Puncuated by Punctures

Tuesday June 3rd

Today was a long bus journey to Banos. It was made all the longer by the drama of a big burst on a tyre, and therefore another tyre change. In fairness Colin and Pete are getting faster at doing them, and the rest of us have learnt that it is best just to stay out of their way. Too many cooks and all that.

More worrying was the load of smoke that started pouring out of the engine later. This caused a quick evacuation of the truck, and an appearance from the fire extinguisher. But it seemed like it was just another in the long line of oil leaks, which were supposed to have bene fixed weeks ago.

All this and we were still trying to find whether or not Banos would be there or not. The town of Banos is near a volcano called Tungurahua, which is currently slightly active. That day it was on Orange Alert. We had no idea how serious that was, but it turns out its been like that for a while. Its been a good while since the town was evacuated, although it did get a rattle of the windows only the previous week. Anyway we eventually got to Banos (which literally means bath, and like the town in Enlgand it is the sight of natural spas), although it was dark.

Also today we eventually figured out why the phones weren't working. Ecuador, in its bid to become the 52nd state of the US, seems to be using that stupid frequency that is only used in the States. But at least in the states they use another frequency so tri-band phones will work. To use your phone in Ecuador you need a quad band phone, and I had thought mine was, but it turns out it is only a tri-band like everyone elses.