Baños

Here's an update on my latest weekend excursion to the tourist hotspot: Baños. Saturday morning a group of us went ATVing (on Hot Wheels four-wheelers!) up a mountain with a great view of the city. The view was about the only enjoyable part of the experience, though. Our ATVs kept breaking down, our 15 year-old guide (I would guess that's how old he was) kept hitting on two of the girls in our group, and when we got up really high in the clouds we were inside this torrential rainstorm. But it was one of those "we all got through this miserable experience together" kind of moments. Later, we went to the "baños" which means "baths" in Spanish. These are very hot springs that you can bathe in. They were very relaxing! For dinner we went to "Casa Hood" which is owned by an ex-pat who was in the Residential College at U of M! A handful of people in our group are students in the RC, so it was fun for them to connect. It was funny because we were joking that the restaurant had a very "Ann Arbor" feel to it - the menu font looked like the type from Zingerman's. :)

Oh - did I forget to mention that I went bridge-jumping? (It's called "Puenting" (bridging) in Spanish.) From the picture you can see that it was an extremely terrifying jump (75 meters) but totally exhilarating. (What do you think about THAT Mom and Dad?!)

On Sunday we went on a bikeride that took us past all these beautiful mountains (mountains in Ecuador - what a surprise!) and waterfalls. It was awesome! There was one part where we had to ride through a pitch-black tunnel. It was petrifying! All we could see was a tiny light at the end of a tunnel (haha). It was like riding your bike through a haunted house.

At the end of the route we stopped at the "Pailon del Diablo." You have to get off your bikes and hike to a bridge over this torential waterfall. It was really cool (I don't have a picture though because it's kind of hard to take one when you're on a bridge and it's pouring rain.) At the end of the route, instead of hiking back, we rode in the back of this shady truck. There were petrol tanks rolling around and a man sitting with us who had about 5 teeth (which we didn't know until we asked him a question and his reply sounded like garbling). It was very funny.

So - another memorable experience! Hasta luego...