not-finca sarita

On another, non-finca related note, we did not make it out to the coast this weekend due to the fact that all of Quito was going instead, and there wasn't room on the bus when we got there (we even got there 45 minutes early!). Instead, we improvised and went to Papayacta to some hot springs about 3 hours away (inlcuding slow bus transport). We took full advantage of our entrance fees and soaked away for a while, trying to get an idea of what we could do afterwards, talking to people in each pool. When we finally emerged all pruny and white, we walked the trail back instead of hitching as we had done before, and got on the first bus that passed. A man on the bus told me about Sangolquí, a pueblito nearby that was supposedly in the middle of some corn festivals. We got off when he told us to, and found ourselves...not in Sangolquí. We ended up in another truck headed down to Sangolquí, and once we were there we found out that...there was nothing there. No corn festivals, nothing. We asked around and found a seedy hostel and marvelled over the fact that such a tiny town could seemingly exist on only internet hole-in-the-wall stores, dvd rental places and beauty salons. After singing karaoke with some locals in one of 3 or 4 open restaurants on a Saturday night, we bid buenas noches (rather, bonne nuit because I was with 2 french friends) to the cockroack in the bathroom and slept early. In the morning we travelled again by truckbed (the only traveling options) to Molinuco, a "nearby" waterfall attraction.

Molinuco was actually quite lovely- it was a nice, 2 hour hike to the falls, and we had to forge through a river at one point, getting my hiking shoes completely sopping wet with water that came up above my knees. Still, we had stopped by the absolutely crazy but very typical open market that morning and we had lots of granadillas, my new favorite fruit, and mandarinas and empanadas and we picnicked. After hiking back we chatted with two employees, one who was friendly an an ecotourism student, and another who was invasive and abrasive. She asked us three times if it was our first time at the falls (after saying yes the previous times we changed our answer to no and she stopped asking) and asked us about our favorite parts of Ecuador, grilling us as to BUT WHY??? when we responded. My favorite question was when we were trying to escape her and she hurried to keep up with us and asked us what our favorite Ecuadorian fruit was. After responding (duh, granadilla!), we had to duck into foliage to escape interrogation. I travelled with Mattieu and Noemie, both French, and tried my hardest to pass as French as well, though my pathetic pronunciation gives me away.

amor & amour to all