Don't go chasing waterfalls.

About a month ago we had a long weekend so we decided to take a trip to Baños. For those of you who took Spanish in high school and are thinking "doesn't baños mean bathroom?" you are correct. The actual name of the city is Baños de Agua Santa which means "Baths of Sacred Water." 

We woke up early our first morning to go canyoning but our trip had been delayed so we had a few hours to kill. We walked around town which is nestled in the mountains, and took an impromptu trip to the zoo. As far as wildlife goes, the zoo wasn't anything spectacular but the exhibits were primarily outside and provided amazing views of the mountains. At many points throughout our zoo trip, I couldn't help but notice that if any one of these animals wanted to escape, they easily could. The walls weren't exactly un-scalable and there was no netting/roof preventing them from jumping out but alas, we were not privy to a daring jaguar escape that day. 

One of the best views was from a bridge that hung between two parts of the mountain. This particular bridge is known for "bridge jumping" which sounds like bungee jumping except there is no "bungee" chord, it's literally just a rope. Rhiannon had jumped off this bridge last year and said if you jump correctly (a.k.a, actually jump) it is really fun and only mildly uncomfortable (a few bruises where the harness rests) but if you refuse to jump (a.k.a fall straight down like the other volunteer did) it's incredibly painful and not something you'd likely try again. I decided to take a hard pass on the "fancy jump rope swing" and decided to prolong death at least a few more years. I wish I had taken more any pictures during this trip but I never remembered to bring my phone so I only have a few pictures from other people but the plan is to return to Baños when my parents come to visit in February so I'll post some more then, it truly is a beautiful city. 

(Pailón Del Diablo)

Our first big "adventure experience" was repelling down waterfalls, also known as canyoning. Baños is a popular tourist town so many of the streets are lined with shops all promoting fun touristy things. Luckily, Rhiannon is friends with one of the guides so we were able to book things really easily and we had a fun guide to show us around. When we arrived at the shop it was fairly warm outside and we were given wetsuits, shoes, helmets, and harnesses. Squeezing into a wetsuit in front of six other people is essentially my worst nightmare but we were all able to laugh at each other and we are all still alive. The shoes they gave us were basically worn-down Keds which made hiking up the mountain to get to the first waterfall super fun. 

Once we were finally geared up we jumped in the back of a pickup truck and rode halfway up the mountain. We had two guides with us, I can't remember the name of the main guide but the assistant was named Hannah. Hannah is from Germany, looks like she weighs 90 pounds soaking wet, and could easily pass as a well-developed 13-year-old. Adorable forrest-dwelling fairy? Yes. Capable of repelling a fully-grown human down a waterfall? TBD. When I asked Hannah how long she had been leading tours she reassured me that she had done this particular route hundreds of times and that I had nothing to worry about...more on that later. 

We had about 5 minutes of training on land and when I say training, we watched the guide pretend to repel against a tree. We never actually touched the equipment until we were at the top of the first waterfall - safety first! Normally, I'm pretty brave when it comes to these sort of things but when I looked over the edge of the first waterfall, I panicked. Not only was I certain that I had misunderstood the instructions that, by the way, were all said in Spanish, but I couldn't see what I was about to repel down and I had Hannah-the-size-of-a-banana as my lifeline. 

The other volunteers made it down no problem and they also made it look fairly easy. Rhiannon had done this route before and Sean climbs rocks for fun (lame) so they essentially glided down the waterfall like they had done this a million times. When I was finally attached to the safety rope and teetering on the precipice the guide asked me how I was feeling and I managed to blurt out "SCARED!" He laughed and said "good, me too." Oh look everyone, we have a guide AND a comedian! I finally understood the term white-knuckling and I was completely paralyzed in fear. It didn't help that everyone else was already at the bottom yelling words of encouragement. I DON'T WANT YOUR PITY CHEERS, JUST LOOK AWAY AND LEAVE ME HERE TO DIE. 

