about 8:30, had breakfast.

At 9:30, Lisa, Kirsty and me left for the cloud forest hike. We are situated on the east side of the last mountain range before the ocean, so hot coastal air rises up the mountains and produces the Andean Humid Forest. It's an ecological reserve, but there's no control in the area.

Quilatoa is sooooo windy. It howled all night lng. I had dreams of the roof blowing off of our hostal. It was cold last night too, but they provided lots and lots of thick blankets.

We got up about 6:30, they said that's the only time of day to see the two sisters ad Cotopaxi without clouds, but it was quite unimpressive.

Back to the warmth of the bed and slept again until about 9:30. We got up, got breakfast, packed, then sat around, played cards and whatever. We're heading to Chugchilan, but the only bus rolls through between 1:00 and 2:30 in the afternoon.

Up early, about 7:00, showered and had breakfast. Not in a hurry, the first bus to Quilatoa doesn't leave until 10:00am.

Walked to the bus depot around 9:30 and almost had to stand on the bus, we arrived just in time to get the remaining seats. 2.5 hour bus for $2.

The guy (local) sitting beside Lisa had bad armpit smell.

Got to Quilatoa (elev. 3850 metres) around 12:30 and a little boy convinced Lisa to come to his parents hostal (Hostal Pacha Mama), $12 each, includes breakfast and supper. It's pretty cold here, gaining lots of altitude.

Slept awesome last night. Woke up about 8:30, 10 hours sleep or something.

We got our laundry, had breakfast, then we (with Rafael) took a taxi to the southern bus depot to catch a bus to Latacunga. Rafael is going to Riobamba. Bus depot is brand new and is amazing. It's like a brand new airport.

Caught a bus to Latacunga (elev. 2800 metres), 1.5 hours for $1.25. Buses to Latacunga leave every 5 minutes.

Up early, 6:00am, for breakfast, then to Charles Darwin Research Station to see tortoises and Lonesome George, the only surviving tortoise of his species from Isla La Pinta. They tried to mate him with close species but he shows no interest.

When we were getting into the dinghy to go to the research station, Daisy was driving the dinghy. She's the bartender on the boat. When I got on, I said to her "You drive the boat?" She replied, "Si." I then said "Tengo miedo!" ("I'm scared!") She laughed and said "Oh no, it's ok...do you like to swim?" Everyone laughed.

Up at 6:50, breakfast, then did a wet landing on a beach on Floreana Island. Here we saw pink flamingos, sea turtle's nests and had some beach time. Cloudy and cool, but there were lots and lots of rays at the beach, you could stand in knee deep water, and they'd swim around you. They feel really weird when they touch your feet.

We got to sleep in a bit this morning, breakfast was at 7:30 instead of 7:00. We went to Esponola Island over night.

Went to the beach about 8:00 to hang out. Cloudy and cool today, but the sun came out for a bit at the beach. Got an awesome picture of a pelican hitting the water, fishing.

Back to the boat and dinghy snorkelled. At the first spot saw a turtle and a couple of rays. Second spot had tons of fish. Super strong current at the second spot.