pululahua-crater

 close to mitad del mundo, there is the volcano-crater called pululahua. inside, there is a green world with a lot of agriculture and animals.

 pretty plants with honeybees

on the walk from the top to the bottom of the crater

 cute pink plant

 a lot of cows

 sweet puppy

 sort of a farm

 in the restaurant where we had lunch, we ordered also the horses for the ride later. was quite special having a "horse-menu"

 while riding the horses, on the road there was *surprise* lying a dead one. because of that, our horses were afraid and mine just started running into the fields!

 one of the few houses down in the crater

 there were also a lot of pigs :-)

 a little cabin

 in the afternoon, it was getting foggy and spooky..

 me riding after our guide

 more horses!

 some elderly lady walking with her dog

 babe :-)

 nice and spooky

 at the end of the ride, we went up this tiny way inside a forest

 what you see on the way..

 back in the stables, estrella with the dogs from the place. the one in the middle came with us.

estrellas horse having lunch after the ride.

my birthday

 on my birthday, i went to quito. to meet estrella, i went to her home (cause she didn't have a mobile at that time). in order to find her door, she wrote me this nice message :-)

 with my friends, we went out for dinner. i ordered a martini, estrella a strawberry juice. we mixed it and it was delicious!

 at no bar with my girls. our favourite place in quito :-)

 at midnight, it was time for the birthday ceremony :-) first, a little firework to open the champagne..

 ...then, every birthday girl and boy got a bottle!

 was delicious!!

 my crew :-)

 estrella and me. picture cause i'm wearing her birthday present-dress!! thanks again!

 next day, cool one. spending 4 hours to wait in the office to do the censo (sort of an ID, if you're here for longer than 3 months you need it in order to leave the country). after the whole thing, i was told that it was only valid for 30 days as at the moment they didn't have the material to do the card, so they just printed a provisional paper. so i can go there again in the 30 days before i leave! thanks a lot for that ecuador!!

 after this annoying story, great sushi before going back to sierra flor!!

 arriving there, my friends had a cake ready!! thank you again!!

 the weekend after my birthday, i went back to quito for the after-birthday-party :-) here, nati is demonstrating, how finnish car-boys smoke cigarettes.

 if you're friends with the bouncers from no bar, your arm looks like that at the end of the night...

 in this beer bottle (belonging to some stranger), nati disposed of her chewing gum. unfortunatley, after doing that, she realized that the bottle still was half full. 20 minutes later, we went checking and the bottle was empty, but the chewing gum still inside. well, sorry about that, but it wasn't on purpose :-)

 next day, going out for dinner. well, more dessert than dinner :-) including chocolate cocktail!

with estrella, we went to foch club, to try out a new place. they have fish!!

 cuba libre, so strong we had to dilute it with more coke.

 afterwards, going to no bar again. here's one of our bouncer-friends, leo. in his hand, the famous stamp!

before going to bed, we went for mexican food. well, i ordered a crispy tortilla without nothing. that was quite hard to understand for the cashdesk-guy!

quilotoa lagoon

 on sunday, i took estrella to the lagoon inside a volcano-crater called quilotoa. it's a 2hours busride away from latacunga (horrible 2 hours, a totally shitty street). that's where we got out of the bus, in zambahua, to take a camioneta to the lagoon.

 on the camioneta-ride we enjoyed the pretty scenery.

 some crack in the ground..

 must be so quiet to be there with your sheep the whole day!

 estrella the tourist :-)

 a lot of mountains around us

 a woman working in the fields

 on the road, we saw a lot of people walking the way, like these ones..

 ..or him..

 ..and her :-)

 at least, this guy had a horse.

 when we arrived at the lagoon, first you have to pass a lot of tourist-shops selling the traditional souvenirs. as all of them had the same stuff, we went to buy warm clothes from this cute girl :-)

 the camioneta-ride really cooled us, so we needed a lot of woolen clothes like this hat.

 after the shopping-trip, we finally saw the lagoon. so beautiful, we were amazed! and too big to take a picture of it.

 on our way down to the bottom, "quilotoa beach", eduardo offered us to come down with us to give us a ride up on his horses. even accompanied by the baby.

 susan and quilotoa :-)

 estrella was quite afraid of the way down. the girl (marisol, eduardo's daughter) with our horses, she made it easily with her high heels. well, not high heels, but a 3cm heel. these shoes are part of the traditional clothes from cotopaxi.

 she always had to wait for us :-)

 my new shoes got a bit dirty..

 poor girl going down an even steeper way!

 getting closer to quilotoa beach!

finally at the bottom!

whoever this dog belongs to..

 some horses getting ready for the hard way up.

 estrella in the back as always :-) this time with the baby-horse.

 waiting for them!

 some tour-guide of a group of germans posing nicely for my picture :-)

on our way back, view over pujili and surroundings.