 (Pretending to be brave)

(Moments before I beefed it and drank half a waterfall)

Knowing that "down" was the only way down, I stepped over the edge and slowly but surely made my way down the waterfall. Apparently, there's a right way to hold onto the rope (one hand in front, one hand behind your back gently guiding you down) and a wrong way to hold the rope (basically everything I was doing - hanging on for dear life with both hands in front with the rope slowly and painfully sliding through my death grip). After what felt like three hours but was more realistically three minutes, I made it to the bottom to the excited/relieved faces of the other volunteers. I thought to myself, "I can be done with this now" but there were still four waterfalls to go. What followed was essentially a how-not-to-repel-down-a-waterfall informational video and I was the leading lady. I only lost my footing once but luckily, Hannah turned out to be more than capable of holding me up and we had a good laugh about it at the bottom. 

When we finally made it down the last waterfall, I gave Hannah a hug and thanked her for a fun day. She laughed and told me she had a confession to make - this was actually her second day on the job. She knew I was scared and didn't want me to be nervous so she "fibbed" and said she had done this hundreds of times. Oh Hannah...YOU HILARIOUS JOKESTER. At that point, my life was no longer in her hands so we were able to laugh about it but for future reference Hannah, that is NEED TO KNOW INFORMATION. 

 (Look! No hands!)

 (We made it!)

 (Hannah)

 (Regretting every life decision I have ever made)

 (Always a lady)

 (Rhiannon and I at the bottom of the "slide")

(Que viva Ecuador!)

That night we ate dinner at a local brewery then went out on the town for some drinks/dancing. We stopped at a "bar" that was fully-lit and had a single pool table in the middle of the room and they literally only sold $.50 tequila shots (only in Ecuador).

The next morning we woke up a little hungover and ready for our next excursion, rafting! Once again we geared up in wetsuits, Keds, and helmets, and boarded a bus to ride down the mountain to the river. Rhiannon's friend was our rafting guide and our group was large enough to fill one of the five boats. We spent the first 30 minutes on land learning the different signals from the guide and then we launched our boat into a calm part of the river to practice paddling. There really were only two rules on this trip, listen to the guide and do not lose your paddle. 

The river was wedged between two different mountains and the scenery was incredible. It felt like we were paddling through Jurassic Park (minus all the dinosaurs). As far as teamwork goes, we did pretty well but our paddling was basically useless. I can't imagine any amount of paddling would make that much of an impact aside from turning the boat but we fought the good fight anyway. We made it through the first couple of rapids no problem but to no one's surprise, I was the first to fall out. In my defense, it was a pretty huge rapid and my foot slipped from under the seat. I did manage to hang on to my paddle and made it back into the boat no problem. The next person to fall out was Rhiannon, in her defense..her friend pushed her (rude...but hilarious). Next up was Janie. For part of the trip, Janie was given the "special privilege" of sitting on the front of the boat with no paddle and only her hands to hang on. She was about as stable as a baby deer on a trampoline, it was only a matter of time. Last but not least, I fell out one more time and this time was a little more harrowing. I got a stomach full of river water and while I did manage to hang on to my paddle, I was quickly floating down river. During our training the guide told us to always keep our feet down river in case we encountered one of the many large rocks/boulders. By the time I turned myself around, I was out of reach from the safety rope. Everyone kept yelling "hold on, we're coming!" as I asked myself for the hundredth time "why the hell am I still holding onto this stupid paddle?" After a few too many waves and what felt like an eternity, the boat finally caught up to me and I was pulled inside. Our guide was wearing a GoPro camera on his helmet and we have lots of pictures but we do not have them in our possession yet, once we do I'll update this post so you can see some of the cool scenery and hopefully some awesome action shots! 

