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OK I am really far behind as what I am about to write about happened on the 30th April!! I just cant keep up!! So Ecuador, like England has a May bank holiday except they always have theirs on the 1st May so this year we had the 1st and the 2nd off (as the 2nd was a friday and lets face it everyone would have bunked anyways!! plus the president said its time to hit the beach...we had to obey his orders obviously!!) but first...on the wednesday afternoon Carla, Isa (Imogen to you guys), Emily and I went to a small town about 3 hours south of Quito called Baños (which means baths but also toilets...nice i know!! i would like to confuse the two!!) its a sort of tourist town (aka gringolandia...not as bad as Montañita tho!!) but got loads of activities you can do there and its quite sunny but really beautiful. set in yet another valley so the scenary is breathtaking and less than 10 miles from a volcano (whose name has escaped my memory) not actually insured to go there because the volcano errupted on feb 6th this year but too good an opportunity to miss out on really!!
So we set off from Cumanda as normal, no usual occurances this time tho thankfully!! got on the bus just fine...it did look like it was about to fall apart tho i have to say!! cant complain really as i managed to sleep almost the whole journey despite the fact we left at about 4pm!! we arrived in Baños at bout 7 pm ish with our 'guide' aka emily who assured us she knew her way around as she had spent a day in Baños with her boyfriend. Needless to say her sense of direction wasnt amazing and we did end up just wandering around looking for Hotel Patty (super cheap!!) and Geotours(highly recommended by a friend!) Eventually we came across Geotours (i would like to point out that Baños is a pretty small town, way smaller than the Heath and it took us ages to navigate around!) anyway at Geotours we organised our Canyoning for 9 am the next morning. We were also left to dwell on the thought of a bridge jump (salto de puente). Obv Me and Carlita were game but Isa and Emily didnt seem convinced. I mean I cant see why- who wouldnt want to jump off a jump high bridge with only a shallow river beneath and the only thng keeping you alive is a rope and lets face it Ecuadorians arnt known for their safety!!
We eventually found Hotel Patty, dumped our stuff (not however Isa used her amazing bargaining skills with el dueño to get the hostal down to $3.50 a night - a minor miracle on a holiday weeekend!! gotta love travelling with this girl...brutal!) So we went to find some food even though i wasnt hungry (and i wonder why I'm fat, doesnt take a genius!!) Emily had gone to a really nice chinese restaurant with Alex so we thought it would be nice to munch a bit of chinese...could we find it...yeah right (usually i would use a different phrasing but toning down the language on the blog now!!) I swear we sereached almost the whole town, to the point i actually think she invented this restaurant!! We never actually fouund it either! So we ended up in some really posh restaurant where despite the fact the waiter was wearing jeans and a wife beater we felt really unconfortable!! he was rude and patronising and didnt like the fact emily and isa didnt want a drink! so guess how annoyed i was when they charged 10% service onto the bill...what service!? I wasnt too bothered by the service to start with though, i was looking forward to my chilli con carne...con nachos. dont know why i bothered...the chilli was bland...more of a soup and the nachos were stale! que pena! im complaining becuase the food here hass been really good bar that!!
After dinner no-one was in the mood for doing anything so we went back to the hostal and crashed...we did have a long day ahead of us!!
4 am the next morning the alarm went off and we were up and off down to the hot springs (banos/baths whatever u wana call them!!) u may wonder why we were up at such a stupid time...one explanation...we were with Imogen who has a bit of a habit of gettin up early to miss the queues...teleferico is all i have to say!! despite the alarm going off so early we didnt get to the baths till 5, its only a 10 min walk. (i think that is probably my fauly - its just impossible to get out of bed at such a stupid hour!!) So i stumbled through Baños finding it very hard to see as you know im still asleep really...extremely jealous of the other people around who ae also stumbling but for a very different reason!! when we got to the baths i have to say i was suprised not only did it have a stunning location at the bottom of a volcano and a waterfall but also there were a fair few people there (ecuadorians but still) The pools, like Papallacta, were alright, as always a bit dirty and totally full of other peoples sweat...yummy!! But its cool just to sit and chill out with the girls in warmthwith such an amazin surrounding (the fat ugly old men in speedos are clearly not ncluded in that descriptions!). We got out after a while (and very quickly dunked ourselves in what felt like an ice cold bath!! 16 degrees aparently tho!!) to see the sun rise whch was the reason we were there so early. HOWEVER we were totally surrounded by mountains and actually couldnt see the sunrise so just saw the sky change colour!! pretty all the same i guess!!
After having warmed up (slightly) we went to go and find some breakfast, yet another Baños food disaster!! considering it was quite a busy and popular place, they could not work out how to waiter, we had food we didnt order, didnt have food we did order, emily wasnt told what we she wanted was out of stock until we had almost finished our breakfast! what a nightmare!
