Banos

I made it to Ecuador. Another overnight travel night, which included a layover in Panama. Fortunately for me, I got to see the Panama Canal from above.

Panama Canal.

I arrived at the Quito airport, found the bus that would take me to the bus station, and boarded it. It was a pretty empty bus so I wasn't bothering people with my bags. But it did take over an hour to get to the bus station. My goodness. Quito is larger than anticipated. The tricky part about Quito is that it's a long city built between mountains and hills. It's also the highest capital in the world. Ok. Enough about Quito until my return.

I made it to the bus station, and found a bus to take me to Banos. I read that you have to be careful in Ecuador since there tend to be a lot of pickpockets and people slashing your bag to steal your stuff. I figured it was similar to every other place. But the bus driver could obviously tell that I was a tourist and warned me sufficiently. I got the hint and guarded my bags. Fortunately I had no problem.

A few hours later, I finally arrived in Banos. Like most places in South America, first impressions aren't necessarily the right ones. Right of the bat, I notice the disrepair of a lot of houses, or incompletion of them. There's definitely a trend towards this given the financial and corruption issues in various countries. But once you look beyond that, you see the beauty of the place you are in. Banos was no exception. It was surrounded by hills and mountains all around. After settling in the very artsy Casa Arte Huillacuna, I wandered around a bit.

Cool art hostel.

I decided to go check out the waterfall I had seen in the distance when I was walking to my hostel. I went right up to and of course got a little wet in the process.  There were also thermal baths right next door that I was going to check out while I was there. But I actually didn't get around to it. I got to check out a lot of thermal baths on this trip, so I felt I wasn't missing out too much.

The town waterfall.

Since I didn't eat much that day due my travels, food was the next priority. And a local beer of course. Not my favorite beer, but there weren't many options. And when you are thirsty, it actually tastes way better.

Ecuador beer.

The following morning it was time to go for a hike. I picked up some supplies and relied on my phone to get me up the mountain.

Town art.

I found the trail, if that's what you want to call it, pretty easily. However, since it wasn't marked super clearly, I found myself in the middle of a cow pasture. Surprisingly that is not the first time this has happened. The 'trail' ended, so I turned around and went the other way. I was back on the right path. After a bit of a climb and then moving across the mountain, I came across Monumento a la Virgen.

Monumento a la Virgen.

I then continued up the mountain. And what a climb that was. It was pretty steep and I got warm very quickly. I was determined to get to the top, but had to take breaks here and there. Since it was so steep, the time it took to go half a mile was way longer than expected. Or my GPS was totally off.

Moving on up.

Two hours after I left, I finally made it to my destination, Casa del Arbol, where there was a tree house and swing to enjoy. Apparently there was also a volcano in the distance, but by this time, the cloud cover had moved in. I ended up leaving Banos without seeing Volcan Tungurahua. Good thing I've seen other volcanoes elsewhere.

It wasn't too crowded at the top, so I was able to go on the Swing at the End of the World many times. At first I didn't put the safety strap in (whoops), and it was a just a little scary. After that initial swing, it was exhilarating swinging over the edge.

Swinging.

While taking turns to swing, I met a couple of guys from France and a girl from South Africa. After eating some food, a plantain with cheese. I think. I really don't know half the stuff I eat unless I've had it before. The rain looked like it was coming, so we made our way down the mountain. And then it started raining. Fortunately we found cover, but it continued to downpour for about 20-30 minutes. We just stood there patiently and chatted. Eventually it stopped and we continued on our way. We had hiked up pretty far, as it did take some time to get down. And there were a few slippery spots. But we made it down successfully.

Plantain con queso.

We went our separate ways and I decided to get a run in. I know, an all-day hike wasn't enough. But I had a race coming up, I needed to get some miles in. More miles at altitude and hilly ones at it. Plus, I got to see a bit more of Banos than I would have otherwise.

Run views.

One of the things I wanted to do on this trip, and since 2012, was to go zip lining. And I was finally doing it. I booked it that evening and the next morning I met the group to head outside of town and up the mountain a bit. 

There was a girl from Australia and a father son duo from Israel in my group. We were doing 6 lines each for a total of 2000 meters through the jungle. And it was amazing. I wanted to go again and again. The first line was pretty simple to get us comfortable. We only went 150 meters and sat up while we zip lined. Of course I somehow managed to hit my head as I was coming to the end of the line. Don't worry. I was fine. For the 2nd line, we got to go upside down as we zipped 300 meters. 

Zip lining.

The next one one of my favorites as we went 250 meters (a little too short) and flew like Superman, or Super Chica.

Super Chica.

For the 4th line, we went 350 meters and sat normal, but go to go a bit longer and of course went over the ravine again. So much fun. On the 5th line, my new friend and I did the Superman together over 450 meters. The last and final line was a total of 500 meters, and I went zooming over the ravine one last time. I wanted to go again immediately. I guess I have to wait and go somewhere else.

Flying.

After all that zip lining, we were thirsty, so headed to the market in the middle of town and got some fresh juice. I mixed a few different ingredients together and got a refreshing beverage. 

Fruit juice.

I spent the afternoon with my new friend Tamsin. We ate. We watched taffy being made. We visited the waterfalls. We just hung out. 

Taffy.

Before I knew it, it was dinner time, so we got more food. And I tried a new Ecuadorian beer. 

Another beer. 

After a fun-filled day, I said goodbye to Tamsin, and headed to bed. The following morning, I went out for a run, which turned into a good hill workout and took in my last views of Banos. Although I still didn't get to see the volcano. There's always next time. 

Hill workout views.

Off to the Amazon jungle.