Hiking and Salsa

We started the day with some shopping, after picking up a couple of bits at the supermarket we had a walk across the street to the Mercado Central where we managed to find some breakfast of cheese empanadas (this time deep fried, with sugar and tasting somewhat like a cheese filled donut) and a strawberry milkshake, this cost us a grand total of 3 dollars. We dropped the rest of our shopping off at the hostel and then set off. We walked out of town today along the main road until we came to a turning which was signposted to the zoo. Banos' zoo is located on a rock in the centre of a large and deep canyon and we got breathtaking views of the river far below from the first connecting bridge. Over the years the river has worn away the rock in some really interesting shapes and there are now large caves and grooves in the walls of the canyon where the water must have been flowing many years ago. We then continued on past the entrance to the zoo (after washington we haven't really felt inspired to go round any more!!) and crossed the second bridge to find ourselves on the other side of the canyon where we thought there should be a path to a viewpoint of the small waterfalls. It turns out that this path either no longer exists or has been closed down as there is simply no trail which goes even remotely close to the area we wanted to see. Slightly frustrated we decided to continue on with our walk and see some more of the canyon. We walked for some time observing the various waterfalls which appeared every so often and marvelling at the stupidity of the people who build churches on stilts over the canyon when there is no lack of flat land anywhere!! We also came to a small river which runs perpendicular to the main one and walked a short way up here past an old but well maintained church (it must cost a fortune there are thousands of the things!!) until we found a bridge to cross. We had been hoping that there would be another bridge back across the canyon but as we continued on it became increasingly clear that this would not be the case and we eventually decided it was time to turn back before it started to rain. We arrived back at the hostel ready for dinner but it was at least an hour before we could get the owner (who seems to disappear all day) and his entire family it seems managed to tell us where the kitchen was. After dinner we got changed into something slightly more smart and went out to find some dancing. We walked around for half an hour or so asking all the doormen what music their clubs were playing and eventually ended up in a place called the Leprechaun bar. As we went in they were playing salsa and we lost no time in having a dance!! It's quite lucky that we did as after about 25mins the music suddenly (another example of great Djing skills of latinos!! :p) changed into more clubbing style stuff. We then went outside to a sort of covered courtyard full of plants, fountains and a central bonfire, it felt surprisingly like rocking J's in Costa Rica, where we could actually talk to each other and waited hoping there would be more salsa later. We ended up waiting almost an hour but eventually the DJ decided it was time for another block of 30 mins or so, we danced to these as well of course and then to the reggaton which followed until we got bored. (and had finished looking at the very impressive artwork which adorned the walls inside) Leaving the bar we found a little shop where we bought a small bottle of rum and some coke which we drank sitting on some chairs by the side of the street, apparently this is illegal as we were quickly told to hide the bottle when the police drove past. We also watched the evenings entertainment of a teenage tourist staggering out of a club with 2 Latino men trying to hold her up. Eventually they sat her in a doorway and gave her more beer to drink (idiots) after which she promptly passed out. They then made a pathetic attempt to carry her and ended up having to drag her to another doorway across the street where they left her collapsed while they stood around wondering what to do. Fortunately the lady who told us to hide the rum had the sense to call an ambulance, which eventually showed up 20 mins or so later (tremendous sense of urgency as always!!) They eventually carried her off accompanied by what we assume were her friends, although we wonder what they were doing up until this point. With the evening's entertainment clearly over we got a pizza between us for $2 and went back to our hostel.