Trip to Baños

On Friday I went to Baños, which is a small town to the South of Quito, with the entire group. After the four hour trip, we checked in to our hostel and split up for lunch. I ate in the market (pseudo-street food...there was running water in the market aka 5 star restaurant) and then met up with my other group of friends for a banana milkshake. Afterward, three of the guys came by and said they had met a rando Baños dude and were going to accompany him on a hike up a mountain. Probably NOT the safest decision of my life, but I decided to go (I didn't bring any valuables, in my defense). The man's name was Carlos and although I will admit that he looked really sketchy, he turned out to be extremely nice. He led us on a 2 hour hike that was entirely uphill. When we walked back down the hill, my legs were so tired, they were shaking like leaves. Later, I read in a guide book that this hike was supposed to take not three hours, but FOUR to FIVE. Still the hike was incredible and all of the views were breathtaking. First we hiked up to the cross:

Andres, me, and Juanito

And later we hiked up to a hostal that was even higher in elevation.
After we hiked back down, we grabbed a towel and joined the rest of the group at the hot springs. The water is "natural" and comes from the nearby volcano. It was pretty expensive (by Ecuadorian standards) and actually kinda gross. Not only did the water look disgusting (it was literally brown), but there were also tons of people that...weren't exactly the most fit wearing speedos and bikinis. But it was still pretty fun to go in the hot baths (probably 115 degrees) and then immediately jump in the cold ones (probably 60 degrees). Later that night, we ate dinner at an Italian place, threw a mini party for Evan's 21st birthday (complete with a Pilsener piñata), and bar hopped and danced the night away.

The next morning I met up with Kaya, Juanito, and Andrés and rented bikes for $5. We went on a six hour bike ride to several different waterfalls sprinkled throughout the mountains. The first one was a small one on the road. The next one was a double waterfall that we walked down to by going across a cool bridge:

The four of us hung out by the stream and watched the beautiful waterfall. The only bad thing was that I realized my legs were covered in lots of little bloody dots where I had been bitten by bugs.

The next waterfall was the biggest one, and was rightly named "La Cascada Pailón del Diablo." It was a kilometer hike through the forest in order to get to the waterfall, but the hike was well worth it. It was a huge waterfall (not as big as San Rafael, but almost comparable) and there were three different balconies that you could stand on.

To get underneath the waterfall, you had to crawl on all fours through a little cave. You could actually stand under the waterfall, but because we didn't have waterproof cameras, I don't have a photo. But here's a photo with my friends under the falls:

My friends Andrés, Juanito, and Kaya (L-R)

That night everyone was too tired to go out so we all just hung out and talked. Later in the night when I tried to sleep, my bug bites started itching like crazy. And they didn't just itch, it was excruciating itching to the point that I couldn't sleep that night. True life: the bugs in Ecuador are on crack.

The next morning, I woke up really early and met with three of my friends to go on a random hike. We ended up finding an AWESOME trail that led all the way up to a man's house and was about the same altitude as the hike to the cross on Friday. Our entire hike took about two hours and afterward we went to a zoo and saw a plethora of colorful birds, owls, parrots, ocelots, pumas, and monkeys.