Baños

This weekend was an absolute blast [for the most part]. Thursday night a bunch of us went out to an Argentinian steakhouse and then went dancing. It was fun, except when I'm in a large group of people, I tend to sweat a lot, which procures quite a bit of stink-eyes.

After a severely hung over Friday morning, a bunch of us decided on a whim to take a 3.5 hour bus ride to a tourist city called Baños (which literally translates to 'Baths'). The town is known for its large indigenous population and natural hot springs. Unfortunately, the combination of these two things made it impossible to enjoy either, as the multiple times our group tried to enter the Springs it was chock full of the indigenous. But we still were able to do a lot of other things.

I guess I'll start earlier. We (and by we I mean five of my gringo friends) decided to meet at 11:30 at a nearby bus station and leave from there. One girl stayed over at two of my other friends', so she had to travel a half an hour each direction to pack some stuff, so we pushed our meeting time back to 1. Then another of our friends decided he wanted to come, and one of our original group decided to invite this (uneducated, annoying, and altogether quirky and unwholesome) girl he was seeing, thus inspiring other to invite other people, and so on and so forth. Our group grew to about 15 people, which is an abhorring number of people to travel with. 

After thinking the bus station was one way, then directing our taxi cab to two incorrect locations, we finally found the "Terminal Terrestre" which is home to busses that travel all over Ecuador. After boarding our bus and buying some alcohol (a native brew called "Cristal" [not the expensive kind]), we were soon on our way. Our bus driver was absolutely nuts. It was nerve-wracking enough driving over steep cliffs with guard-rails of approximately five inches, but he felt the need to pass everyone. Keep in mind, this guy was passing sports cars and motorbikes by driving into on-coming traffic. Often times, passee would speed up, stranding our bus in a lane with traffic traveling the opposite way. When this happened, cars would often careen toward us, forcing the driver to change lanes to the left AGAIN into a non-existent lane, teetering on the edge that led into deep, rocky basins. I was in the second row, so I could see absolutely everything that was happening, and let me tell you, it was not so much fun.

I figured a little alcohol would call me down, and so reaching into our bag, I opened up the Cristal. Imagine my surprise when I smelled it and there was no stench of vodka or tequila, just a stagnant odor of crushed-up peas lingering in my nostrils. I practically vomited all over my friend Marshall in the next seat. 

When the alcohol proved to be an impossible option, I laid back and prayed for it to be over, but it only got worse. The driver continued to pass cars, now not only on mountain edges, but while going around curves where the traffic was impossible to predict. He also did not turn his headlights on the entire drive, which began at 6:00 pm (the sun sets here at 6:20, remember) and ended three and a half hours later.

As much as I thought I was going to die, I was much relieved when we arrived in Baños all in one piece. We immediately went out to eat at a Swiss Bistro (it was difficult finding room for 15 of us to eat together) and then to a bar, but most of us retired early, exhausted from traveling.

It was agreed that our entire group was to go bike-riding the next day, which proved to be an interesting feat.  Entrusting our safety to an 18-year-old Ecuadorian tour guide, we all went biking through the Andes to see a few "cascadas" (waterfalls). At one point, the road entered a mountain, and with no other passable route, all fifteen of us had to ride about 500 m (nearly 1800 ft) through a straight tunnel with no lights. It was possible to see the other end of the tunnel, but about half-way through, it became pitch black, which is dangerous with 15 bikers going 15 different speeds. I was third in line almost the entire tour (which I found ironic considering I had a cigarette in my mouth half the time), so I only had to worry about 2 people in front of me in the tunnel. When we exited, all of us stopped to wait and make sure nobody was left behind. When there was only 13, some of us began to worry. We yelled into the tunnel, and were then informed by our British friend Megan that Rick (her traveling mate) and an artisan named Leah who was staying at our hostel were still in the tunnel. Megan noted that she had heard a few rocks skid, but didn't think it sounded much like a grave fall, but her estimate proved wrong as we heard the squealing of tires and a car quickly turn on its headlights (yeah, NO ONE drives with their headlights on here, even when they're in a pitch-black tunnel) followed but the shadow of Rick in front of the car, bending over to pick up his bicycle. Both Leah and Rick exited the tunnel about 5 minutes later, Leah bloody and ripped-up from flipping over Rick after he fell. It was comical, largely because Rick spent the morning saying he hadn't ridden a bike since he was seven and wasn't much looking forward to biking, followed by Megan's echo that Rick is probably the most un-athletic person she knows.

