Baños

Baños is an amazing city in Ecuador located at the foot of the Tungurahua volcano.  The views in Baños are absolutely breathtaking.  It's a must-see place if you're ever in Ecuador.  I traveled to Baños with the other girl, Lavina, who is also working at Quitumbe from Indiana University, and her host family including Alex (mom) and Genesis (7-year old).  Alex is the vice principal at the Quitumbe, and Genesis is in one of my English classes.  On the first day we rode around on the colorful chiva bus through the Ruta de Las Cascadas (waterfull route), we stopped to see some amazing waterfalls, hiked, and zip lined.

Casa Del Arbol 

Are next stop in Baños was the Casa Del Arbol, which is a famous treehouse, with the swing at the end of the world.  The view from this spot was absolutely breathtaking, and riding the swing was amazing.  Unfortunately, after being there for about an hour you could no longer see the view because the clouds had covered everything, it was as if we were engulfed in a giant cloud.  

Bungee Jumping

The next day I filled my thrill seeking needs by jumping off the side of the bridge.  It was an exhilarating experience, and one that left me wanting more.  After my first jump (which was a forward dive) off the bridge, the guide asked if I wanted to go again backwards, I couldn't resist so then went for jump #2 backwards off the bridge.  After this bungee jumping experience, I am now ready for sky diving :) 

Pailon del Diablo (Devil's Cauldron)

This waterfall is truly amazing, you can get so close to it, and the sound and rush of the water is very calming.  First we went on the bridge where we could see the waterfall from a distance, then we took the path that led us super close to the waterfall.  I was absolutely soaked from just standing near it. Additionally, there was a little path through a cave that we crawled through that took us behind the waterfall. The waterfall itself is massive and the flow of the water is strong and rapid.  

El Mindo

On Sunday I traveled to the small town of Mindo located in the cloud forest about two hours outside of Quito.  Mindo has breathtaking views  of natural landscapes and is one of the most biodiverse places on the planet; it is known for bird watching, butterflies, and its adventure sports.  While in Mindo we decided to zip line through the canopy.  The zip line route consisted of more than 10 lines, and a decent amount of walking through the forest to get from one line to the next.  The views from the zip lines were amazing.  On three of the zip lines I rode upside down, which they referred to as mariposa (butterfly). Following ziplining we went white water rafting.  It was a lot of fun, but not as strong as I had expected because the river was pretty small.  Also the water was freezing because a storm was coming in.  As soon as we exited the river, it started pouring rain, and unfortunately continued to rain for the rest of the day.  Since Mindo is a rainforest, rain is very common there.

Saturday of Random Adventures

The day started at 7 am, when we left the house to catch the beautiful view of Quito as the sun was rising for the day.  We left a little to late and missed it, but the view of the city was still breathtaking.  

Next we went to breakfast at Café a La Vaca, (Vaca is cow in Spanish).  The restaurant was on a farm with many cows.  They had very fresh milk (which I don't like, but my family made me try anyway), and they also make there own cheese there! I had the most delicious jugo de guanabana (Guanabana juice) which is a fruit that I've never had before (it's green like an avocado on the outside and white and soft on the inside).  I also had a delicious egg dish consisting of cheese, tomatoes, and eggs baked in an oven. 

Next we went to a flower greenhouse.  Ecuador is known for mass producing roses, you can buy 24 roses for $2 here.  They come in a wide variety of beautiful colors and types.  Areas of Ecuador are lined with rows and rows of rose greenhouses.  And inside those greenhouses there are rows and rows of flowers grouped by color and type.  I don't think just anyone can go into these greenhouses, but my host dad does some work for them, so we got to explore these beautiful rose gardens, and see the production process. 

Just outside the flower garden we ran into a llama.  My host mom (Yadi) encouraged my host sister (Amy) and me to go up and pet the llama.  I have no experience with llamas, and thought they were mean and spit.  Upon walking up to the llama, it started to run towards us.  I got scared and ran in the opposite direction, tripping over a rock and severely bruising my foot.  A man who witnessed the fiasco and knew the llama came out to let us pet him. He reassured us that the llama was friendly, and in the end the llama turned out to be a super sweet dude, who really enjoyed sniffing my hair. 

Next we headed to the city of Ambato.  Ambato is the capitol of the province of Tungurahua and is known as the garden of Ecuador or the land of flowers.  We didn't spend too much time here, but while we were here we shopped around the market and explored the small parks in the middle of the city.  Ambato was full of beautiful artwork on the street, and a much cleaner city than Quito.