Andinismo in Baños

Finally, I will tell you about my weekend in Banos, now that it’s been almost a week since. Sorry, it was a pretty busy week but now I have time.

We left from the North Trole station. Worried about being late, I got there 20 minutes early. Oops! But the others started arriving soon after. From there we headed south to Terminal Terrestre, the bus station to all parts of the country and also probably my least favorite place in Quito (it’s super sketchy and a little scary). Our group of 16 got and a bus and we were off! The ride down there was incredible. There were almost no clouds so we could see all the huge mountains and volcanoes on the way. I got some awesome pictures of Cotapaxi out the bus window. I had never seen it so clearly, usually the top is covered by clouds.

We got to Banos around lunchtime and were given an hour to explore and eat. The other Madison people and I found a restaurant offering $1.50 lunches complete with soup, rice, salad, meat (or egg for those who don’t eat meat) and juice. I taught Lindsay, the other vegetarian in the group, how to order a meatless meal. And wow was I glad to have done that. The guys got chicken soup complete with a foot! Yuck! But it made for an interesting picture. After lunch, we walked next door to “Ecuador’s best ice cream” and gave it a try. I got coconut ice cream with shredded coconut. Good but far from the best.

After the group met at the designated spot, we walked up a (no kidding) 45degree angle hill to our hostel. We got our rooms and changed in to clothes for biking and rappelling in a waterfall. We cruised down out of Banos and then walked our bikes uphill to the waterfall. (There’s no way anyone could have biked up that hill) We then hiked up to the water. After seeing exactly how powerful the water was coming down, one guy decided that the commercials with people washing their hair in waterfalls are completely false. The instructors set up the ropes and people started rappelling down the falls. It didn’t seem that bad until I tried it. You have to understand that probably my biggest fear is falling. I think it has something to do with the fact that I have no control when falling. Anyways I made down the first part of the falls without too much problem. That left the huge 15 feet or so drop. I tried to go down but when I slipped and couldn’t find a foothold, that was enough for me. I spent the rest of the time taking pictures of the falls and flowers.

The original plan was to bike back to Banos, an idea none of us liked. It was getting dark quickly and we were all soaked from the waterfall. A very cold combination. Normally it probably wouldn’t be a good thing but one of the girls had a flat tire on her bike. She walked her bike down the huge hill while the rest of us rode. At the bottom, we flagged down two taxi trucks: one for the bikes and one for us. It was pretty amazing how they stacked all 16 of the bikes in the back of a truck. It was pretty amazing how we shoved 13 of us in the back of a truck too. Back at the hostel, we changed into dry clothes and made supper plans. Instead of eating out, we bought food in town and ate at the hostel, the cheap option. Later some of the others went out to the clubs in town. I don’t know how they had the energy for that. Two other girls and I stayed back, watched a movie on TV, and got a lot more sleep.

The next morning after breakfast and packing up our stuff, we piled into the back of a truck that took us part way up Tungarahua which is Ecuador’s 10th largest mountain/volcano. As of 1999, it’s been active. On a clear day, you can see the huge plume of smoke coming out of the top of it. We didn’t but we could hear it. It made sort of a rumbling, waterfall noise. The ride up the mountain filled with great views of the nearby mountains. The road was super curving and steep. There were a few times I was afraid the truck wouldn’t make it all the way up. We got to the end of the road and hopped out. We were told to the plan: hike with a few planned breaks up to the refuge. And off we went. At first, we were on what probably used to be a road. We past a sign that said we were at 2850m above sea level, the same as Quito. The former road turned into a path which got smaller and narrower the further we went. Sometime it was pure mud. In a few places we were in almost tunnels: the path had huge walls on each side with trees and other plants making a canopy over the top. To be honest, it was a very hard climb and I struggled a lot. In four hours we walked about 5 km going up in elevation 1 km. It was just constantly climbing with very few flat areas. There’s a significant philosophy difference between what the Andinismo instructors like to do and what I like to do. Their goal is to get to the top as fast as possible. I prefer to go more slowly and look at the flowers and bugs and take pictures. I had to go with their philosophy and took very few pictures. One place we stopped for a break, we would have had a great view of the valley below but instead we level with the clouds. It was pretty crazy. When we finally got up to the refuge, there wasn’t much to see. It was completely surrounded by clouds. It was also drizzling and freezing cold. I was worn out that even with my fleece jacket, hat and gloves, I couldn’t get warm until we started back down the trail. The refuge itself was anything but impressive. It obviously hasn’t been used for years and was pretty much in ruins. There was an attached bathroom that the doors had fallen off of. It was with out a doubt the most disgusting bathroom I’ve ever seen in my life. After resting up for a while and eating a bit, we headed back down the mountain. That’s the thing that really stinks about climbing mountains. You spend all this time and energy getting up to the top and you’re dead tired but you still need to get back down. Going down was a lot easier and quicker than going up although some parts of the trail were a bit harder to walk down because they were so steep. I should say it was easier energy wise not always walking. When I finally got down to the bottom, I was exhausted. I don’t think I’ve ever been that tired but it also felt really good to have finished.

We all squeezed back into the truck and rode back to the hostel. I probably would have fallen asleep but it was pretty uncomfortable. (on the way there everyone stood, taking up less room, on the way back we sat taking up a lot more room) I think the biggest relief was taking off my boots after which I discovered huge blisters on my big toes. I was so glad to have my sandals with me. We walked (grrr) to the bus station. We couldn’t all get on the first bus because there were too many of us so we had to wait an hour or so which was fine with most of us because it meant that we had time to eat. And trust me, we were starving. We found some semi-sketchy looking cheap place close to the bus station. Amazingly they served about 10 of us in less than 10 minutes. (The food was already cooked, they just needed to put in on plates) We eat and then got on the bus to Quito. We had a crazy bus driver who decided that we were going to make it to Quito in record in time and we did. Normally it’s about 3.5 hours, it took us about 3. We got off the bus a bit earlier (and avoided Terminal Terrestre) to get on the Trole at the south station which we rode all the way to the north station. From there I got on another bus that took me right to my house. Most of my host family was already in bed (they go to bed really early). I made a cup of tea and then fell into bed exhausted.