After about an hour in the boat we stopped at a calm part of the river for a quick break and some additional fun. We stopped under a bridge and the guides said if we wanted to, we could jump off. Rhiannon, Shemesh, and I walked up with a few other people from the other boats and I'm not going to lie, this was a lot higher than my waterfall jump in Mindo. The first few people to jump landed fairly gracefully with the occasional back-flop followed by an "OOOHHHHH" from the audience below. The only caveat to jumping off the bridge was that you had to swim back across the river to make it to shore. Since Shemesh didn't go through with his jump in Mindo, he was hellbent on making it this time. He climbed over the rail and took a few seconds to psych himself up and then he jumped and landed like a complete idiot. I don't know if he was in shock or just a horrible swimmer but his arms were not moving nearly fast enough and he started to float away. Everyone was yelling "SWIM! SWIM!" but he wasn't making much progress and getting dangerously close to the next rapid. One of the guides grabbed a safety rope from his boat (the rope is coiled into a bag so when you throw the bag, the rope is supposed to unwind as it falls) but it didn't land anywhere near Shemesh (YOU HAD ONE JOB) so two of the other guides jumped in a boat to go rescue him. Once I knew he was safe, I almost died laughing. Shemesh, if you are reading this, you are as graceful as a swan. There was no way I was following that so I decided to hike back down but Rhiannon made the jump and she was able to make it to shore sans rescue mission. Once everyone was back in the boat, we paddled down the river for another 45 minutes or so. It wasn't a race to the finish but if it were, we would have won. 

Our last fun adventure was to Casa del Arbol (tree house) which has "The Swing At The End Of The World." On our way up the mountain we stopped at a different swing that swung off the face of a cliff and looked far less sturdy. When we arrived, a man had his young daughter on his lap and they were swinging carefree into the abyss. While death isn't guaranteed if you fall off this swing, at the very least you would get horribly horribly injured. We decided to pass but took a group picture to capture the memory. We rode up to the original swing and had a good laugh because there were so many clouds, we couldn't see ten feet in front of the swing. This swing was still exciting but not as dangerous as the first one. If you were to fall off, you would fall pretty far but at least you'd land on a hill before rolling down. The line moved fairly quickly and we were able to take some cool photos anyway. 

 (The first swing. Also, this is pre-haircut...yikes)

 (Baños)

 (What a view!)

 (You win, clouds)

(Nailed it)

If you are planning a trip to Ecuador, I would definitely suggest going to Baños. It's a beautiful place with plenty of fun things to do!

Katelyn Visits Ecuador!

This post is long overdue but hey...better late than never right? Last month, Katelyn Bleach (my best friend since kindergarten), came to visit for my birthday! I didn't think I would be super emotional when she arrived but when I saw her walk through Customs, I cried. I blame the high altitude. We hugged for about a minute and I can't explain how nice it felt to be able to share my "new life" with someone from back home. 

We arrived back at the Center around 11:00 pm so everyone else was already asleep. I gave her a quick tour of the house, warmed up some leftover llapingachos, and then it was time for bed. We woke up early the next morning and I gave her the grand tour of the Center. It was surreal having someone from back home seeing what I see every day. Since she arrived during a weekend there weren't any kids around but I had fun showing her where I teach and introducing her to the other volunteers. 

Since all of the volunteers had a long vacation for Fall Break, Shemesh, Janie, Katelyn, and I decided to take a trip to the coast. Shemesh and Janie decided to save some money with a nine hour bus ride (KILL ME) while Katelyn and I chose to fly. I am so glad we did because apparently, the winding bus ride through the mountains was merciless, and Shemesh ended up puking six times. "He chose...poorly..."

Katelyn and I weren't sure how bad traffic was going to be since most of the country also had vacations planned for this particular week so we left early and arrived at the airport about two hours before our flight. The flight lasted about 45 minutes and we arrived in Esmeraldas around 4:00 pm. Luckily, Michael had decided to fly home to the United States for break so I was able to borrow his local phone. I tried calling Shemesh and Janie but they weren't answering their phones (always a good sign) so we hopped in a cab and headed toward the hostel. 

