Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
We made it back to Baños! This is my favorite little Ecuadorian town, I just can't get enough of the adventure tours, food, or the beauty and quiet quaintness of this tiny little place. This time we are here meeting up with our friends we met in the jungle: Juan, Katie, Eric and Aleah. We arrived one day before them and checked into the hostel we all shared, Princessa Maria. A private room with private bathroom is only $10/night each, not too bad. One of my favorite parts of Baños is the plethora of restaurants serving a wide array of cheap vegetarian breakfast, lunch and dinner options. I think I have 6 favorite restaurants in this place, which makes eating out actually fun.
Before our friends arrived on Monday Lauren and I went early to our favorite hot springs right outside town, good ole El Salado. I love those pools, they are so giant and inviting that I could easy spend the day there relaxing in the warm water. The other 4 arrived around midday and we took them to our favorite local spot that has huge yummy sandwiches and lots of other cheap food options. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and booking various tours with our usual company, GeoTours. We all decided to go rafting on Wednesday, which left a day before that to hang out and basically do nothing except enjoy the town. One of my favorite pastimes.
On Wednesday we all headed to the GeoTours office for what would be Lauren's and my 3rd time rafting in Ecuador. This time we signed up for a full day, which meant only about 3 hours on the water but we would also get to experience the biggest rapids we've ever ridden. We had the same guides, which was funny because they remembered our faces, and it was so much fun to go with a big group of friends. Unfortunately Eric couldn't participate because he has a bad back, but the dream team had picked up a new member when they all went to Cotopaxi, a Belgian girl named Eveline. She's super outgoing, friendly and funny so she made a great addition to the group. There were other people signed up for rafting which meant that the group had to break up, but it all turned out alright. We went through some (relatively) small Class 2 and 3 rapids in the first hour, and then moved into the fun stuff. We got to do Class 4 and 5 rapids in the last part of the day and they were insane; definitely the biggest river waves I've ever experienced. Our boat flipped twice, which is always fun albeit a little scary (especially when you get trapped under the raft) and we also got to get out and swim a bit in the smaller rapids. Overall it was a great day with our new friends and probably my favorite rafting day I've done so far.
That night we were invited out by our guides so we all went to a bar called Good Bar, which as it turned out was to be our place for the next 4 nights. On that first night we were the first ones there meaning we were also the first to start the party. Katie, Eveline and I took over the empty dance floor and once we started dancing, everyone else joined in. People came in off the street and suddenly the bar was full, all because of 3 dancing girls. Gotta love being a party starter. All the guys from GeoTours showed up and soon the party was in full swing. We met 2 other American girls and they became part of our dancing group. We danced for hours until the bar closed down and then I think we headed home around 2 or so. The next 3 nights were kind of a blur for me, as they all started out the same way. We danced at Good Bar where ladies received free drinks, met up with the American girls, then eventually made our way somewhere else to dance and finally stumbled home in the wee hours of the morning. Our second night of partying we went to an after party until about 4:30 and then Aleah had the brilliant idea to walk to the hot springs in town, which opened at 5. Everyone else left after about half an hour but I stayed and soaked in the warm water, trying unsuccessfully to feel less drunk, until I finally got back to the hostel around 7am. Aleah, Erik and Lauren all left for the coast that night so for the last 2 nights of parting it was just Katie and I, though we always met up with our other American friends. That girl loves to dance and have fun; it was great to have a party buddy who was in it for the long haul with me. I don't think I've ever partied 4 nights in a row before, let alone stayed out past 2am for that many consecutive nights. For that I will always remember Baños.
On top of all the partying we did do some other things (kind of). I went to the hot springs a couple more times, we all went out to eat at our favorite restaurants, and of course we did some puenting. Puenting is the term for jumping off a bridge and swinging for a while on the end of a rope. This is different from bungee jumping because there is no bungee, just 2 cables that hold you on which you swing for a time before being lowered down to a small cliff about 70 meters below. The term puenting comes from the Spanish word puente, which means bridge. Go figure. It was definitely the scariest thing I've done in awhile, seeing as how I have a moderate fear of heights and the river was 100 meters below. The worst part by far was climbing over the fence on the bridge to stand on this tiny rusty-looking platform that was held onto the bridge by a couple hooks. Talk about scary! Watching all my friends go before me gave me the courage to jump off that bridge, which I probably wouldn't have have done or given a second thought to otherwise. If you know me at all you know that I can't watch other people do something without feeling a strong need to try it as well, it's a weakness. I also discovered that my answer to the question 'so if all your friends jumped off a bridge, you would too?' is a resounding yes.
I spent my last couple days in Baños hanging out with Juan and Katie, who I miss dearly. They are such funny wonderful people, I can't wait to go to Barcelona to visit them. I leave on a bus this afternoon after almost a week here in Baños to head solo to Latacunga, the jump off point for trips to Laguna Quilotoa. I'm on my own for the next week or so, should be awesome!
- comments