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We are finally in Baños! This city is an extremely popular tourist town for all the amazing outdoor activities it has to offer, and it's one of the places I was most looking forward to in Ecuador. Because it was dark and we were tired we got a taxi for $1 to the hostel we had decided to stay in, called Plantas y Blanco on Calle Martinez, though the bus terminal in Baños is very central and within easy walking distance of most of the small city. We were starving, as is usually the case once we get off a long bus ride, so we dumped our things at the hostel (where we got a 4-person dorm all to ourselves for $8/night each) and set out to find a restaurant called Casa Hood, which had been mentioned in both of our guidebooks. It is a great little vegetarian-friendly restaurant with lots of different international dishes, tons of drinks (including delicious smoothies) and yummy brownies. They also play movies every day at 4:30pm, so I decided to go the next day for the movie. We actually ended up going to Casa Hood every single day we were in Baños, and twice on one of the days for a total of 7 visits. By the end of our time there the staff got to know our faces and always made sure to take good care of us. By day 4 one of the waiters even asked us if we lived in Baños, which we found quite funny. I sure wouldn't mind living in Baños, it's a great little city surrounded by beautifully lush green mountains and tons of waterfalls.
Our first full day in Baños was very productive, and we felt accomplished after doing nothing but bus travel for days. We woke up at 6am to go to one of the many hot springs, which the town is famous for and named after. We chose the pools called El Salado because they are supposedly less crowded and popular than the others, though they are just barely out of town. We got a taxi for $1 to take us out there and we arrived at 6:45 to find the pools totally empty; there were about 8 other people there besides us, score! After renting our super sexy bathing caps for $0.30 that everyone has to wear, we soaked in the various pools, ranging from cold to warm to practically scalding, for an hour or so before having them call us a taxi to take us back to town. We found a place to have breakfast and then set out to visit the zoológico, the aquarium and zoo just outside town. We took the 11:30am bus for $0.25, so we saved a whole $0.50 on a taxi ride. We weren't expecting too much from either place so we were pleasantly surprised by how great both parks were. The aquarium cost $2 to get in, and they had fish and tons of snakes (mostly boas) and these cool aquatic salamanders. We almost didn't notice the outside area, which was quite large and packed with exotic birds, including flamingoes, peacocks, parakeets, and very rambunctious ostriches. There were lots of really colorful birds I had never seen before so that was exciting, and they had Cayman crocodiles, one of the smallest and cutest croc species. They also had lions in the back of the aquarium (we found it strange they weren't at the zoo across the street) and although their pen was a bit small, we were so close to them we could've reached through the bars to pet them had we been stupid enough to do so. There was a male and a female and I had never been so close to these amazing cats before in my life, it was pretty cool. After spending some time enjoying all these animals, we went across the street to the zoo, which had a $2.50 entrance fee. The zoo turned out to be far larger than it appeared to be from the street, and it was packed with all types of animals from various species of monkeys, to a jaguar and ocelot, tons of beautifully colored macaws and parrots, tortoises, and the endangered spectacled bears. The zoo was located in such a beautiful spot; there were a few miradors which offered a spectacular view of the surrounding lush green mountains and the river far below. We were some of the only Gringo tourists at the zoo, which I found surprising, and most of the other people seemed like vacationing Ecuadorians. I'm so glad we went to see all the animals, many of which are local and found in the Amazon, and it was a great way to kill a few hours. After the zoo we took the local bus back into town and went to grab a bite to eat at Casa Hood. The movie of the day was Touching the Void, a fantastic film about 2 young British climbers who were the first to summit a very difficult mountain face in the Peruvian Andes in 1985 and ended up fighting for their lives with everything they had on the descent. The fact that they both made it out alive is absolutely incredible, and one guy's determination to live is remarkable and completely awe-inspiring...if only I could recall their names. For those of you interested in mountaineering or the capacity of survival instinct some people possess, I'd highly recommend this film. We returned to the hostel early in the evening and spent the rest of the night hanging out upstairs, amused by the rowdy group of boys playing drinking games.
On our second day we planned to go canyoning, which is basically repelling down waterfalls. We met at 9am at the GeoTours office, who we had decided to book the excursion with because we received a 10% discount with the South America Explorers Club. A half day of canyoning usually costs $30 and we got it for $27, big savings! I'm so glad we booked with them, we had a small group of only 7 people and the 3 guides were very well prepared and hilariously funny. The other people in the group were really cool and the day was really fun. We descended 5 waterfalls in total of increasing size, but we only repelled down 3 of them. For one our guides attached a zip line so we got to fly down the rope and one guide braked us at the bottom. For the last waterfall we got to go down on our backs like a water slide. One of our guides who was called Chicito Martin (or Chicky Martin) put 2 long leaves in all the girls helmets so we were little conejitas (conejo is Spanish for rabbit) for the day. He also painted our faces with mud, and it was fun to watch him fly down the waterfalls like a little spider monkey. All the guides also thought it was fun to splash water on us when we were least expecting it and have us pose together for ridiculous pictures. I would definitely recommend GeoTours to anyone who decides to do adventure activities in Baños. The guides are fully bilingual and really fun.
