Once in a Lifetime

PART TWO: Adventures in Baños!

Sometimes you just have to do things that you may never get the chance to do again! 

At 7:30 we woke up in Shell and got ready to catch a bus for Baños that left at 8:15.  We stood outside and waited until it arrived.  The ride was a little over an hour, and we got to Baños around 9:30.  We immediately went to the bus station and bought tickets to return to Quito on a bus at 5 pm that night!  We were all set-or so we thought!

We had not had breakfast yet, so we stopped at a little place.  We all ordered the breakfast with coffee, eggs, and a roll.  It was pretty tasty and we were powered up for the day!

Fuel for the day!

Kristen wanted to go to “La Casa Del Árbol,” which is a tree-house in the mountains.  There is a swing hanging from the tree-house which is on the edge of a mountain!! It is called the swing at the end of the world.  We were originally going to take a taxi there and back, but there was a little travel/local adventure store that sold daily trips to visit places around Baños.  I talked to the woman in the store, and she said that it would cost $6 for each of us for the bus to take us there and back-with an hour at La Casa Del Árbol.  There was also a trip to Las Cascadas (waterfall tour), and that would cost $6 as well.  I asked about the times and it seemed like it would work out great (11 am-1pm for the tree-house and 1:30pm -4pm for the waterfalls).  It was about 10:30, so we walked in the park nearby to wait.  It was a PERFECT sunny day!

There was a group of about 10 of us going to the tree-house, but we didn’t leave until about 11:15 and arrived at 11:45.  They told us to return in 30 minutes, so we got off and immediately got in line to go on the swing (of death haha!)  The line was very long, and we wondered if we would have enough time.  At about 12:30, we were still about 30 minutes from the front of the line.  At this point we assumed the bus had left to go back without us, but we did not want to have waited in line all this time without even getting a chance to go on the swing.  There was a couple in front of us from our group who decided to stay longer as well, so we all decided to take a taxi together to get back! 

Swinging over the EDGE of a MOUNTAIN!!

At 1:00 we had all gotten our chance to swing-it was kind of freaky, but so worth it!  We all found a taxi, and asked for a ride back into town.  The taxi driver, the couple and I talked about getting a ride back, but he told us that he only drove to the bottom of the mountain and that we would have to take another taxi from there.  We all agreed and piled in.  The couple was very friendly (probably late 20’s) and I learned that they were from south Quito.  They were also leaving that night on the 5 pm bus!  When we got back to town, we said goodbye, and ran to the travel shop-it was already 1:40, and we hoped that the next trip to the waterfalls had not left.  We made it just in time and got on the bus.  We made multiple stops at different waterfalls, and it was absolutely gorgeous! 

On one of our stops, we were at a place that had canopy zipline rides across the mountains across a valley with a river and waterfalls! We could go on it for $10, so we quickly decided that we were going to go for it!  I made sure that the bus was going to wait, and found a family that had one extra person since we had to be in groups of 4 and we were a group of 3.  I was going to go with a girl named Paula and Morgan and Kristen would be paired.  Paula’s family watched our bags-a big help-and took pictures!  It was definitely one of those: “not thinking, just doing” moments in life! I am terrified of heights and cried many times in high school during our high ropes PE class, so this was something spur of the moment crazy for me!  I was going to be hanging in the air like superman hundreds of feet in the air!

I didn't have any pictures of myself, but this is what it looked like!

After catching our breath from the canopy zipline, we got back on the bus which took us to to another waterfall.  At this point it was 3:45 and we were told we would be back around 4.  They said we would have 30 minutes at this location, and that’s when I knew we would NOT make it back by 5 for our bus returning to Quito!  I started to panic and even after asking them if we would be back by 5-to which they said YES, I knew that it was not likely.  Unfortunately we were “off the beaten path” with no taxi in sight.  I tried to talk to a few people, but no one could help or was able to drive us back to the bus station.  So we were stranded and had to wait.  The bus left at 4:30, and was still on schedule to get town by 5.

…On schedule…as if those exist in Ecuador.  TIME MEANS NOTHING HERE!

There was a HUGE traffic jam through town-only one road-so we did not get back into town until 5:30.  We were hopeful that maybe just maybe the bus would have gotten stuck in the traffic and would be getting there late as well, so as soon as the bus stopped, I started to climb off the side (it was one of those open riding buses).  BUT the bus was not actually stopping to let us off yet, so I found myself hanging on the outside of the bus while it was moving!!! Talk about thrilling!! I pulled myself inside again and waited (this time!) until the bus stopped FOR REAL!  We all ran to the bus station, but it was too late and we missed the bus L  Wha wha wha…

We went to see if there was another bus leaving for Quito that night, and there was one more bus leaving at 8 pm that night.  We bought tickets-again-and headed out for some dinner.  After feeling sick from the first bus ride, I decided to eat a little before the ride and buy some more saltines for the rest of the ride (Yay for saltines!).  We ate and hung out at a cute little coffee shop where I ordered a “humita” (Humita is a Native American dish from pre-Hispanic times, and a traditional food in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador and Peru. It consists of masa harina and corn, slowly steamed or boiled in a pot of water.)

At 7:30 we left to make sure that we would NOT be late this time!  The journey back was uneventful, and we got back to Quitumbre at 11 pm.  Then we took a taxi back to the school and got there at 11:30 pm.  We were wiped and quickly went to bed.  I was glad to have all of Tuesday to rest and relax before a 3-day school week!