Plants and White

I officially have seven days left in Quito... I'm going to try to fill you in on all things Ecuador before I leave. That's my goal. Let's see how it goes.

Three weekends ago we visited a city in Ecuador called Baños. Translated literally, Baños means baths, and the city certainly lived up to its name. We arrived Saturday morning in one of the only rainfalls I've seen in the last two months. We chucked our things into our rooms at the hostal (Plantas y Blanca... literally, plants and white) and went directly to a tour agency to set up our weekend.

After Sophie and Elaine invaded and sacked the bakery attached to our hostal, we almost immediately hopped on bikes and went lurching down a mountain highway outside Baños... in the rain. It was terrifying and wonderful. We stopped at several points along the high way to look at waterfalls and to ride YET ANOTHER cable car over a canyon.

Look Mom, helmets! Totally safe. Except for the rain and the highway part.

Waterfall... Claro.

After our bike ride a van picked us up and took us farther down the road to where we were going to start our white-water rafting adventure. Now, as far as rapids go, I've been told that the ones we did were pretty tame; however, they were quite scary enough for me. I loved it, except for the time that the boys, Laura and I got chucked off of the raft. That part was not my favorite.

I think this is previous to falling in.

The crew after rafting.

As part of our tour package, we were able to take a chiva up the volcano next to Baños to overlook the city that night. A chiva is basically a bus without sides that plays blaring music with neon-strobe lights that careens around curves as it blasts up the mountain. If it hadn't been pitch-black outside, I'm sure I would have been terrified; however, it was pitch-black, and I loved our chiva ride. We stopped toward the top of the volcano to overlook the city, listen to some Ecuadorian comedians and simply relax.

Our chiva :-)

Baños at night. Perfect.

It was an incredibly full and fantastic day. That night we explored the city a little before heading to bed. Sunday morning we woke up, dragged our tired bodies to Mass and ate one of the best breakfasts I've seen in Ecuador. Afterward, my companions went canyoning, which is basically rappelling down waterfalls. You adventurers out there are probably screaming, "Sarah! Why wouldn't you do that?! It sounds like SO much fun!" And you're right... it sounds like fun, and the pictures show that everyone had a lot of fun. But you have to keep in mind number one: my fear of heights and number two: I've kind of reached my two-month adventure quota. I don't regret not going. ESPECIALLY, because while everyone was rappelling down waterfalls, I received a bomb-diggity massage. So there.

I'm kind of regretting waiting so long to write this, because I'm not sure if I'm able to give you the full Baños experience in this belated blog post. I will say, that it was one of my favorite trips to date. After my companions returned from waterfall hopping, we visited one last waterfall. I shared the headbands I had bought that morning while I explored Baños solo, and I enjoyed our last, dazzling views of the area.

Deep in thought.

I mean, honestly... look at that.