Log #11 Baños, Ecuador

After almost a week of staring at the magnificent Cotopaxi, from the not so secret Secret Garden Hostel, I unfortunately had to leave and start heading south towards the Peruvian border. I enjoyed my stay at the Secret Garden so much I considered spending a month volunteering there. However, I will be heading back to Brooklyn at the end of February so I didn't have an entire month to spare. So rather begrudgingly I said good bye to the mountains, loaded into a van with seven other people, and off we went to Baños. 

Every traveler I met in Ecuador was heading to or had just visited Baños, an adventure town on the edge of the Jungle: waterfalls, zip-lining, bungee jumping, and taking a turn on a giant swing (for the instagram pic) is what Baños has on offer. Despite its popularity, I wasn’t totally sold. After the summit of Cotopaxi and staying at an incredible hostel that served me three vegan meals a day, poor Baños had a lot to live up to. 

I arrived in Baños in the evening, dropped my bags at the hostel, and walked though heavy rain to find some dinner. A vegetarian spot, Café Hood, fed me a large burrito with rice and some very tasty salsa on the side. The good food made me feel a little bit better about this new place. However, in my post-epic-mountain-climb funk everything was feeling pretty average. It didn’t help that the hostel I had booked in Baños was the dirtiest so far. All the good ones were completely booked for a holiday weekend, so really I was lucky to have found a dorm bed at all. And for $7 a night can one really complain? After dinner I hung out with the other lovely people sleeping in the dorm, and we made plans for breakfast and a bike ride for the next day. Though I felt there might be some creatures already occupying my bed, I climbed into my top bunk and fell asleep right away. 

Early the next morning we had breakfast at a cute, though strangely German themed place, called Rico Pan. It was not very vegan friendly, but I managed with two rolls of really delicious bread and a large coffee. From our booth I sipped on my giant coffee and watched people walking by. All of a sudden I recognized a face and ran out to say hello to a lovely Canadian woman I had met days earlier on the ride from Quito to Cotopaxi. We walked to a cafe down the road to collect her boyfriend and the two of them joined us for the remainder of breakfast. 

All around Baños there are bike renal places where you can rent a bike and helmet for $5. Myself and four other hostel homies rented bikes and headed towards a row of waterfalls just south of the city. We took off and I felt like I was in middle school again, biking around the neighborhood with a group of friends. Or one of the kids in Stranger Things, though my rental bike wasn't nearly as cool. The bikes were good fun, until we go to the main road. For the first half of our ride we peddled along a very busy road with huge trucks speeding by. As someone who takes bike safety very seriously, it was a bit scary. Eventually, as we got farther away from the city, the traffic died down and a couple bike paths made for a more enjoyable adventure.

Along the way we stopped at several waterfalls and zip lining points to watch people zip across. Then after maybe an hour and a half we arrived at the main attraction, a waterfall called Pailon de Diablo. We chained up our bikes at the entrance, bought some fruit to snack on and made our way down a beautiful rain-forested path. The path lead us to a massive waterfall, with an incomprehensible amount of water pounding down every second. An awesome path cut into the rock wall to the right of the waterfall lead from the first look out point to a second. We had to crawl at some points and climb at others to get through the tunnel. From the second look out, a set of stairs lead to a third one directly behind the wall of water. One by one we ran up to stand behind the waterfall for a few moments, not only to get a nice refreshing spray but experience the power of this natural wonder. 

After the waterfall we found a truck willing to take the five of us and our bikes to a place called La Casa del Arbol, a famous swing in Baños. Up a very steep, windy road we drove until we arrived at the place. I was surprised to find the swinging looking like more fun than I had thought. I waited patiently while a Russian woman had a little photoshoot on the swing, her adoring partner and photographer directing her as she posed. They must have take over 800 pictures of her on the swing, if not more. Then she hopped off and I had my turn. A little treehouse positioned on the very edge of a cliff holds two swings, one on either side. So, every swing takes you over the edge of the cliff and for just a moment you feel airborne. Like you might take flight. The whole experience makes for a crowd pleasing Instagram. There are several other swings to play on as well, so you might as well have a go on each one. We played around for an hour, during which the clouds concealing the top of a Tungurahua, a volcano towering over all of Baños, slowly cleared revealing the active volcano. An Ecuadorian girl I met told me the volcano is so alive you can often hear it rumbling like thunder. 

After everyone had their fill of the swings, our group decided to bike all the way back to Baños. We rode back down the very steep and winding road the truck had drove us up. It was really good fun letting go and plummeting down this hill at full speed. Though as the path merged back into the main road a steady incline good between us and the city. Of course the Dutch man in the group tackled the hill with great ease, while the rest of us hunkered down to make it to the top. 

That is all I have to say about my one day in Baños. If it sounds rather uninspired, thats because it really wasn't my favorite place in Ecuador. The bike ride was really enjoyable and I met really nice people, but it's just not really my style. I am definitely not complaining about being able to visit Baños, that would be absurd. Especially since I learned something valuable from going there: while traveling you have to discover what you like and stick to it. You've gotta do you. It is easy to feel like you have to see all the main attractions, or go where everyone else is going. Things are usually popular for a reason, however, if it's not your cup of tea then you don't have to go, or you don't have to stay long. For some the jungle is where they want to be, others want to jump off things by day and hit the clubs by night. Myself, I want to be in the mountains. So back to the mountains I go! 

Stay Tuned, 

lil 

*Pardon the average photographs, I've misplaced my photos of Baños.