I just realized that I forgot to eat last night.

***

I'm not sure if this is charming or insanely cruel, but a truck drove around town this morning at 6:00 with a brass band playing songs extremely loudly in the back of it. Combined with the loud blasts of fireworks and it was another early morning for me despite staying out drinking until 1:00 or 1:30. The steam bath I'm about to take followed by a big breakfast should make up for it.

***

That was interesting. I feel completely invigorated. It was an alternation of being enclosed in a box full of hot steam for 4 minutes and wiping oneself down (up, actually) rather methodically with a cloth dipped in ice cold water. We did that 5 times, broken up in the middle by sitting in a tub of cold water while massaging my own belly, just below the navel in a clockwise motion (as per the instructions) while the attendent (José) splashed water over me. It ended with a thorough hosing down with a power sprayer. All in all, it lasted about 45 minutes and, while at points I wished it would end sooner, I feel great now. Just hungry. I've ordered breakfast, though, so soon enough all will be well.

***

My food is arriving in small stages. I now have blackberry juice (so good) and a little cup of cane syrup. All I need now are pancakes and coffee and I'm ready to go.

***

The scenery here is beautiful. No longer am I in the high, dry hills. Everything is green and covered with plant life. The mountains are steep and crowded together. A waterfall trickles down the side right next to the town. There's a weird abandoned space ship building not far away. I can't wait to go wander. I've been advised by the Irish to go on the waterfall tour. I may very well do that. I also think I'm going to take advantage of the cheap massage place. This is a pretty luxurious spot, and yet nothing costs that much.

***

Breakfast is a more crowded scene up here. Due to a lack of tables, two girls have been seated with me. They're also from Ireland. In fact, they're from the same places as the other girls (Tipperary and Limerick), but they don't know each other and are onlz vaguely aware of the others presence (they picked out the Irish accents, but never saw the other girls). How odd.

***

My breakfast was huge. A heaping plate of pancakes, fruit and yogurt. It was satisfying.

***

The waterfall tour is on the same kind of bus that the trip up the hill was last night (a sort of open air safari type thing called a chiva, not to be confused with a chivo, which is a goat). The trip was pretty awesome. It was a three hour tour (everyone, sing along) and I spent it hanging out with an rather interesting guy from Israel named Amit (again, spelling is only a guess) and two Norwegian girls named Elizabeth and Elisa. We went across a canyon on a cable car, got drenched by a waterfall as we drove under it and saw a spectacular waterfall called El Paílon del Diablo. To finish it all with a bang, Elisa and Elizabeth decided to partake in the bridge bungee jump on the way back into town. It was all good fun.

***

The people who live here are constantly sweeping. Sidewalks, store floors, the streets themselves. That volcano is a pretty inconsiderate neighbour sometimes.

***

I went for a wander after catching up on internet and ended up running into the Norwegians again. We went to a Mexican restaurant where the chimichanga is pretty good (although the girls had chocolate crepes - I don't think I understand Norwegians all that well). They're heading off on the volcano chiva ride (again, not a chivo ride, that's different) I took last night and we made extremely tentative plans to meet up later.

However, I went back to my room and fell asleep. I guess the late night, beer, early morning, and activity finally caught up with me. I hope they're not too upset with me for standing them up. So far, Norwegians seem pretty unpredictable and I hear their grudges are brutal.

***

This has been a tough blog to type. For some odd reason, the 'y' and 'z' are switched around on this keyboard (although you'd never know from looking at it) and some other things are a little off as well. Thus, if something looks a little odd in my typing, blame the keyboard. It hates me.