Baños

Ecuador is cheap cheap cheap. The 4-5 hour bus ride to Baños cost me $3.60USD! I have also discovered that i can eat a 3-course lunch here and get change from $2USD. The best thing is the accommodation. Step off the lonely planet trail and you can get a private bedroom with double bed, television and ensuite bathroom for $8USD !

The trip to Baños was my first long south american bus ride. By south american standards however this was going to be a short journey at 4-5 hours. I had been on short bus rides during my time in Medellin and so it was all quite familiar for me to find the bus just stopping anywhere to pick people up and also sellers jumping on at every stop, selling everything from crisps to CDs (i quite like this culture!). The journey was very picturesque through the hills and countryside of Ecuador so spent the whole journey watching the world go by as well as attempting the odd short conversations with my ecuadorian bus buddies!! There was no toilet stop, or toilet on board for that matter. I was very glad for my strong bladder and that I hadn't had much to drink before I got onboard.

When i arrived in Baños there was no sign of any drama from the recent eruption. The previous week other towns closer to the volcano had been evacuated, but Baños had been ok. I found the people of Baños were all very relaxed and going about their normal business so I wasn't worried. I was desperate to see the volcano and ideally a nice spurt of glowing lava too, but unfortunately the weather was not great and cloud cover was very low. However, as soon as i had checked into the hostal the volcano said hello. The windows in my room rattled and there was a noise similar to loud clap of thunder. This continued every 10 minutes or so during my stay. Occasionally this would be combined with the ground shaking a little!

Baños is a base for lots of outdoor activities from rafting to bungee jumping off bridges. I wasn't feeling in the mood for an adrenaline fueled day and therefore opted for a more leisurely adventure on a mountain bike and went on the 'Ruta de Las Cascadas' (Route of the waterfalls). This is a 20km ride downhill through the country which is sprinkled with waterfalls. At the penultimate waterfall i bumped into a group of mature ladies who straight away asked me for a photo. I went to grab the camera thinking they wanted me to take a picture of them.... only to find the old girls were putting their arms round me and I was going to be the subject of this photo!! After a bit of chat i then found out they were colombians who live in Medellin and who were touring Ecuador. I had spent plenty of time in class talking about everything to do with Medellin so I took advantage of this opportunity to have some banter with the old girls in Spanish.

On the last night, after dark, I jumped on a Chiva Bus tour to a viewpoint with the hope of seeing the volcano and some lava. The chiva bus came complete with flashing disco lights and party tunes! After a long ride in the rickety disco bus, up a winding dirt track, we eventually reached the viewpoint only to find we couldn't see anything. It was pitch black, we were a long way from the town and immersed in cloud. Oh well it was worth a try. The driver was not interested in leaving straight away so we had to sit in the dark for a while listening to the rumbles coming from the volcano. While we were waiting a 14(ish) year old boy who was part of the bus crew then started stroking a blonde american girl on the bus which was hilarious (to all of us apart from her!).

The only time I saw the volcano was on the bus leaving Baños the next morning. I managed to take a shaky photo through the bus window of the smoke rising from it (see below). Not quite the dream photo I had in mind but nevermind.