Duck!

Trip Start Aug 02, 2007
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3
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Trip End Aug 22, 2007


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Flag of Ecuador  ,
Sunday, August 5, 2007

Day 3: (written by Ruth)  We woke up at our hotel and decided we'd check to see if the hotel next door (Posada del Artes) had any rooms available.  I walked over and she showed me 3 rooms...that seems to be the thing here.  They show you the rooms they have and then you say whether you want one and which one you want.  They had rooms and it was such a nice hotel!  And it was only $10 more than the other hotel (which I was not a fan of).  So, we reserved a room with a balcony and a fireplace and we were very happy.  The room was being cleaned so we had some coffee and waited for a bit.  Eventually we just left our bags and went to find the cafe that the two Canadian girls had recommended in Quito.  We found it - Cafe Ali Cumba.  It was run by a Danish woman who is married to an Ecuadorian.  She was nice and helpful but very pushy.  We talked about what we wanted to do while we were in Baņos, one of which was horse-back riding, and she said she knew a good guide if we wanted her to arrange it.  We told her we'd think about it and get back to her.  We still didn't know exactly how long we were going to stay in Baņos.  After some good sandwiches, chai tea, and a fruit smoothie, we wandered around, checked on the bus schedule, and then relaxed at the hotel a bit.  We tried to go to the thermal baths (what Baņos is known for) at 4pm but they said they weren't letting anyone else in.  They close between 5-6pm and open up again at 6pm.  So, we figured we'd come back at 6pm and hopefully it would be less busy.  We again wandered around and stopped by the cafe to ask the Danish woman if she could arrange for the horse-back riding for the next day.  We went back to the hotel - we decided we were too cold and we'd  go to the baths the next day.  We've been very surprised at the weather so far.  The sun is very strong but the air is cool and crisp.  It is the winter here, but still...it's right by the equator and we're getting sunburned!

We had dinner at a really nice place called Cafe Mariane.  The place was full...we sat at an odd table right by the cash register/bar, but it worked.  The food was soooo good.  So was the wine :)  And an Ecuadorian group came in and played some music and we bought their CD.  It was a fun time except that we had bought tickets to go up on a bus (a chiva) to a lookout point to see a view of the city and possibly the volcano.  So we were rushing to catch the 9pm bus.  We made it.  We met a nice Dutch couple who had come from Cuenca so we got some advice on a hotel.  It was very odd because they had us all load into a little van.  We thought we were heading up the mountain, but instead we just went around the block.  Then they told us to get out.  None of us had any idea what was going on and we didn't feel like trying our Spanish to get an answer.  Even when I ask, they do not speak slowly here.  Then a bus drove up - it can only be described as a party bus - music was playing, lights flashing.  We got on and started driving through town and up the mountain.  Once we started up the mountain they told us we could get on the roof if we wanted to.  There were two parallel benches and a bunch of us climbed up there.  It was awesome!  Although a little scary...we had to duck from branches so they wouldn't hit our heads.  We kept thinking about the Japanese people we heard were decapitated coming down the mountain from Riobamba.  Anyway, it was really fun and we got to a lookout point.  It became obvious that we were not going to see the spewing volcano, but instead get a beautiful view of the city of Baņos.  We were happy about the view, although others were not pleased that we didn't get to see the volcano.  The bus was cheap and it was a really nice night and view.  They had a bonfire and did a fire juggling thing.  It was pretty touristy although we've been amazed how few European and American tourists there are.  Most of the tourists are from Ecuador.  I asked a guy if there was a bathroom.  In Spanish, he told me there were many bathrooms...ecological bathrooms...I laughed and declined.  We finally left after about an hour.  The ride down started off fun and crazy and then it started pouring - and of course we were sitting on top of the bus.  Finally the bus driver stopped and let us climb back in.  We were sopping wet.

When we got back to town, we decided we'd pick up some wine at a liquor store we had passed.  I got the guy to open the wine for us since we didn't have a bottle opener.  And then we walked back to our hotel in the rain.  We were thankful we remembered our raincoats, although we were still soaking wet.  We relaxed at the nice hotel...although Mike lost some guy points...he couldn't start a fire.  We liked this hotel much better although a buzzing bug kept me awake a lot of the night!  Damn buzzing bug!  It was probably just a fly...
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