What's so great about Ecuador? (Baños)

(Oct 5, 2012)

Peter and I entered Ecuador with the intention of skirting through in 2 weeks (instead of the normal four-weeks-per-country) so as to have time to visit Chile together. Ecuador’s small right? There can’t be much to do there! How wrong we were: Ecuador is packed with beautiful landscapes, exciting activities, and wonderful people! To top it off, it is even more affordable than Colombia!

After leaving our great couchsurfing friends Axel+Andrea = Baby Luana in Quito, we hopped on a bus headed for the small town of Baños. As we learned, Baños is the adventure capital of Ecuador and thus full of activities with which to entertain ourselves. We settled in with our well-traveled host, Maria and her adorable basset hound puppy, Rosie, and began to plan our Baños adventure!

Baños de Agua Santa, Baños, Ecuador

Baños is a small town situated in the shadow of the very active Volcán Tungurahua. While the most ferocious recent eruptions happened in 2006, causing the surrounding cities to be evacuated, eruptions continue to this day. In fact, many tour operators offer ‘active volcano night treks’, on which the rich glow of the oozing lava can be seen from a relatively safe distance. Both luckily and unluckily for us, Tungurahua was not erupting while we were there, so we didn’t have the chance to visit the lava flows. Interestingly, the identity of Baños has been strongly formed by its close relationships to the volcano. Every weekend hoards of Ecuadorian tourists flock to the town to take in the volcanic thermal baths and spas and to take tours of the many surrounding waterfalls that flow down from the lush green hills towards the Amazon River basin to the East.

Our first day in Baños involved a tour of the city. Though we are typically not ones to go in for cathedral tours, we had heard that the Iglesia de Agua Santa was especially interesting. Off we headed to wander along its walls covered in huge paintings depicting the city’s patron Agua Santa saving citizens from volcanic tragedies (lava flows and the like). Next we shopped around all of the adventure tour companies in the city to get an idea of the tours and prices offered. Known as the adventure tourist destination of Ecuador, Baños is covered in tourist companies who all offer more or less the same tours ranging from jungle treks, white water rafting, rock climbing, canyoning, canopy tours, horse riding, ATV, dune buggy, motorcycle and bicycle rentals. After extensive research we wandered the souvenir shop-lined streets trying the local taffy, called melcocha , made by vendors right along the sidewalk.

Standing in front of the Pailón del Diablo

The following day Maria, Peter, and I drove along the dusty backroads, clogged with volcanic debris, towards a small alpaca cooperative with whom Maria does business.  En route we marvelled at the lahares (pathways formed by volcanic flows) that cut into the road that we drove along. Upon arrival, the president of the cooperative invited us to return two days later to participate in their business production meeting.

On Tuesday, Peter and I headed into town armed with information about bike rentals and self-led tours of “La Ruta de las Cascadas” (the waterfall route) that would lead us down from the hills towards the tropical Amazon Basin to the East. We hopped on our bikes and wove our way along the valley that cut down to the river and impressive waterfalls below. We met a group of bikers from Holland, France, and Germany and together we hiked down to the raging Pailón del Diablo waterfall. We crawled along a well-marked path cut into the rock face to a point where we could stand behind the waterfall and feel its force reverberating off the rocks around us.

On Wednesday, Maria, Peter and I hopped back into the car and drove along the same lively backroads to the alpaca cooperative to participate in their business production ‘minga’. While there, Peter and I offered helping hands in the wool washing and dyeing process – quickly learning how delicate a process it is. Alpaca wool is first shorn, and sorted, and then soaked in hot water and soap. Though the wool looks white to begin with, the water quickly turns black as it is washed and after being dried the wool comes out a brilliant white colour that is ready for dying with natural dyes. While the cooperative members worked, Peter and I were lucky enough to be taken up to the alpaca herd, grazing in the nearby plains. The alpacas had just been shorn, though it seemed that a few had gotten away and the juxtaposition between the naked and fluffy alpacas was absolutely mesmerizing. Peter and I spent at least an hour trying to capture the amazing scene and comical characters that popped up from time to time.

After a long day of driving, hiking, and wool washing, Peter and I headed into Baños to relax in the famous thermal baths. We had finally figured out the pool schedules and timed our visit so that we arrived after the midday cleaning. The ‘picina’ consisted of 4 large pools with varying water temperatures ranging from cold, to warm, to an unmanageable 45 degrees celsius. Though I was determined to visit all of the pools, I came out of the hottest one looking very much like a lobster and decided that I probably wouldn’t try that again. Peter fared much better and was able to wade in up to his waist and stand for a few minutes. The sedate men boiling themselves in the water around us watched our antics with interest as we tried to get into the water.

2 down, 2 to go during canyoning along Las Cascadas Chamanas

Thursday was undoubtedly our most exciting day yet! We started off the morning renting motorcycles of various sizes (Peter had a 400cc and I a more manageable 200cc) to ride around the surrounding hillsides and climb the lower slopes of Tungurahua Volcano. After we had returned the bikes and restored our energy, we headed off on our great canyoning adventure! Canyoning, we found, involves repelling down waterfalls and requires more skill and concentration than I had originally imagined! We were lucky, however, in that we had a wonderful guide, Gabriel, and a private tour, which allowed for maximum concentration! Our tour took us through 4 of the waterfalls in the Chamana waterfall system, with the last drop reaching up to 45m (which really seems more like 140m when you are looking down). There really isn’t much more I can say about the adrenaline pumping experience except to go check out the photos posted along with this entry!

 

Today Peter and I said goodbye to Maria and headed to the city of Latacunga, from where we will start our 3 day hike tomorrow.  We will be leaving most of our possessions at our hotel here in Latacunga and walking approximately 15km each day, staying in the small indigenous villages that we encounter. We’ll surely be out of internet range, hence why I am posting our weekly adventures early!

Never a dull moment in Ecuador!