We returned from canyoning at about 2pm and went to lunch at a local restaurant where we all got yummy sandwiches. After lunch 3 of the people from the group were still hungry so they decided to go to the local market for some cuy (guinea pig) which is the national dish. I saw this as our chance to try a bite of cuy without having to spend money on a whole portion we likely weren't going to finish. So we followed Sarah (a funny outgoing Canadian girl) and Jimmy and Louic (2 young French guys traveling together) to the market where they proceeded to order a plate each. Jimmy let me try a bite from his plate and I am sorry to say I was disappointed. It tasted exactly like chicken, but it's an animal with less meat and a much tougher skin that was almost impossible to cut through. It was pretty entertaining watching everyone else wrestle with their cuy in an attempt to salvage every bit of meat they could, but a bite was more than enough for me. After lunch we made plans to meet up with the guys that night at a bar, then said farewell and headed to the hot springs. This time we tried the really popular baths, called Aguas de la Virgen or something like that, and Sarah tagged along. The baths were walking distance, unlike the first pools we went to, and cost only $2 to get in. Because it was already 3:30pm and the pools closed at 4:30, we only had about an hour to soak, which is definitely enough time. The appeal of these pools is that they are situated at the base of a beautiful waterfall and they are right in town, but they were crowded and didn't have the most relaxing ambience. It was still worth the $2 to have a nice soak though, and by the time we were done I was definitely ready to chill out for a while and do nothing. Later that night after dinner at Casa Hood, we got ready to meet the Frenchies at a very popular bar called Leprechan. We beat them there so we played with the bar kitty for awhile until Sarah and the guys showed up, and we had fun sitting around telling jokes and anecdotes. The canyoning guides all showed up after awhile and one of them works there, so he gave us all a free flaming shot. I have no idea what alcohol it was but they set the shot on fire and we had to drink it very rapidly through a straw, hoping all the while that the flame wouldn't jump up and burn us in the face. The bar started to pick up around 11:30 and the dancing started. We danced a bit but it was pretty crappy music so after a bit we decided to try the bar across the street. There we were the only Gringos and we received another free flaming shot. We danced for awhile there too, before heading back to our original spot, which was more packed than it was when we left. Because I'm a grandma I could only hang until about 1am, but I think the others kept at it until the wee hours of the morning. It's easier for me to stay out later when I'm far more drunk than I was and when there are attractive men around to dance with, which there were not. Lauren and I left the others with the plan to meet up at 9:45 the next morning for a bike ride on the Ruta de las Cascadas.
When Lauren and I arrived at GeoTours the next morning, our new meeting spot for everything it would seem, we found only a hungover Sarah and no French boys in sight. We ditched them because I'm sure they were passed out until early afternoon. We rented bikes from GeoTours for $5 (they usually charge $7 but I asked for 5 and they said OK) and we headed off along the road toward the waterfalls. The route follows the main road at first, which was a little nerve wracking because it was a Saturday and there were lots of cars, but all turned out fine. On the way we passed a few little gondola systems that carry passengers across the river for $1.50. They seemed pretty cool and I really wanted to ride on one, but unfortunately Lauren was far in the lead and she didn't stop at any of the stations so we blew right past all of them. The bike route ends at the Pailon del Diablo, a massive waterfall with huge amounts of water gushing through a hole in the rock. To reach the waterfall there is a path through the jungle that is really pretty and I saw the coolest little lizard. The entrance fee for La Cascada del Diablo is $1.50 and you can go to a few viewpoints, as well as squeeze through tight spaces in the side of the mountain in order to climb up under the giant waterfall. In doing this you will become absolutely soaked, but it's really cool to climb up. All in all the ride and the visit to the falls only took us about 2 and a half hours, and from the waterfall we caught a truck heading back into Baños for $1 and we could load our bikes in the back. The road to the falls is all downhill so it's not really enjoyable to bike back to town, as the way back is many kilometers of biking uphill. When we got back we went to this cool hippie cafe called Sativa, where we all ordered a delicious veggie burger. Mine came with a super yummy salad on the side that was made with flowers, and everything was hand picked from the garden out back. I also got a drink called a Melomel, which was guava juice mixed with fermented honey to make a slightly alcoholic kombucha-like drink that surprisingly made me a bit tipsy. The rest of day was spent lounging and of course eating dinner at Casa Hood. The hummus and pita there was too good to resist!
