Catch up and Baños

Okay so I’m about to do a quick catch up of about three blogs because I’m way behind. The person that I was stealing internet from at home decided to get a password so I’ve only been able to access the internet at my school and bringing my computer on the bus isn’t always preferable. Luckily I’ve been keeping a travel journal with all my ticket stubs, receipts, and Polaroid pictures so you guys will still get my raw emotions and first reactions.

Our Hotel

Where we eat breakfast

Breakfast!

Without further adieu:

8 de julio-10 de julio Baños

So Brooke, Tucker, and I all decided to take the free weekend and travel to Baños. We left Friday around 5pm ish and arrived by bus around 10pm ish. That was 2 hours longer than it was supposed to take. Apparently it took so long because the driver kept stopping to pick up locals as if we were a public transit system that costs 25cents in the city. At one point we had the middle isle filled with people, and this was a regular tour bus mind you. So weird how the bus culture is in this country. Anyway, we got to the hostel safely and decided for an early morning hot spring sunrise experience.

            Around 5:30 am we were dressed in our bathing suits and ready to the find the legendary hot springs. Well apparently Tucker’s guide book sucks--or he didn’t know how to read a map—and we wandered around Banos in the wee hours for a good 45 minutes before a local in a white pick-up truck noticed that we obviously had no idea where we were going. He asked us if we needed a ride/taxi. We graciously accepted the stranger’s offer. He drove us to the hot springs and we paid him $1. There is absolutely no way we would have found that place on our own. Unfortunately the hot springs came no where near my expectations. Firstly, they cost $3 a person (the guide book said they were $1.50), they made my buy a shower cap (which I understand, but I was still a little peeved), and thirdly they were basically like a naturally heated public pool. Like they were cemented in and there were TONS of other people there. It wasn’t the naturalistic experience I was hoping for. Totally not worth the effort and funds out into getting there. But hey, it was an adventure and Brooke and I ended up seeing that ‘taxi driver’ later again that next day.

            Following the disappointing hot springs experience we ate an early breakfast at an adorable little French place. I love breakfast here in Ecuador. It normally consists of fresh juice, coffee or tea, fruit, bread, and maybe an egg something or another. It’s a light perfect way to start the day. After eating we had a break in the rain (which by the way it pretty much rained the entire time we were in Baños) so we all decided to go bike riding because other people had previously said it was neat. Lies. The bikes sucked, the biking road was actually the only car shared entrance into Baños (which we got a lot of honks because we were taking up their space and being slow), and they told us that it was all down hill. There were totally some points where we were going only up hill. Brook wasn’t really feeling the bike ride and was kinda sick. We told Tucker to go on and that we’d figure out how to get back. Well apparently we were supposed to take a bus, bike and all. One that that I haven’t really mentioned is that places down here really hate big bills, and by big bills I mean they consider $5 big bills. Well Brooke and I only had $20s and the bus probably would have cost around $1. Fat chance that we were going to be able to take a bus back. (Yes, they actually refuse your money here)Well long story short people in Baños are much nicer than people in Quito. We ended up talking a nice family into letting us chill in the back of their pick-up truck on their way back into the town. Luckily for us they were going to see Rio Verde, which was where we were biking to, anyway. So we got to cop out of the manual labor and see the sights anyway. Score. The family loved us. They thought we were totally hilarious. They kept wanting Brooke and I to be in their family pictures. Kinda awkward, but hey we’ll do it if you give us a ride back.

            The next day Brooke and I signed up to go canyoning. What is that you say? Well it’s like extreme repelling down waterfalls. I know, repelling sounds really lame-but everything in Ecuador is pretty extreme. We got really lucky and had a really awesome guide. He reminded my a lot of my friends from the red. He’s nuts, but completely safe and you trust him upon meeting him. We didn’t know this at the time, but apparently he also owned the company. He’s a really good guy. He got really upset at another guide that arrived right as we were leaving for bringing 8 people and only 1 guide. That’s how you know he’s legit. Also, the taxi driver in the white pick-up truck from the previous day was our driver to the canoyning location. We got a kick out of that. Small town.

            Anyway, canoyning was really fun. We got a full vegetation tour as we hiked up the mountainside to reach the cascadas (waterfalls). He pointed out all the plants and fruits that were editable and made us taste them. At first we were hesitant because we’ve been told since we signed up for this trip that we’d probably get sick from the food. Knock on wood I haven’t yet and still haven’t eating the random plants. The actual annoying was fun. It was neat to use all the equipment that I’m used to using. Made me feel at home to be using Black Diamond and Petzl. The cascadas were beautiful and it was fun to be able to be part of the raging water rather than just looking at it from a distance from a trail. I like things that are tangible. All in all Baños was a really fun time and it was nice to be able to get out of the hustle and bustle of Quito and the girl fest. Not to mention Jordan and I had just broken up. A nice relaxing weekend was the escape I needed.