being a tourist in Banos

Tuesday, February 12 was a holiday in Shell so we didn't have office hours. I had the day off and went to Banos to be a tourist. I went with a doctor from Miami who is visiting Shell for 2 weeks. The first thing we did was go to the zoo. It was interesting. The majority of animals they have are animals that can be found in Ecuador. Some of the cages are small, but not too bad. And there were some animals that were loose (like the Tapirs). As you can see from this picture, you can get really close to the animals. This monkey kept coming by the bars like he wanted to be fed or petted. So I stretched my hand toward him to scratch his back and he put his hand out. I was slightly frightened, but he was very gentle, he just held his hand there and let us touch it, he didn't do anything.
The other monkey had a really strong tail. He put his tail out the fence and pulled Lilly's leg toward him, it looked like he was trying to get her purse. In the picture, you can see his tail on her leg.
After the zoo, we went horseback riding. It was a 3 hour tour that only took about 2 hours and 20 minutes. We walked, trotted, and cantered (that is my favorite part). We went to a water fall. After that we crossed a skinny bridge on the horses. On the other side of the bridge, we walked a little, then the guide said we had to get off. We got off and she told me to start walking up the mountain. She brought the horse up behind me then told me to get back on. We then walked up the side of a mountain on horseback. That is slightly scary, but very fun. I loved every minute of it. There was one point when the horse in front of me was sliding down in the mud and next to us was the edge of the mountain. I had visions of one of us falling and going down very far. But it was still fun. We made it to the top and went back a different way, thankfully. This picture is Lilly on the side of the mountain. Pretty cool, huh?