Think we went directly to Geotours after that where we met Miranda, a girl from London and the guys from Geotours...only know our guides names Paolo and Jose. WE put on our extremely shexsay gear (see pix) including what i swear is a bright yellow nappy (charley...im sorry im not helping myself with these outfits i know!!!) have to say wasnt impressed with the wetsuits, they show every lump and bump and when your getting fat it just doesnt help the sel esteem!! So we jumped into the mini bus, you think you get stared at for being a gringa, try being a gringa in this sexy gear!! The minibus pulled up and in we jumped with our guides Jose and Paolo (do u think their from ecuador!?)
The waterfalls were stunning, especially the last one and i have to say abseiling down them is a lot scarier that what i thought it would be!!! the leaning back thing over a waterfall attached to a rock but a rope just isnt for me!! the last waterfall was 45m, which was actually only a 7m abeil and the rest was a drop!! so much fun!! The waterfalls are set in enormous vallies so the view on the way down is incredible. We trekked back up to the road and got the mini bus back- all nice and wet!!
So we got back to Geotours AGAIN!! got changed (everytime i forget how hard it is to take off a wet wetsuit!) we ate our included lunch (ham sandwichs...hmmm) and chatted to the guys for a while. i would just like to point out when i talk to the locals its always in spanish..i am proud of myself for it!! We arranged to do the brige jump later that day (only $10!!!) but in the meantime we needed to get changed!!!
Back at the hostel I started chatting to a Colombien called Edwin who was telling me all the decent places to go (in Colombia), how much buses cost, how long they take eta eta...so useful!!!Best way to find out about travelling is to speak to people who have been there, locals are the best!!! Afterwards we grabbed some seco de carne and headed back to geotours!!
We had a different guide this time (he was old and i dont know his name!!) but Paolo came to, think he thought he would be moral support... Miranda was first to go, then Emily, Carla and finally me!! Imorgen totally chickened it!! Miranda and Emily didnt seem to have enjoyed it much but Carlz and I loved every second!! The bridge was really high, not quite sur ehow high. Carlas guessed at 50m but i wouldnt have a clue!! Below is a gorgeous (but shallow) river, rocks and loads of greenery. shame about the lack of pictures to be honest!! So you have to stand on the railings of the bridge with the heaviest harness in the world. no joke i could barely stand ( i know im week anyways but totally beside the point!!) it felt like i was just gunna fall off without having to do anything. i did have to do something, you have to start falling backwards and then push yourself off - hard to explain but you end up doing a sort of backflip thing. Carla was the only one who did it rpushed hard enoughtto make it look good!! if not the rope sort of spins you round and you end up looking like a dead body!! not pleasant!! it doesnt hurt just doesnt look as good!! The adrenaline rush was awesome, has cured me for a while!! Such a shame about the pictures, no mum there arnt any of me actually falling. sorry!!
The night the rum and coke was purchased(well we aare skint pre drinking is required. even here!!) Isa had a whole 2 cups and declared herself wasted, bless her cottons. I had a cup and had an allergic reaction to something and wasnt up for going out. The others still did and managed to wake me up whilst TRYING (so they claim) to sneak back into the room, it wasnt not quiet!!
he plans for the 6 hour bike ride to Puyo soon went out the window as everyone was chuchuki (hungover) I soon found out the gosip from the previous night (not to be disclsed on here)
Carla and I spend the day wandering Baños whilst Isa and Emily went for a nice long walk to the waterfalls. We bought some Havianas and watched men make sweets out of sticky sugar cane stuff in the doorway of the shops. Oh i also got my haircut for $3 cheapest haircut EVER all split ends are gone!! we also went to a pretty little park and hung out there for a bit, ddrinking batidos and just generally chatting. was really nice. nice and sunny aswell!! We met ANOTHER english prson aswell, they seem to be flowing into Ecuador at the min!! Hugo (is his name) and he seemed a bit arrogant, but still had loads of stories to tell about Cusco and just generally about travelling!! He told us we could do a bungee in Cusco!! We chatted to hhim for a bit and then headed down to the bus stop to buy our tickets to aTACAMES. It didnt leave untill 9.30 so we had time to do sometihine else...we decided on a parapente (i dont know the word in english paragliding maybe??)but aparently the sky was full...how is that possible?! so we chilled there for a bit then Dario and Paolo decided that they were gunna take up to see the volcano (and listen to it!!) It was really hot but so enjoyable. The boys knew so much about nature and surrounding areas of Baños. The place is covered with grenadine farms with massive signs saying FAVOR NO ROBAR so what do they do...take as many as possible!! well we would have dehydrated if not!! they gave us other fruits to try and showed us what certain plants did (remedy wise not drug wise dad!!), was like being back in the jungle. We watched the volcano until dark, it was incredible. Puffing out enormous blasts of smoke. I´ve never seen anythin like it!! so so annoyed we didnt have our camera. no-one could be bothered to walk back so we hitch hiked on the back of a camioneta along with a load of corn. There wasnt enough space for the boys so they ended up just hanging off the back of the thing!! They tried to persuade us to stay there but no-one can take me awway from the beach!!! so off we went to atacames!!
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