We took a weekend trip to Baños today, a lush vacation spot popular to both Gringos and local Ecuadorians. It is located in the middle of the jungle, surrounded by mountains, trees, and waterfalls. There are so many things to do here, including mountain biking, kayaking, white-water rafting, canyoning, puenting (bridge-jumping), thermal springs, massages, horseback riding, jungle touring, hiking, motorcycling, volcano-watching, etc. What more can you ask for?! It’s paradise.
For 5$, we rented mountain bikes to begin our descent to Puyo. It was sprinkling out, but that only made our ride that much more enticing and thrilling. The ride was mostly downhill, so it wasn’t too strenuous. The only scary part was biking through a pitch-black tunnel with semi’s zooming past you at 55mph. The descent was one of the most beautiful and exciting (and dirty) rides I’ve ever been on. We biked through dirt paths, cement, main roads, back roads, through towns and villages, jungles, waterfalls, huge puddles, tunnels, and hiked through the jungles for delicious empanadas de choclo. I noticed that many Ecuadorian women like to wear heels…everywhere. My feet started hurting just watching them.
Good food and good company:
Not the smartest thing to do:
Why?!?! No entiendo!
Descending for empanadas!
Cascadas en la selva:
The tunnel that we biked through earlier:
Un loco threatened to beat all 7 of us (2 local Ecuadorians, 4 ½ Gringos) today when Eliah stared him down after the loco grabbed Jocelyn’s behind. We had just gotten a couple cheap bottles of Zharmin and manzana soda, and then this loco threatened to punch our teeth out and beat us up, telling us he is the “Diablo” or devil. We continued walking, and a moment later he came charging towards us with his fists up. I had my thumb firmly pressed against the pepper switch. We saw a random door leading to someone’s kitchen/house, and ran into it. The people in the house were probably really confused watching 7 foreigners (well, 2 locals, 4 ½ Gringos) bombard into their house around 9 o’clock at night. The father headed out to scan the situation, along with his little kids, of course. The loco acted as if they were his best friends, shook the little kids’ hands, and then headed out. Maybe he just didn’t like Gringos? 20 min later, he came marching back with another family. We moved from the street corner to the snack shop across the street, and stayed there trying to blend in with the other Ecuadorian families (who probably thought we were all locos). We knew we are safe with the Ecuadorian babies protecting us. Next time pepper, next time.
We ended our weekend excursion with Dark Knight. If you haven't already, GO SEE IT. You'll actually be in Gotham for the full 2 hours and 30 minutes).
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