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Published: March 28th 2007
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I left Cuenca and took a night bus to Baños. A simple 7 hour ride, however, turned into a 13 hour nightmare!!! The bus left at 10pm..and it all started out perfectly - the man across the aisle from me is a professor at the university in Cuenca, and so his spanish was sooo easy to understand and it was really enjoyable to chit chat with him - because i could almost understand everything! Things took a turn for the worst as soon as I sort of fell asleep. The bus stopped...and at first I thought it was a regular check point, or bathroom stop...or something like that. Unfortunately no...there was a land slide! And we ended up stuck there from midnight until 6am!! And to top it all off, teh professor was the loudest snorer EVER - I wanted to smother him with a pillow. Unfortunately I had no pillow - and I suppose I would have felt a little guilty...It was horrible! Even my seatmate was horrible! He took up way more than his share of the seat, and had the window. The only good thing was that during our stop he got out and went to a
Jo, Me and Rachel
During the bike ride.. cafe on the side of the road - so I got both seats for enough time to get a decent snooze in. The bus finally dropped me off on the road where I was to catch a smaller bus directly into Baños. A pick up truck stopped first and asked if anyone was heading to Baños (it was a couple - and they were very harmless looking. And two other people accepted their offer - so I thought...why not. It was harmless. Really.) As we are driving, we see this long line of buses stopped and not entering into the town...and then it starts raining...but now clear rain...rain full of volcanic ash! Baños is in the shadow of a huge volcano that last erupted in 2006...hmm...so i start sort of worrying...getting a little concerned as to whether this was an evacuation or what....but it turns out that volcanic rain is common..and there are in fact MORE landslides on the way into Baños - so the buses aren´t able to pass through - which is why this couple was offering to take people (because the smaller cars could take the long way around and get into the town). So..that was comforting...
I get into Baños and check the whole place out - went to one of the Baths that they have there (5 pools of varying temperatures - all natural water from the thermal springs!) And then back to the hostel where I meet Jo - an awesome English girl away from her boyfriend for a week (he went to the Galapagos for a cruise...she stayed on the mainland) and then later that night a girl from Seattle - Rachel. We made plans to rent bikes the next day to go along the Route of the Waterfalls - a 25km road towards the jungle town of Puyo.
The bike ride was awesome - there were bits of up and bits of down..and beautiful waterfalls all along the way. We took a cable car across the valley at one of the bigger waterfalls and also did a small hike down to the bottom of it (and back up....) We all got along really well - that night we went for excellent Mexican food and then headed up to check out the volcano (they offer tours every night where you are supposed to be able to see the lava!) We brought
along some drinks, met a ton of people from everywhere from Vancouver to Sweden and had a blast...although we didn´t see any lava...We went out to a Club and had an absolute blaaaaast dancing and singing and meeting new people.
A friend Rachel met in Cuenca showed up in Baños, Dan - from England - and so the four of us hung out the next few days...We did the steam baths that our hotel offered - you sit in a box with your head sticking out..and alternate between hot hot hot in the box and then cold cold cold shower outside of it. It´s definitely not like anything I´ve ever seen before...We then rented ATVs (Quads, or 4x4s) and headed up the mountain to find the view point of the volcano. I managed to break TWO quads...the firsts´chain fell off....and then the next just wouldn´t start up again. Luckily Jo had her cell phone (and her juggling balls to keep us entertained!) so we called the company and they brought us new quads. It was pouring rain by the end of our trip, we were soaked, freezing, and muddy. We were trying everything to get my machine to start
In the bus on the way to the volcano
with our warming drinks of rum and coke! up again. At one point we even tried a bamboo shoot attached to one in the front and then me holding it to drag me along. The stick broke quickly...it was quite the adventure - and the hot shower when we got back was definitely necessary.
The next day we decided to do a canyoning trip. Now, to me..i didn´t think it would be too big a deal. I thought - yeah, sure...rapelling down a waterfall - crazy, but not insane. Oh - My - Lord ... it was one of the scariest things I have ever done in my life. You have no safety rope (only the one attached to your harness - which you hold on to as your break. If you let go...you would probably fall to your death. Welcome to Ecuador.) Our guide was very good and very reassuring, but I couldn´t believe what we had gotten ourselves into!!! And I´m not even afraid of heights!! OR water! Geesh...
We went out again - danced a TON (there weren´t more than 6 people on the dance floor at any given time - so you could really practice and show off all your moves! It
and..on TOP of the bus!
with some swiss guys, some vancouverites, some english people...the whole lot! was a blast - all those guides hanging around made for some goooood dancers!)
Me, Rachel and Dan left the next day to head to Quito - where the three of us are hanging out for the next few days. I have my flight on April 2nd from Quito to Panama ... goodbye South America, hello Central America!
Haven´t heard from soem of you in awhile...hope everything is still going well at home! I´m halfway through - and lovin´every minute...although I am actually excited for Vancouver in the summer...see you guys relatively soon!
Love, Lauren
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ron labrosse
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fat man
lolo you amaze me and scare me, rapelling down 40 meter cliffs does sound pretty dam scary to me and to most. however few know about the episode with the whirpool which to me was probably more scary but you didn't have time to think about it. hope you realize my hair is now completly grey. anyway keep as safe as you can under the circumstances. take care , love pop and by the way the zip lines were pretty good after the first run.