Trip to Shell and Baños

PART ONE: Half The Battle Is Just Getting There!

This past weekend we had Monday and Tuesday off school for National holidays (Day of the Dead and Independence of Cuenca).  This was one of two long breaks for me while I’m here, so it was nice to get out of Quito and the city for some other adventures!  My other break is over Thanksgiving, but I am leaving at the end of that break, so I didn’t really want to go far during that break.  Basically this was my only chance to really get out of the city!

After a lot of conversations and back and forth about who was going, when we were leaving, and what we were doing, the other 2 student teachers here (Kristen and Morgan) and I were planning on leaving around noon on Sunday.  We would have to take a city bus to the main city terminal where we could get on a bus to take us to Shell.  We wanted to go to Baños, but there were no places available to stay there, so we had to go an hour past Baños to stay overnight in Shell. A couple from the school was going to Shell that weekend and had set up reservations for us all to have rooms to stay the night there.   So, this was the plan when we left, but as you know, plans often have “hiccups” along the way…especially when you are completely unfamiliar with the public transportation…AND not to mention I was the only person in our group of three to speak Spanish-No pressure!!!

We left at noon and arrived at the local bus station.  Kristen, one of the student teachers that planned most of this trip and first showed interest in going to Baños after doing some research, said that we needed a ticket for “Quitumbre” the main bus terminal for the city.  I went up to the counter and asked the man for 3 tickets to “Quitumbre,” but he said that the buses here do not go there.  Then I asked him how we can get there, and he said that we needed to take a bus to “Recreo” and then get on another bus to “Quitumbre.”  I told Kristen and Morgan what the man had said, so we bought tickets to “Recreo.”

Now for the adventure of a city bus in Quito!! The bus was packed!!! I looked at the maximum capacity sign and it said 36 were allowed to be seated and 120 were allowed to be standing-No joke!  I know the people here are a little smaller, but WOW!  More than 150 people on a BUS seems crazy!

This is what the inside of the bus looked like.

After about 1 hour of riding the bus, we got to Recreo, so we got off, and I asked a man where we go to get to Quitumbre.”  He told me to follow the green signs, so we found ourselves in another line.  We got on the bus to take us to Quitumbre, and rode that bus for another 45 minutes.  We knew the last bus that would leave for Shell was at 2:45, and we started to get nervous at 2:30 when we were still on the bus traveling to Quitumbre.  I asked a few people around us how much longer until Quitumbre, and they just kept telling me it was close (which means nothing-the concept of time here is totally different-a theme that will come up again a lot this trip). At 2:40, we arrived at Quitumbre and ran to the ticket counter to buy tickets to Shell-a 4.5 hour bus ride that only cost $5 a person!  They asked for one passport-fortunately Morgan had a copy of hers-crisis averted!! Then we quickly boarded the bus-similar to a Megabus-and felt relief that we had made it in time!

After 3.5 hours, the bus stopped at Baños, and almost everyone got off.  This made up worry that the bus would not continue to Shell, so I asked the driver’s assistant and he said that the bus would continue.  I told Kristen and Morgan, so we sat back down in our previous seats!  The bus did not make announcements of any of the stops and the stops were literally 3 seconds long- so basically I just had to keep asking those around us where we were and how much longer to Shell.  When we got to Shell, we had no idea that we were there, but fortunately the bus driver assistant that I had talked to previously knew that we needed to get off there, so he came back and told us to get off!!! Yet another close call (another theme from this weekend haha!).  We got off and the met the couple that was meeting us, and they led us to the hotel we were at! 

The Hotel Lobby-not too shabby at $13 a night!

Two beds and one bath per room.

Tired from the long ride, but glad to be here for the night.

We dropped our stuff off at the hotel and decided to stop for dinner.  At this point it was about 7:30-about 7 hours of traveling!  I have NEVER been good at traveling, especially in buses, so I was not feeling well AT ALL!  I stopped at a little side street shop and bought some carbonated water and saltines which I brought to eat while we went to the restaurant.  The others ordered their meals, and I ordered some plantains, but I mostly stuck with the crackers to help settle my stomach.  I was so exhausted by 9:00, that I went right to bed!  It wasn’t the best night sleep I’ve ever had, but it was enough to keep me going for the next day’s adventures!!!

To be continued!!!....