In Chugchilan, I am staying at the Black Sheep Inn. The bus dropped me off at the road. I had to hike uphill quite a bit to get to the lodge. Made it about half way ? up, panting, gave up, dropped my bags, and played with the black sheep. One was a ram with big horns, and the other was a female, that looked like she had dreadlocks. Ian, the manager, met me there and carried my rucksack the rest of the way up. Took the wind out of me, since they´re at 10,000 ft!

He gave me the tour. The Black Sheep Inn is really nice. It´s surrounded by mountains, and pretty much in the clouds in the evening. And brrrr..very cold!! I´m in the 3 story A-frame bunk house. It´s really nice. Lots of blankets on the beds, too. :)

I walked around a bit, had some coca tea for the altitude, and met a couple - Jen and Tony from San Francisco, but moving to Australia when they finish with their 5 month tour. They actually booked at Mama Hilda´s, but they were the only people there, so they said they might think of changing hostels. At $20-night, the Black Sheep is a splurge, but well worth it!!

I walked around the grounds with my 2nd cup of tea in my hands. I went down to play with the sheep. I was petting the girl with the dreads, then went over to pet the ram. Then I hear Michelle, the owner, yell from above, "Be careful!!!" As I´m turning my head, the bastard rams me in my left side, below the hip -- very hard!!! Me and my cup of tea went flying and hit the ground! Oof! He hit me so hard that I flew far enough to be out of reach of him. Jesus, never did I think I´d come to Ecuador and be assaulted by a farm animal! Haha. I couldn´t do anything else but laugh about it, because it´s pretty damn funny! :D

Later on, I met some more folks at the Inn -- an american couple travelling with their 2 daughters and a family from Montreal.

Had some severe altitude problems in Chugchilan. Nose and throat problems too -- I´ve heard a lot of people catch a cold when the first come to South America, so this may be one for me!

Since today was July 4th (and the place is American owned), we had a pre-dinner BBQ with sausages. It was really nice. The food is awesome! MMmmm!

In the evening, we lit off some fireworks in the patio area, and set off 2 globos --a sort of like paper hot air balloon traditionally set off by Ecuadorians during festivals. It was pretty neat, watched it float away. We sent the second one off, and in flight, it caught on fire, and the pieces came back down to earth. No worry, we checked and didn´t set any fires off!!