We woke up around 7:30 to get ready for breakfast at 8. We had a choice between yogurt and granola or eggs. The eggs have become less popular by this time. We then got dressed in clothes that we didn't mind getting dirty, and walked across the street from the hostal to the botanical gardens. Rodrigo, the owner of the hostal, explained to us that we would be planting as many trees as we could in the hour and a half time we had available. It wasn't long before we developed a system. Some people were bringing in the trees to be planted, others were cutting the plastic containers that the trees were temporarily held in, and others were digging and filling in holes. There was, however, one special job held by Vivian. She was "The Pooper Scooper". She walked around the area looking for horse poop and shoveled it into the holes we were digging for trees. We ended up planting 57 trees within the hour and a half time.
We went to get cleaned up and began loading the bus. We were given a few minutes to look around Rodrigo's store. Everything inside was hand made by him or the other workers of the hostal.
After leaving Hostal Urbina, we were off to Banos. It was roughly an hour and a half drive. We arrived at our next stop unloaded our bags and went to lunch. Our lunch was similar to buffet style, but everything was on the table. So, it took about 20 minutes for them to have everything ready. While we were waiting, David and Javier took Michael, Mindy, Nicole, Chelsea, Shelli, Vivian and I to look for a place to have our laundry done. We found a place on the same street as our hostal and it was very inexpensive. We went back and had lunch with the rest of the group. We passed around rice, lamb stew, chicken, steamed vegetables, and pasta salad until we were all full... or all of the food was gone. For dessert, we were served helado de mora ( raspberry ice cream) It was all very good.
We were dismissed after lunch. This was our time to wander around Banos and buy souvenirs or just look around the shops. We were told to stay in at least groups of two and be back at the hostal by 6p.m. Michael Ann and I walked around bargaining with the shop owners for gifts we thought our family members and friends would like. We were also went to look for me a bathing suit, but we didn't have any luck with that. We walked the streets of Banos for about 3 hourse before we went back to get our laundry and head to the hostal.
We all got dressed in our bathing suits and followed Javier around the corner to the Hot Springs. The springs ran into 2 pools- hot and really hot. Most of us went to the really hot one only to turn and walk to the other. There was no joking when we were told really hot. Some of the others stayed in, but Nicole and I left and joined the Demerath family. The pools were very relaxing. After about 30 or 40 Minutes, Mindy, Nicole, Michael Ann, Chris, Derek, and Gabe headed back to the hostal to get dressed for dinner. The others followed soon after.
We went to a restaurant towards the center of town. We were given the choice of steak or chicken both in mushroom sauce. I got the chicken, which was very juicy and delicious. We were given crepes de chocolate (chocolate crepes) for dessert. There was a soccer game on in the restaurant-Ecuador Vs Mexico. A few of us left there and went to cabinas to make phone calls back the the U.S.- only 8 cents per minute. As we were leaving, there were several lines of cars going down the streets honking and cheering for the Ecuador soccer team.
After calling home, I went with the group I was with back to the hostal to get ready for bed.
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