Baños

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After my first full week in Spanish school in Quito and way too much information trying to make its way into my head, my housemate and I took a bus on Friday afternoon to the relaxing town in the valley about 3 hours away, Baños. It was good to get out of Quito after a hectic week there and I was looking forward to some hiking and a bit of R & R.

Considering it is low season we had no problems finding somewhere to stay. The difficult part was only after one week of spanish lessons I had to put it into practice with the owner of the hostel. It was quite confusing at times but after a good 5 minutes he finally realised that I wanted a room for a few nights. Can´t wait to get better that´s for sure...

We didn´t waste our first night there and took a chiva to a lookout point over the city which was really nice. A campfire was started and a comedian told some jokes for the next 30 minutes. It was quite amusing even though I had no idea what he was saying. I knew he was being derogatory towards women with his gestures but found it hard to follow the story.

Early the next morning I wandered around the outskirts of the town and got a good view down into the valley towards Puyo. This is where all the waterfalls were and later on that day when the German girls arrived we were going to go explore. I walked up a few hills to no end and then decided to walk up to the Mirador de la Virgen del Agua Santa which involved around 650 steps. Despite the heat it was a nice walk up and the view of the town and up to the Volcan Tungurahua was magnificent.

By the time I arrived back to our hostel the German girls had arrived and shortly after we arranged our visit to the waterfall valley. We jumped on a chiva with a few other people and drove through a couple of tunnels and through the valley. It was beautiful with waterfalls left and right and steep green hills on each side. We arrived at a small bridge that had two bungee swings and Moa and I both tried the smaller one which definitely looked the safest (If u watch the video just watch the first 20 seconds. Don´t have any editing programs with me at the moment).

We also had the luxury of crossing the valley in what I will describe as a shopping cart. It was basically a cage which is attached to a pulley system that is used by the local people to either cross the river themselves or to transport goods across. The landscape has changed alot after they dammed the river and made a hydro scheme (blame the US and Oil companies for that one) so this makes it alot easier than walking down and u the steep banks. However I felt safer on the bungee swing after we crossed the valley and came back again. I felt like I could easily have plunged 30m to my death. Oh well, safety first...
Afterwards we walked down to one of the waterfalls and went for a little swim. It was nice to be back in nature and out of the big city.

After a couple of drinks and some dancing the night before (I think every man in town asked the girls for a dance...who could blame them?) we had a quiet Sunday morning in a cafe before visiting the Virgen de la Piscina hot baths to get splashed and urinated on by screaming kids. It was a lovely setting with the rolling hills in the background but I think we arrived a bit too late to beat the crowds. The cold showers coming off the waterfall was a great contrast of freshness between the murky hot waters in the baths. Good fun though. Unfortunately we had to go back to Quito in the afternoon so we can get back to our Spanish lessons, which I need at this moment in time. Might visit Baños after I have finished school and go around Ecuador for a couple of weeks. Will see what happens.

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Photos

Looking up at Volcan Tungurahua
It erupted in May 2006 and they are expecting a larger eruption in the next couple of years