Carrie and I are actually in Punta del Este, Uruguay right now! We had stopped over in Buenos Aires (and will be back), but we wanted to try out the beach here. Unfortunately, mother nature is once again interfering, but hopefully things will warm up soon. Ecuador was truly a wonderful place -- out of Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador, we would be most likely to return to Ecuador for another vacation someday. My last post ended with the Galapagos... After that, we were back in Quito for a more extended stay.
Our main goal after arriving back in Quito was to arrange a flight out of Ecuador to Argentina. We were quickly getting worried when one-way fares were exceeding $600 and $700! However, we got lucky when we ran into another one of our mysterious contacts. In Quito, we frequently ran into a friendly older guy named Diego, who was originally from the US. He seemed well versed in all things Ecuador, and had given us advice on other things before. He told us to go to a specific travel agency (Galasam) to look into airfares. Low and behold, this travel agency hooked us up with flights to Buenos Aires for less than $400. Thank you Diego!
One day in Quito, we headed into "Old Town", or the historic center of the city. We were disappointed by many museums and sites being either closed or under construction, but still enjoyed ourselves walking around and seeing various buildings and plazas. Even walking the streets is scenic. I love how you can look down a street and see mountains looming in the background:
 |
| From Quito, Ecuador |
Another neat place we found in Quito was Parque Carolina (recommended by our friend Diego). This was basically a very large park with lots of activities, and we found a little museum containing lots of snakes! One of the feature activities was actually holding a snake. In this photo, the snake is actually licking Carrie's back!
 |
| From Quito, Ecuador |
Since we always stayed at the same hotel in Quito, we got quite used to our neighborhood. Our hotel didn't include breakfast, so we quickly found favorite places for breakfast. One of them was called "Friends", and they really hooked it up for only about $3!
 |
| From Quito, Ecuador |
All in all, we felt like Quito was one of the first cities we felt that we could live in. It had an easy to navigate transit system, lots of good restaurants, fun bars, and friendly people. I found bars where I could watch the World Series, and was amused by how the Ecuadorians cheered at every exciting play, regardless of who was making it. When we were finished with Quito, we followed some other traveler's recommendations and headed to the small town of Baños, about 3 hours south of Quito.
We quickly realized that Baños was a great town! It is nestled in a valley between tall, beautiful, and green mountains. There is a volcano nearby that we occasionally got glimpses of, but it was frequently covered over by clouds. Since we were missing the wedding of our good friends Jessica and Anthony at this time, we decided we would do a scenic bike ride in their honor. From Baños, you can rent bikes for $5 and follow the road to Puyo, a town about 60km away. The ride is advertised as being all downhill and full of scenic waterfall views. Other than some occasional bike chain problems, the ride did not disappoint! Here are some photos:
 |
| From Baños, Ecuador |
 |
| From Baños, Ecuador |
This picture is from a cable car we took across the valley towards a waterfall:
 |
| From Baños, Ecuador |
"The Devil" Waterfall:
 |
| From Baños, Ecuador |
After lunch, we found out that the ride wasn't entirely downhill, and faced some rough uphill stretches. For this reason, and because we spent so much time exploring waterfalls, we didn't go all the way to Puyo. We waited by the side of the road, and after about 10 minutes, a yellow minivan taxi pulled up, offering to take us (with our bikes) back to Baños for $3!
Another highlight of Baños was the abundance of thermal springs to bathe in. After an outdoor activity during the day, we would go to one of the bathing areas to relax. Most places had pools of different temperatures, and since we were there during the week, the crowds weren't too bad. We don't have bathing pictures, but here is me at one of the places before we got in:
 |
| From Baños, Ecuador |
On the day after the bike ride, we decided to go white water rafting. There are a couple popular rivers for rafting there, and we opted for the more challenging (and more fun) Rio Pastaza with its class 4 rapids. Our company (Geotours) was great, and the guide would often intentionally lead the boat into situations that resulted in everyone getting brutally splashed, without tipping over the boat. I don't have photos from the actual rafting, but we did take a break midway through where we got to jump into the river from the surrounding rocks:
 |
| From Baños, Ecuador |
The other major event in Baños was the Red Sox being in the World Series! Suddenly, having cable tv available became a high priority, as the games were all on ESPN Deportes (the spanish language ESPN). After having some room switching issues with our hotel, I was able to watch the deciding game 4. Here are some photos of me celebrating with all of Red Sox nation in Baños:
 |
| From Baños, Ecuador |
After the final out, I went into the streets to celebrate with everyone!
 |
| From Baños, Ecuador |
All in all, Baños was a great time. It was mostly relaxing (other than our hotel situation), and it had beautiful scenery. I loved how you could do fun athletic activities during the day and then relax in soothing baths while gazing at a waterfall at night. How can you beat that?
To any potential Baños travelers reading this post: A note on our hotels... The Hosteria Monte Selva seems like a great place. It has some nice cabins up on the hill, as well as its own jacuzzis and thermal baths. However, their staff is very deceptive and sometimes tells you outright lies. For instance, if your cable isn't working and they say someone will come up to help you, that is not true. Also, despite the cards in the room that say the jacuzzis and thermal baths are open every day, they are in fact only open on the weekends! So, if you're like us and arrive on a Sunday, you will be disappointed the next day when you discover everything you had paid extra for is closed. If you're coming during the week, I'd highly recommend the Hostel Isla de Baños, literally right across the street, with nice rooms for half the price!
After Baños, we headed to the beautiful town of Cuenca, before heading out of Ecuador. Look for a post from Carrie soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment