Baños....ahhh....

From Quito to Baños it is a 4 hour bus ride. I was lucky because pretty much the second I arrived at the bus terminal, I was rushed to buy a ticket and waited for the bus for maybe 3 minutes. The bus terminal in Quito is kind of crazy. I don´t really get it. The ticket vendors seem to be competing to get your business. Everyone is yelling..."we are going here and we are going there"...it was kind of chaotic and it seems to me that it´s not like people get to the terminal and say "where should I go today?" and can be influenced by all the yelling. Maybe there´s more to it. I was happy, I bought my ticket and moved on quickly. On the bus, I met Anna from Sweden. She is amazing. Her Spanish puts me to shame and she speaks English perfectly. She lived in Spain for 2 years and Guatemala for 6 months so, she is an old pro at this traveling stuff. We didn´t have a plan for a place to stay in Baños so, when we arrived, we sought out a hostel. After trying a few, we ended up at a little hotel called the Buena Vista. It´s probably one of the best deals I´ve encountered so far.

That 1st night, Anna and I grabbed some dinner and randomly booked a tour to view the Tungurahua Volcano that same night and then a tour of the Cascadas the next day.

Baños is a little town known for the active Tungurahua Volcano, thermal baths, massages, adventure activities and is the gateway to the Oriente (the amazon). The town itself has an evacuation plan in place and 24 hour surveillance of the volcano´s activity. Our night tour was aboard a "Chiva" which is a tourist kind of truck with open sides and salsa music blasting . The tour was nice because it was clear enough for us to see the snow covered top of the volcano. We didn´t see any lava or red hot rocks but, we did see the smoke spewing out of the top. Our drive to about 4,000 meters was up a narrow, switch back road with some heart stopping views. It was cold the further up we climbed but clear and crisp. In order to help keep us warm, they served us a taste of the really strong local drink, Canelazo (I think that´s what it´s called). It was really strong and reminded me of tequila. The last time the volcano erupted was in August of 2006 and the town was evacuated which, of course, created even more of a draw to the town.

The next morning, we grabbed some breakfast and boarded the "Chiva" again for a ride up La Ruta de las Cascadas. We were on our way to the waterfalls in the area which included; El Manto de la Novia, Pailon del Diablo, and my favorite, La Cascada de Machay. We also took a cable car across a very high canyon. It was a quick ride across and back but a little nerve wracking! We hiked down to Cascada de Machay where Anna proceeded to get very wet. I stayed as dry as possible. I just love the sound of the water...my favorite!After the tour of the waterfalls, I went with Patricio, our guide, to the Pisinas de Agua Santa. The Pisinas are the hot thermal baths that the town is know for. It only cost $1.60 to get in! It was very relaxing. At first, I was a bit put off by the water´s murky brown color but, they say the color is due to the minerals in the water and that is what I choose to believe! It didn´t seem touristy to me at all. Most of the people there were definitely not tourists...just me!

Anna and I went out to dinner that night and later, I got to see a little of the Ecuador vs. Venezuela futbol game. The game didn´t go so well for Ecuador...not a happy crowd!