Baños again

As during my last time in Baños I had not had the time to explore the majority of the walks, I went back to it again. I was accompanied by Corinna for a couple of days. We did two hikes together: the sendero de Sauces and the Sendero al Mirador del Volcan. The first is an easy, less than two hour hike which gives a good view on Baños (and probably on Tungurahua as well, when it´s not in clouds). The second one is a bit tougher, as the ascent from the Virgen to the Mirador is pretty steep, and in addition it was raining quite heavily. Normally from the top you can see the summit of Tungurahua really close, but this time it was all in clouds.On our way down a local farmer started talking to us and invited us to his house for a cup of tea, saying he really liked meeting people and talking to us. We were thus a bit disappointed when, as we were leaving he asked us for money for the tea. This is something many Europeans struggle a bit with here, that there is rarely anything for free, and genuine hospitality (unless with close friends) does not occur that often. Corinna and I were discussing that it would be a more honest way of making money if the man would just open a little 'Jausenstation' (small restaurant) or just tell us upfront that he wanted money from us. Oh well...

For the first time since I arrived in Ecuador I was suffereing from a really bad diarrhea. It had started after a meal in Tena. For the first few days I was only excreting and when after 5 days it was still not over, I went to a doctor. he did not do any exam, just looked at me and said 'you have a Salmonella infection'. I asked hom how he would know and whether he would not rather want to do a test. He said he could see from my dry lips and tongue that I was dehydrated and whenever tourists present those symptoms it was a salmonella infection. Oh well, indeed a sophisticated way of diagnosing patients... So he kept me in his clinic right away and I had to stay 10 hours on a bed for an electrolyte infusion. 99 USD plus 25 USD for the medicine. I wonder how the average Ecuadorian deals with similar problems. As they most certainly can not afford that type of money. I guess they see the shaman.... I must admit, though, that with the addition of antibiotics, the diarrhoea was rapidly gone.

Another hike I did up to the refugio of Tungurahua. Although it's 2000m difference in altitude (1800-3800m) I did not find it too tough. There are actually two refugios. The lower one, though, is quite destroyed and surely nobody would want to sleep in there, and even the one which is a few meters higher is only marginally better.

The Sendero de las Contrabandistas is an easy hike along the river Pastaza. Only problem is that most people get lost after about an hour at a farmhouse, as the señalización is unclear here and one would never see the correct path. Only the friendly old owner of the farmhouse is able to help.... I also went wrong the first time and walked very high up in the mountain instead of going down....so I had to do the whole hike again the next day....

I also went canyoning one day (pics to follow). With a group of six and two guides we went down five spectacualr waterfalls. I quite enjoyed it. It was neither as scary nor as chilly as I had been afraid of.

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