Weekend Rain Doesn't Dampen All

Even with this nasty weather we've been having over the weekend, the rain hasn't managed to ruin it all. Granted, I stayed in both Friday and Saturday night and missed an opportunity to check out a flea market, but I've still gotten out. On Saturday morning I woke up fairly early--around 10 am. 10 am is now late by work week standards, yet but weekend rules it's early. And in accordance with when I used to wake up, it was way early. Either way, I watched a little TV, cleaned the apartment, and went for a long run, all before 1 pm.

I then met up with a friend to walk to the Japanese Gardens and Parque General Las Heras. I still managed to get a burn from the morning run even though it was gray and sunless, plus I had to wait on my friend for a half hour. By the time she showed up it was already raining, so we took refuge at my place for about 45 minutes until it stopped.

It was decided that the parks would be a bad idea with the rain, so we instead headed into Palermo, as I had yet to really walk around through the different sections during the day. We were also trying to find a shop that sold good shawarma. It was one of my favorite kind of days: gray and calm before the storm, with a gentle breeze, not hot but not cold, and totally peaceful, even in a large city like this. I like rain from time to time, but too much can be annoying. Yet that kind of atmosphere is always nice.

Down through the tree lined streets of Palermo Soho, Palermo Viejo, and Palermo Hollywood, we walked among tourists and locals shopping at high end retails boutiques. Who knows where the little sections of Palermo really started and ended, but we could feel a sense of change from time to time. The deeper we went the lower the houses got, the quieter the streets were, and the more it felt like a suburb. And Palermo used to be a suburb until growth in the city enveloped it as another neighborhood. Only recently, within about 10 years, has it become a hip and popular place to live, yet it still retains its working class feel in many parts. On the other hand, you can really see why locals refer to Palermo as "muy fashion."

We walked to Calle Armenia, where surprise surprise, we found the Armenian food store where the shawarma was said to be. Unfortunately, we arrived too late in the afternoon and they had none left, so we split an Armenian empanada, which was filled with spinach and cheese. The employees were rude and unhelpful, but the smells in the store were sweet, and if I had some extra money and cooking knowledge I would have picked up some of the spices.

The excitement of the day pretty much ended there as we walked back to my neighborhood. So this morning I woke up at 10 am again, went for a run and then made lunch. But the view from my balcony told me it was going to rain sooner than it did yesterday. I decided to take a stroll to Alto Palermo, a high end shopping mall about 15 blocks away. I had no interest in shopping, but I just wanted to do something to get out of the house, and I still hadn't seen it.

Along the way I stopped in the Botanical Gardens just across from Plaza Italia. It's a beautiful and quiet refuge in between the hustle and bustle of Avenida General Las Heras and Avenida Santa Fe. Rain misted and sprinkled down in waves as I walked through, with just a few other visitors along the trails. The gardens were full of cats roaming around and using their tongues as toilet paper. I would have stayed longer but was worried about a downpour, so I left the park and walked down to Parque General Las Heras, a nice and quiet place in Recoleta.

I think Las Heras is underrated, because it's not a very popular spot in comparison to the many parks in the area. Yet it was still a nice place to take a stroll and it's located in a cheery part of town. I only passed through on my way to Alto Palermo, where I spent an hour strolling from store to store, somehow setting off alarms everywhere I went. All of the stores were expensive and I would never shop there. I don't even like going to malls, but I had literally nothing better to do and wanted to get out of the house.

On the way back home I stopped in at an Havanna cafe for a cortado, and realized that I hadn't been to one since my friend Kristine was visiting in September. When she was here we went almost every day, at least once a day. But once she went back to Ecuador I didn't have the cash for it. They make the best alfajores, and from time to time I'll treat myself to one, but I haven't sat in the cafe in a while.

So after a coffee it was back here, where I'll sit around and maybe if ESPN shows it, I'll catch the U.S vs Canada hockey game in the Olympics tonight. Tomorrow it's back to 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,