Spending my 19th birthday in a foreign country, our little Ecuadorian family had planned a weekend away to visit Baños, a small city in the highlands which is renowned for its thermal baths, waterfalls and adventure sports to the more adventurous of tourists. In true murphys law fashion, the weekend of my birthday also happened to fall in the few days of October 2010 when a national state of emergency was called in Ecuador, making it unsafe for us to leave our neighbourhood, let alone the city of Quito.
Thankfully, we ended up in Baños on one of the following weekends after the political agenda had seemingly reverted back to normality, because it was definitely one of my favourite places in Ecuador. Here's a few of my must-do things if you find yourself in Baños throughout your South American adventures.
Accomodation
We stayed at Hostal Transilvania which was in a great central location, not to mention a bargain at under US$8 for a 5 bed dorm room, with free wifi no less (which quite frankly is at the top of any gen y's hostel must have list). The guy working at the front desk, Roberto, was one of the most helpful and fun hostel staff I've encountered yet! Not to mention the adorable in-hostel dog, and the social aspects of a communal area fully furnished with a pool table and game consoles. The mornings consisted of a free breakfast which exceeded any free hostel breakfast I've consumed yet, with three daily options of an egg dish, pancakes with fruit, or a fruit salad - all equally delicious and satisfying for a day full of activities. Our nights were spent in the outside common area with a shisha, a guitar playing expat and an array of drinking games that kept us entertained until the early hours of the morning.
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| About to spontaneously jump off a bridge |
Chiva
The hostel were extremely helpful in organising any activities for us, one of which was a chiva bus tour to visit three waterfalls. We did two hikes down to the waterfalls, one which ended in a refreshing swim at the bottom of the waterfall. We then took an overhead view of the third waterfall, riding a cable car across the canyon to experience its breathtaking views. During our chiva journey we also stopped on the side of the road for the option of a 'swing jump', which is similar to a bungee. At first I was defiant as I'm terribly afraid of heights, but was eventually convinced by the fact that our entire group was keen to participate. I was so scared the man had to give me a little push so I would actually jump off! I'm definitely glad I did it, not to mention the fact that I can now answer the typical mum question of "well if *insert friends name here* jumped off a bridge would you?", with "It's not like I haven't done it before".
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| Taking a dip in between white water rafting |
Rafting, Thermal Baths & Horseriding
Some of the other activities we decided to do whilst in Baños included white water rafting, horseriding and a trip to the local thermal baths. The white water rafting was so much fun, and we made it even more interesting through the competitive nature of our two rafting groups. The remaining two activities happened on our last day before returning to Quito, packing in as much as we could up until the very last moment! The thermal baths were a great way to start the day, as they proved to be be incredibly relaxing and a great way to warm up on a chilly Ecuadorian morning. As for the horseriding, I'm still convinced my 'horse' was actually a mule, who at one point in our ride almost tried to run me off the side of a hill. He was a stubborn one that's for sure; I've done a fair bit of horseriding in my time and I'd never encountered such a obstinate animal, though that was all part of the challenge!
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| Just horsing around |
Happy adventuring!
-Melissa