Knowing the cab ride would be about 45 minutes, I was relieved when the driver told us he knew where we were staying (he didn't). The drive through Esmeraldas was...how do I put this gently...interesting? According to Lonely Planet "Esmeraldas is ugly, dangerous and dirty, and there's really no reason to stay here. Most tourists just spend the night (if they have to) and continue southwest to the popular beach destinations." Nailed it. We too were planning on going to a popular beach destination, Atacames. 

I wasn't sure how much of what we saw was due to the recent earthquakes and how much of it was just Esmeraldas, but I was growing increasingly anxious and I could tell Katelyn was too. The beautiful sunset slowly descending behind the mountains merely served as a reminder that it would soon be dark and the cab driver was clearly lost. We drove for what felt like forever through the dilapidated city, at one point passing a front lawn that was literally on fire, and we each took turns "finding the humor" in the situation while the other person silently freaked out. I was too nervous to take my phone out so I don't have any pictures, you'll just have to trust me on this one. 

Luckily, I had the number for the hostel written down so the driver was able to ask for directions. About halfway through the ride, Shemesh called and very nonchalantly stated "you should still come to the hostel but it's not where we're staying. Don't freak out. It's a long story. I'll explain everything when you get here." Click. Katelyn and I looked at each other in disbelief. I reassured her that Shemesh was more than capable of finding a solution (she seemed mildly convinced) so we continued our journey with our breaths held and our fingers crossed. 

When we arrived at the hostel where we had originally planned to stay, Shemesh told us the manager had tried e-mailing him a few weeks prior to get partial payment. Despite providing a local phone number where we could have easily been contacted, since Shemesh never responded to the e-mails the manager gave our room away. If you are an intelligent, rational human being, you'll understand why this makes absolutely no sense so I won't bother explaining how angry we were. 

To make a long story short, the manager's wife had a friend who owned a "hostel" a few blocks away and they happened to have a room for us for the low, low, price of $30 a night. Shemesh and Janie hopped in our cab and we drove to our new "hostel" at the corner of "Someone Has Clearly Been Murdered Here" and "Abort...ABORT!" Mr. and Mrs. Bleach, if you are reading this...I apologize. 

What had been described as a hostel was more accurately a temporary low-income apartment complex. There was no sign, no lobby, bars on the doors, and bars on the windows. Despite being one block from the ocean, it felt like we had walked onto the set of Zero Dark Thirty. On the bright side, there was an outdoor pool, it really tied the whole place together. 

 (The abandoned alley where our "hostel" was... what could possibly go wrong?)

 (A room with a view)

 (Zero Dark Dirty)

(Murder free since 2003)

As soon as our door was locked, we all pulled out our phones and began looking for other options but since it was a major holiday, everything was showing up booked. By that point we were all tired and hungry so we decided to walk down the beach toward a more popular area to try to find some dinner. As we were walking, we literally saw someone get robbed. I wish I were kidding. About 15 steps in front of us, someone grabbed a woman's purse that had been sitting on her beach towel, and took off running. The woman's family witnessed this happen and began chasing said robber down the beach and our day continued to get better and better. 

On a whim, Shemesh decided to stop into a hotel he thought looked nice, just to see if they had any openings that weren't currently posted online. By some incredible miracle, another group's car had broken down earlier that day so they had to cancel their reservation. We almost screamed in his face "YES WE'LL TAKE IT" when the owner asked if we were interested in the room. At the time, we didn't have enough cash on us to pay the deposit, so we told him we'd walk back to our hostel and come back with our payment in 15 minutes. His response? "Don't get robbed."

Since we had already partially settled into our original room and it was getting dark, we didn't want to lug all of our stuff back down the beach, so we decided to stick it out for one night and move our stuff early the next morning. Once we walked down the beach towards the touristy area, it was actually quite nice. The main street was filled with restaurants, tiki bars on the beach, and an active night life. We ate dinner, had some drinks, headed back to the hostel, took a late night swim, and promptly fell asleep. 

We woke up early the next morning to the gentle call of 1,000 roosters and packed our bags for the new hotel. The new place had clean rooms, a restaurant, a pool, a balcony with hammocks overlooking the ocean, and best of all, there were no bars on the windows. Our room overlooked the pool and the beach and we all sighed a breath of relief that we were no longer "in immediate danger."