Our 4th day in Baños was by far our least favorite. We had learned the day before at El Pailon del Diablo that the weekends are a bad time to do anything touristy because there are tons of people everywhere, tons! At this time of the year most of them are vacationing Ecuadorians looking to spend a weekend away from Quito or other big cities. Unfortunately we still decided to do touristy things on Sunday and nothing we did worked out in our favor. First we awoke early and caught the 7am bus to our favorite Salado hot springs, where we found every single pool jam-packed with people. We took one look at that, turned right around and got a taxi back into town. After breakfast we went to one of the many spa places where Lauren got a massage and I got a 30 minute facial for $10. It was the first facial I've ever had and I wish I could say it was awesome, but it kinda wasn't. I doubt I'll ever have the money to blow on a spa treatment in the states but I'd still like to try another facial sometime, I know they have to potential to be good. When Lauren was finished with her mediocre massage we found the bus going to Casa del Arbol, which is up in the hills in the small community of Runtún and is supposed to be a 15 minute drive from Baños. The bus was extremely crowded and ended up taking an hour, during which time we were standing up trying not to fall on the locals because the road was so curvy. The bus cost us $1 each and afterwards we figured it would've been better to take a taxi up for only $5. But we wanted to do things like the locals so that's what we did, and it's always an experience. Casa del Arbol is a small treehouse with a swing; it overlooks Baños and offers a great view of the valley below. It's fun to swing on the swing, which is perched right on the edge of a hill, but there was long line of people by the time we got up there and it definitely wasn't worth the hour long bus ride or the 45-minute line for a turn lasting less than 30 seconds. It also started pouring rain when we got there, which didn't add to the experience. I would recommend visiting Casa del Arbol but I would say it's most definitely better to go during the week. We were quickly learning that weekends in Baños are Hell. Since we took the bus up to Casa del Arbol and that stopped running at 2 (it was 2:15 when we finished) we didn't have a ride back. I wanted to go to this cafe up in Runtún called Cafe del Cielo because I had heard it had good food, great views, and 34 different types of coffee. While it did have great views, it unfortunately was lacking in the other 2 areas. We started walking down the road from Casa del Arbol, hoping to get a ride from someone. A truck came by that gave us a lift back down to Baños, where we foolishly hired a taxi to take us right back up the hill to the 'awesome' cafe. When we arrived at Cafe del Cielo it was full and they told us it would be a 5 minute wait. We glanced at the menu and didn't see a single thing that sounded appealing. The 34 different types of coffee turned out to be nothing more than different preparations of coffee drinks, such as lattes, mochas and so on. Not what I was hoping for, because that's really not that special. We were really hungry at this point and after waiting 10 minutes and watching people get seated before us who had apparently called ahead, we walked back out to the road in the hopes of catching yet another taxi back down to town. There is a hiking trail that leads from the cafe down to Baños but it's about an hour walk and we really wanted some food. Luckily a cab came down the road not too long after we started walking and when we arrived in Baños we immediately booked it to Casa Hood, where we ordered our usual hummus and pita appetizer and one of the many yummy dinner platters. Moral of the story is that Sundays suck.
We were going to leave Baños on Monday morning but we decided to add an extra day so we could go rafting. We went back to GeoTours (of course) and signed up for a 9am trip for $27 with our $3 discount. The group we had for rafting was really cool; there was a couple from London on an 8-month Honeymoon that we chatted with the most and a nice French couple. There was also a family of vacationing Ecuadorians, so because there were so many of us we only shared a raft with the French couple. Our guide was really cool and funny and we all had a blast out on the river. I fell out once, and so did the French guy, so that's always fun. Nobody got injured or lost their paddle, and we were so cool that we didn't flip once like some of the other groups, so it was a really good day. I think I have fallen in love with rafting, it is so much fun. After a couple hours of riding the river we went to a local restaurant for lunch, then returned to Baños by about 2 in the afternoon. For lack of anything better to do we went to Casa Hood and watched the movie of the day, The Elephant Man, which was a story about a guy named Joseph Merrick who was severely deformed and lived a tough life in 19th century London. It was a good albeit sad movie and I'm glad we watched it.
I was sad to leave Baños the next day, it's such a great little town. As well as being known for the hot springs, it's also famous for delicious taffy. However, it's only delicious if you buy the soft taffy that they keep soft by continually stretching it. Once they stop doing that it becomes extremely hard and not very delicious at all. So if ever in Baños be sure to try the fresh taffy and not the packaged stuff, as the packaged taffy is awful. As sad as it was to leave Baños, I'm excited for our next experiences in the jungle towns of Puyo and Tena. Finally we will spend some time in the Amazon, rainforest here we come!
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