After that adventure, we visited "El Manto de la Novia" (the veil of the fiancée), which a waterfall that you can visit but taking a cablecar hundreds of feet about the rocky Andean terrain. That was really interesting; someone like me who is scared of everything traveling by a thin cable. Needless to say, my face was white upon return to land.

We also visited "El Pailon del Diablo", a waterfall named from the devil's face that appears in the rocks at the bottom. I'll post pictures when I get them, they're AMAZING, but the hike down to see it was brutal. We literally walked to the bottom of the Andes, no easy feat, and then had to climb and crouch through cave walls nearly a yard tall (if you can imagine Gollum from Lord of the Rings, you can get a pretty clear picture) to walk behind the waterfall and view its power in full force. It was beautiful and awe-inspiring at the same time. The sheer power of the water hitting the ground and bouncing back up reminded me of a miniature Niagara Falls. 

We visited one more cascada called El Machay, where we all swam. It was awesome. Imagine a blue lagoon with 2 giant waterfalls falling from above. The only unpleasantry was the rocky bottom of the stream with cut my feet up a little bit, but it almost seemed like a scene from Turistas. We all stripped to our underwear and just jumped in. Incredible.

Anyways, after that, the bike trip went smoothly. Some of my friends went bungee jumping and some almost got hit by oncoming traffic, but we all got back in one piece safely. That night we took a volcano tour that began at promptly 9:15. We had all decided we were hungry beforehand, so I spoke with the hostel owners to ask what was fast, cheap, and good, because we decided to eat together at 8:30. After hearing of a place that serves great Ecuadorian food, some idiot in our group decided to veer off toward a place called Café Good, which took an average of 45 minutes to prepare anything with meat on the menu. Nobody bothered to ask, however, so I was entrusted with the task of returning to our hostel where we were supposed to meet for the volcano tour, and demand of the guide that she wait another 15 minutes for everyone to arrive. I was furious. I may not have intricately planned where we were eating, but I had a plan and this stupid girl blew it all off to go somewhere on a whim, and all 15 of us followed her like lemmings. I wish she would have fallen off the Chiva that we traveled on (sort of like a short bus, but you can ride on top) to get to the top of the mountain.

The next day 5 people decided to go horse-back riding, which cost $25 that a third of the group didn't have, and they stayed persistent even though it was freezing and rainy. I stayed behind with my friend Mook who took the Canadian artisan Leah up on her offer to put a wrap through his dreads. Everyone left periodically through out the day, separately, the weekend having taken its toll on our collective friendships. I will never travel with a group that large again.

After another three and half hour ride that took almost four, I arrived in Quito, but not after suffering about 5 soiled baby diapers and a smushed bus filled with people who don't shower. See, the bus lines here like to make extra money, so even though every seat is filled, the driver picks up people on the side of the road who pay half the price to stand the entire way and make the ride uncomfortable for the rest of us. The corruption is so prevalent in this country, its very disempowering to know that even though I paid fully for my ticket, I can't prevent the bus companies from doing what they want to do. 

I went to a bookshop called Papiros yesterday to pick up 2 text books from a store required by my Spanish class. After getting home, I realized that they had given me two of the same books, so now I have to take another hour bus ride just to exchange them. How annoying.

I have class soon, so I better stop here. I believe I'm going to a soccer game this weekend, so that should be fun! Hasta pronto...