Baños, Ecuador

The cloud followed us all the way to Baños, Ecuador, a small town nestled at the foot of a volcano. Noa and I landed at The Hostel Santa Cruz and met some of the most amazing people. We spent the day resting from the long treks, washing our nasty clothes, ourselves, and resting up. We watched a movie at my favorite restaurant in the world, Casa Hood. The movie, Touching in The Void, is a documentary about two guys who attempt to peak one of the mountains in the Cordillera Blanca, which is in Peru. I was hiking in the same area where they began the hike, needless to say, WATCH THE MOVIE!

That night we met the travelers in our hostel as we sat around the campfire drinking some beers. A couple from California who are VERY green and inspirational with the way they live, a older man who had been traveling-living in South America for the past 10 years on a moter bike, Mary from Canada, Aileen a teacher from Ireland, Mike from NY, and Karen from Israel (this was actualy our 3rd time crossing paths). We were a very dynamic group and spent 4 amazing days together in Baños.

We went on a ´short hike´which turned into a very long hike. Wanting to get a great view of the volcano we hiked to a few look out points. We arrived at the first one, after trudging through mud, and the volcano was covered by clouds, booo. Mike didn´t let this discourage the group as we all hiked to the next look out point with hopes to see the volcano. As we hiked up the volcano we passed fruit farms, bizare looking plants, and mean dogs. We got a litte lost, but made it to the look out point. Sitting there for about 10 min and nothing but clouds. All of a sudden, David, yelled, there she is!!! The colouds spread and we had a great view, niccccccce! Optimism pays off! On the way down, on one of our breaks, we saw it give off a plume of smoke, crazy!

The next adventure with the group, a bike ride on a road filled with waterfals and then canyoning. The rainy and cloudy day began at 9pm as we all rode along the road stoping at various places of interest, a hudge waterfall, a bridge where Noa and Mike jumped off, and finaly we reached the river where our canyoning trip began. We got of our bikes and were covered with mud, fun! good thing we were going to be jumping in a river. We all suited up with the canyoning grear, hiked up to the top of a river with many waterfals and made our way down. We rappelled down four waterfalls, and slid down 2, no jumps! By the last waterfal we were FREZING! But all had smiles on our faces after seeing what we had accomplished!

The best time in Baños was spent at Casa Hood. We all gathered around a big table and ate the best food ever. We talked about life, I felt like I had know this bunch forever, however we had just met! What a fun time in Baños, I will never forget the people I met there. Next stop, Puerto Lopez, Ecuador.