So my bus from Quito to Baños was actually really pleasant. I was on a big bus, like a greyhound, I was in the second row and had both seats to myself despite us stopping and picking people up. I thought I had grabbed my IPOD but it wasn´t until we were pulling out that I realized I had left it on my bed. I thought to myself, ´it will be alright, I won´t really need it´ and I didn´t. . . .The bus ride back however was a different story. It wasn´t the same greyhound type bus but a more local, put together with spare pieces kind of bus, much smaller. First of all, I didn´t realize they assign you seats on the bus. On the way there, it obviously didn´t matter and no one said anything. No prob, I went to the back to find my seat, but wait, there´s a family of 4 sitting in my seat and the one beside it, oh well, I will just grab the row over and explain if anyone comes. Then an older local lady comes and sits down beside me. She gives me a big toothless grin and I just smile back with my best Canadian smile! I look out the window and there is a couple making out, I think, ´I sure hope they don´t get on my bus´, but wait, they are getting on my bus, and sitting right in front of me, excellent! The bus is full but as we pull out of the bus station there is a crowd waiting. The bus ahead of us (which is much larger and nicer) stops and grabs a few of them and then we stop but I just think ´we have no space, there´s no way people are going to get on´, yep the more the merrier here! A lady ended up putting her baby in the overhead space and secured it with her bags so it could sleep. I looked around and there is another family of 3 on the other side of the isle from us and the little girl, around 2, is sick and is coughing, sneezing, you name it, I could go on . . . I grasp for a window but I then realize I am the row inbetween both windows, crap! Then I realize that no one on the bus has their window open and we are slowly running out of oxygen . . . I look ahead and just brace myself for the road ahead when suddenly loud spanish radio comes on and starts blaring rapido spanish talking! Well it can´t get any worse, I better just hunker down and get ready for the ride ahead, wait, what´s that? someone else in the middle of no where wants on, sure, hop right on, plenty of room here, you can sit beside the driver (who by the way is sitting on a plastic lawn chair - oh ya, I have a picture!) Okay, on the road again, oh sheesh, couple in front of me is making out again, well I think it can´t last that long, they need to breath at some point. . . ´wait, bus driver, someone wants to get off the bus here, in the middle of no where, that´s right, please let him off so we can be the last people to see him alive´. . . . ´shake ur bon bon shake ur bon bon´ I look over and the 70 year old lady beside me whips out her cell phone which is screaming Ricky Martin´s big hit and starts talking in rapido spanish, okay now I´ve seen it all, oh and look, the couple just finished. People, you know it´s bad when the sound of Kei$ha on the radio warms your heart . . . wait wait, are we picking someone else up? ´Helado, aqua, lemonada, helado, aqua, lemonada, helado, aqua, lemonada´ as if we don´t have enough people on this bus already, we pick up someone who wants to yell louder then our spanish radio station and crawl over the people standing in the aisle to sell items. . . maybe the baby wants something in the overhead, why don´t you ask them . . . oh wait, there goes making out couple again . . . oh and the baby with the cold is starting to sneeze on the window again . . . someone, please open your window . . . we stop to grab more people (naturally) and these guys are carrying what looks like over 100 bags of milk, so of course, there´s always room for 2 more and 100 bags of milk, hop right on. . . . all of a sudden I see the sign for Quito, we´re here! And we´ve just lost our radio signal so perhaps it will be a quiet coast in, nope, spanish man with sneezing coughing baby to the rescue! His cell phone has music which can be played loud enough for all to hear . . . and there goes his baby sneezing again, and there´s goes making out couple all over again . . .I look over at my 70 year old lady waiting for her to do something but I notice she has simply gone to sleep on my shoulder, excellent! After 3 hours we are finally in Quito and it´s then and only then I realize this was the best bus ride ever! I don´t even know where the time went!