We spent our first full day laying by the pool and swimming in the ocean. The ocean felt like bath water it was so warm and we were finally able to relax and start having some fun. We walked down the beach past vendors selling fresh ceviche and tour guides promoting parasailing and whale watching. There were tons of families relaxing on the beach and playing in the waves. We walked to a tiki bar that had swings instead of chairs (so hipster) and cooled down with some blended frozen drinks. 

 (Now we're talking)

 (The view from our new room)

 (Mountains)

(I spy with my little eye...someone getting robbed)

(Obligatory pano)

For dinner, we decided to go to a pizza place on the main street, and the meal was definitely worth writing about. First of all, we were the only people in the restaurant. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise because apparently, there was only one person working there. We each ordered a personal-sized pizza and about an hour later, the first one arrived. Katelyn had ordered cheese but wasn't feeling well so the rest of us devoured what she didn't eat. When the plate was empty the waiter/host/bartender/cook/owner took the wooden pizza pan away and about 20 minutes later, Shemesh's pizza arrived. He had ordered pizza with shrimp on it and it was delicious. Again, once the plate was empty the same man came out to collect it and it became very clear that THIS RESTAURANT ONLY HAD ONE PIZZA PAN! Janie and I were so hungry we were ready to eat our own arms. We had ordered what we thought was pizza with peppers, mushrooms, onions, and potatoes but 20 minutes later our pizza arrived covered in hard boiled eggs. OK Spanish...YOU WIN! At that point we didn't even care. We ate the rest of our pizza and got the hell out of Dodge. 

Apart from hanging by the pool or going to the beach, there really wasn't a whole lot of "tourist" things to do. We all needed to stop at an ATM but apparently, the closest ATM was at a bank 15 minutes away - typical Ecuador. We jumped in a "cab" and rode to the bank. I put "cab" in quotation marks because it was more like a rickshaw. The front part was a motorcycle and the back part looked like it was once part of a car/wagon. Was it entirely safe? Who knows? Then again, this whole trip was already an episode of "Missing Abroad" waiting to happen so we just went with it. 

(No seat belts? No problem!)

 (Some photos from our trip to the ATM)

That night, we sat on the balcony and rocked in the hammocks, as we listened to the ocean and laughed about this ridiculous trip. The next day we played in the ocean (I'm not-so-secretly awesome at bodysurfing) and set out to find an Italian restaurant we had passed on the way in. Shemesh and I share a birthday so we didn't mind splurging on a fancy dinner and I'm so glad we did because it was awesome. The restaurant was on a side street about 5 minutes from the beach. It was mostly an outdoor patio with trellises covered in grapes, a brick oven for pizza, and a chef from the United States who had spent many years learning to cook in Italy. We treated ourselves to pizza, pasta, gelato, and wine. Tired and full, we rode back to the hotel with a fresh bottle of wine and ended up playing cards on our bed until we fell asleep. We woke up early the next morning and packed our bags before we made one last stop at the beach. The four of us flew back to Quito and I am proud to say, WE ARE ALL STILL ALIVE! What an adventure. 

 (Boarding the plane like royalty)

(Andes Mountains)

Katelyn still had one more night in Quito so we went to the market in Plaza Foch where we each bought some Christmas presents and then we headed to my favorite craft brewery. Camino Del Sol is one of very few places in Quito that offers beer other than Pilsner so we like to go there as much as possible. Most of the volunteers were still on their own vacations so we ate dinner at home, watched the movie "Sisters", and then talked until we could no longer keep our eyes open and it was time for bed.

(Not Pilsner)

For her final morning here, we took the teleferico up Pichincha (volcano) but we could only stay for 30 minutes because Katelyn had to catch her plane back to the states. We made it back home just in time and Katelyn was able to make it back safe-and-sound-and-Malaria-free. 

 (Pichincha) 

(Teleferico)

(Miss you already!)