Dangerous Hikes and Mineral Baths

Today I went to the neighborhood of Baños, not to be confused with the other Baños that I wrote about a couple of weeks ago. This one is not a seperate town, but rather a part of Cuenca with its own mineral baths, though not as visited or popular as Baños de Ambato or Papallacta. A new friend of mine took me to go for some hiking and to check out the pools. Jumping on the public bus we took the ride across the city and into the barrio.

When we got to the small neighborhood we headed for her aunts house so we could leave our bags there. Her cousins warned us to be careful on the hike because some people had been robbed recently, so I decided to not take my camera with me. The hike started right across the house, and I mistakenly thought it would be easy, since it wasn't that high up from the road. But as I should have already known, nothing in Ecuador is easy, and we're already at altitude, so the hike was no piece of cake.

As we started going up the slipping rocks and dirt, we had to use our hands to get up the steep slope and occasionally would slip. My friend had failed to tell me that it wasn't a paved path, but we were rather climbing up a rugged mountainside without any kind of official trail. I thought that Global Underwriters Insurance would not be very happy about this.

The hike was extremely difficult, not only because of the heat, the incline and slippery path we made, but because we were walking through thick vegetation. Everything in there was trying to kill us, if not for food, than for sport. Every other bush had some thorns or grabby branches slowing us up, and as the cuts and scratches started to mount, the air also started to get fresher and thinner. I was starting to get soaked.

Finally we made our way to a little clearing that I thought was the top, and though it had a nice little view, we still had a long way to go. Based off of how steep the climb up was, I decided that it wasn't worth the last leg of the hike, though it did kind of feel like a cop out to not complete the climb. We started to descend and tried to remember which way we'd come, getting lost a few times along the way. My friend had told me she climbed up the mountain all the time, so I hadn't paid attention to the way we went.

We had to shimmy down and slip and slide along the way, clutching onto branches for dear life. A few times we almost fell all the way down, but somehow grabbed onto something at the last second. I was wondering how I wound up climbing this random mountain, essentially rock climbing, with no real gear and no idea what I was doing. I was wearing jeans after all, not the ideal hiking pants.

Eventually we made it to the bottom and celebrated with a glass of water at the aunts' house. Now sweating badly, we headed to one of the many mineral pools throughout the town. We went to a public bath for $3.50 and took a dip in the water. It was warm and murky, but a welcome relief after the hike. After swimming for a bit we went into the Turkish steam rooms, which was suffocatingly hot and thick with unhealthy air, so after only a few minutes I had to get out.

While waiting for my friend to finish changing I sat and watched some other people in the pool while looking at the mountains in the distance. I saw a sister holding her young brother above the water and suddenly was reminded of a memory I'd long ago forgotten. On some family vacation when I was a very small child, we were at some hotel pool that was packed with guests. My dad and sister were trying to teach me how to swim, but I was scared and didn't want to let go. My dad was laughing while my sister tried to help, but I think I wound up crying and going back to the shallow end.

I don't think I've though about that since it happened, probably over 15 years ago. I have to imagine that it was in Florida, probably while visiting my grandparents. It's been a long time since then, and it's also been a while since I've gone on a family vacation, at least one when we weren't all yelling at each other or going off to do something else. But I've gone on many trips since then, and more and more lately without the family. Since then I've learned to swim, but it never caught on that well, and I've never been an incredibly confident swimmer.

Now I'm out here in uncharted waters on my own and at times, it would be nice to have some family there to be out in the middle of the pool to swim to, but there isn't, and it's on me to get from one side to the other.

We left Baños as the sun was starting to set and went back into the city to patch up the wounds and rest up before another week of classes and work.

A Weekend in Baños, Part 2: Getting Aquainted with the Town

After the lunch we walked around a bit and met up with more of the volunteers that were in town for the weekend. It was getting late and we were in no rush, so we didn't bother to find anything in particular to do. We walked over to the waterfall and had a good view of the town, which is very small, and then walked back towards the center. The town is known for its natural baths, hence the name Baños, but we never wound up going in them. They didn't look that appealing after going to Papallacta, which had much nicer baths.

Window shopping and getting a feel of the city, we decided on mountain biking the following day. Going with Exodotours, we worked out a deal for $22 to rent bikes and trek half of the 61 km to a town at the edge of the Amazon Rain Forest called Puyo. From the last waterfall on the route we would be taken in a truck to Puyo, where lunch was included, and check out an animal reserve with monkeys. It was a good deal, and we would have a guy following us to make sure nothing went wrong. If we'd just wanted to rent the bikes it would be $5 for the day, but we went for the higher end deal. Leaving at 9:30 a.m. from Baños, we would return from Puyo at 5 p.m.

For the rest of the afternoon we strolled and had a few beers, and after a good dinner, we were too tired from the long day to do anything else. Because it was a holiday weekend, the town was electric and ready for a party, but we couldn't take part.

The town of Baños felt very safe, even though there were tons of tourists around. The economy of the town depends on tourism, so safety is important there. Though I wouldn't want to spend an extended period of time in a touristy town, it was a nice break from what we've been doing over the last month. I felt like I could actually take out my camera and leave it around my neck, and though I had reservations at first, I realized that I'm blond and no matter what, people will know I'm a tourist from a mile away.

It´s a funny town because it almost feels like Disney Land. Everywhere you go are tourists off to do extreme sports or some kind of excursion. The town is sort of like the equivalent to Interlaken, Switzerland, where tons of backpackers head each year to do extreme sports like skydiving, canyoning, and paragliding. Literally all day long people drive by in ATVs, motorcycles, or go carts that they use to tour the surrounding areas, and since the roads are so narrow, it feels like you´re actually walking across a track meant for them. The motors roar all day, but it doesn´t ruin the tranquility of the town. At night in Baños, the church is lit up with purple lights, and actually looks like the magical palace in Orlando.

In the morning we woke up early and had a great breakfast on the rooftop of the hostel. I got two pancakes with sugar cane syrup, but it kept reminding me of a rum I tried in Grenada that was made of sugar cane, and after one pancake I was too full to continue. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and it was heating up quickly, and I realized that I hadn't brought any sunblock. A big mistake.

A friend had told me it was cold there and it totally slipped my mind. I had to mooch some sunblock off of the others, but it didn't do, and by the end of the day my arms and knees were pinkish-red. You'd think I'd know better by now, living on the equator, but I'm still an idiot about it.

The tour agency was right across the street from the hostel, so we moasied over around 9:30 to pick up our bikes and get started. After very quick test runs down the street to make sure they actually worked, we put on our stupid-looking helmets, which probably wouldn´t actually help in an accident, and headed out.

Read more in Part 3...

Above: The start of the bike ride, The view from the rooftop restaurant at the hostel, A man eying some tantalizing street meat,