Baños
ECUADOR
Waterfalls & Guinea Pigs in Baños
By LYNDI
Monday, September 22, 2008
You would think that after a trip to Cotopaxi and Quilatoa riding through the Andes mountains that our next stop would be a bit of a let down, but Baños did not disappoint. Besides just having a cool name that means “bathrooms” in Spanish, the town is set in a narrow valley surrounded by sloping hills and literally hundreds of waterfalls.
The first thing on our agenda was to hit up the natural thermal pools that Baños is famous for. So we actually rose fairly early one morning to get to the thermal baths before the crowd – or the sun. We started off in the warm pool and watched all the locals swim laps and run into each other. And then we hopped over to the hot pool which you can’t sit in for long without breaking a sweat. Apparently, Ecuadorians have a tradition at their thermal pools where you relax and soak in the warm waters – and then stand under a freezing waterfall of ice cold water. And then you get back in the thermal pools to relax and soak – then stand under the freezing waterfall again. Then rinse and repeat. It’s supposedly “good for your health”, but I’m guessing the healthy part is getting a good laugh at everyone else attempting the same ritual. Admittedly, I did find that the cold waterfall started to feel a bit more “refreshing” than “painful” after a few tries. So maybe they’re on to something.
After a few hours at the pools, Aaron searched around town and found a good masseuse for $17/hour and quickly signed up. While he was furthering his relaxing day, I caught up on the journal from our private balcony overlooking Baños. For some reason, that night Aaron and I went to the grocery store to buy stuff for dinner and ended up buying a kilogram of rice. I don’t think either of us really understood how much rice that was going to be. At any rate, for the next 5 days – we had rice for every single meal. Stirfrys, burritos, breakfast burritos, eggs and rice – anything to get through our enormous and burdensome supply without wasting any. By the end of our stay we were cooking for others in the hostel too – just to rid ourselves of a food staple gone horribly wrong.
The following day we decided we wanted to see some of the waterfalls that surround Baños. We had looked at quite a few waterfall tours that different tour companies offered in the city, but eventually concluded we could do it better ourselves. So we rented a Honda 250cc for $9/hr and were off. And don’t worry folks – Aaron actually has a motorcycle license. Not that anyone ever asked us for it. We took off down the sloping, winding road towards Puyo, deciding to start with the waterfall furthest away and then hitting up all the falls on the return trip. So we parked our bike at Machay Waterfall and paid the steep 50 cent entrance fee and then took a steep 20 minute hike down to the falls. The first waterfall was so strong that you could barely look up at it without your eyes being coated in spray, so we hiked down to the next waterfall and had an amazing view of a double decker waterfall plummeting to a cool, clear pool right in front of us. Seeing as how we’d hiked all the way down and had this great landmark all to ourselves, we decided to go for a swim. Bad idea for a few reasons: 1) I wasn’t hot, 2) the water was freezing cold, and 3) the rest of my clothes would remain wet for the rest of the day. But, it was refreshing to say the least.
We hiked back up just in time to see about 3 tour buses pull up to Machay and spit out a couple dozen tourists, so we knew our timing was pretty good. We headed off pretty quickly to stay ahead of the buses and stopped by about 3 more waterfalls – none as beautiful as Machay. One of the falls – El Pailon del Diablo – is the largest waterfall in Ecuador, and another – La Manta de Novia – let’s you take a cable car across the falls. We were trying to rent the bike only for 4 hours or so, but when we were returning on our cable car across the falls, we realized we only had about 6 minutes to return the bike on time. So we jumped on the motorcycle and zipped back to town, hoping the rental agency wouldn’t notice we were half an hour late. No such luck – but it did make the ride back pretty fun.
And then we come to Friday. Friday was a loooong day. We’d heard a lot about a great train ride called “El Nadiz del Diablo” (or The Devil’s Nose) that goes from Riobamba to Sibambe and then back – a full day trip from the city of Riobamba. The attraction of this train ride is that the route is so steep as it cuts through the mountainside that a series of switchbacks takes you down to Sibambe and then climbs back up to get back to town. All the trains are pretty ancient, so most travelers just hop on the roof and enjoy the beautiful scenery from a birds-eye view. We thought it would be a great idea to just make a day trip out of it from Baños instead of spending a few nights in Riobamba. Well, the theory was sound. The reality was less than spectacular.
We got to the Baños bus station as soon as it opened at 6am to catch the first bus to Riobamba. The problem was that no buses were running there so early. So instead, we caught a bus to Ambato – just a little bit out of the way, but a good transition point to Riobamba. When we finally got to Riobamba, the hour and a half ride had taken us 3 due to the layover. Since we’d missed the train’s departure from Riobamba, we decided we’d take another bus to the train’s next stop in Alausi – only a 2 hour bus ride.
So we arrived into Alausi around 10:45 – just in time to make the 11am train. But, naturally, the train wasn’t on time. At all. So we waited and waited in this little, nothing town of Alausi for the arrival and finally climbed aboard the roof at 12:30 – or about 6.5 hours after we’d left Baños. The train ride itself was awesome – it was a beautiful afternoon, the scenery was stunning, the whole experience was very unique, and they even had vendors walking along the roof selling popcorn and beer. Almost like a really uncomfortable IMAX presentation. When we pulled into Sibambe – the final destination – I had to wonder why anyone would take such effort to build a train all the way down there. There is absolutely nothing there. No stores, no houses, no sign of life at all. So it was a quick stopover while the engine moved to the back of the train and started pulling us back up the mountain.
By the time we got back to Alausi, Aaron and I were pretty happy we didn’t get on in Riobamba. 2.5 hours on a sloping, iron roof was quite enough, so we grabbed a bus to Riobamba and did the whole trip in reverse. We finally pulled back into Baños around 8pm and realized that we had just done 9 hours on a bus for a 2 hour train ride. I’ve had wiser time managment strategies before, but we did get everything in that we needed to. We just promised ourselves that we wouldn’t sit down for the next 24 hours.
Which meant that the next day, Saturday, we just relaxed around the little town of Baños and enjoyed the sights. There’s several churches and city parks to visit, and apparently a big English class assignment was due on Monday because we were interviewed by no less than 4 students practicing their English with us and taping their conversations. We did manage to score a great meal at a local cafe for lunch and enjoyed the local cuisine of cuy – known to you and I as guinea pig. Believe it or not, it does taste a bit like chicken, just a little tougher and sweeter. I did feel kinda bad considering I was a fairly big fan of my friend Nicole’s pet guinea pig when we were growing up, but nothing a little bit of salt and pepper couldn’t disguise.
That evening we hiked up Bellavista – a steep, lighted path up to a viewpoint over the city. The sunset was only okay due to all the clouds in the area, but it was still a great view of the cavernous hillsides and little lighted town.
And then our buses began again. We said goodbye to the owners of our hostel, the Andes mountains, and our leftover rice and boarded a bus for Ecuador’s biggest city, Guayaquil.
