**Currently listening to: my Christmas music playlist ** =]
We actually made it to Baños! It was a REALLY last minute decision, but Nikki, Meghan and I ended up going. Sasha was signed up to run in a 10k saturday night, so she didn't join us. Here's what happened Friday:
During our history class, Meghan was talking about how her and Sasha wanted to go to Baños this weekend...already a very last minute decision. Well, after class I went to Nikki's house and we ate some Kraft Mac & Cheese (YUM!!!) and waited to hear back from Meghan and Sasha who were looking up all the stuff in Baños. I walked home around 530 or so and we still had not heard from them. It got later and later and I still hadn't heard anything, so I assumed that we weren't going. Then Sasha told me that she didn't know if she could go because she had a 10k to run Saturday night, but she might skip it. This was at, like, 9 pm and I was getting a little annoyed cuz decisions weren't being made so I told myself that I wasn't going. I could save my money and do something else this weekend. So, I told my host mom that we weren't going anymore and that was that. Around 12 I went to bed. I was almost asleep and my phone goes off...a text message, from Meghan. ''Hey Sasha is not going to Baños but Nikki and I still want to go. you in?'' I don't have money to send texts, so I got back online and agreed to go with Nikki and Meghan to Baños.
So, at 630 am, I woke up, took a shower, and packed to leave at 8. We took a taxi to the bus station in South Quito and then took a bus 3 hours to Baños. First, we needed to find a hostal. We found a little doorway on one of the main streets and so we went in and the place was pretty much empty, so we got a room. It was $8 a person for the night. We each had our own bed, plus an extra one we didn't need, a private bathroom with hot water, and a pretty sweet view. We got there around lunch time, so we we to a ''Restaruant'' (literally what it was called) for lunch. I had arroz con pollo (chicken and rice) and we were entertained by fake wrestling on tv. It was wonderful. haha and VERY fake. =]
After we were full, we knew that we wanted to do puenting, so we went to look for a place and check out the prices. We found one and looked at the prices, which were what we had heard, $10-$15-or $25 depending on the height of the jump, but we wanted to see what other places offered. Right across the street was another place that had the same prices, so we ended up just going with that place. Here's how it went down: (disclaimer: this is a very ROUGH translation from how the actual spanish conversation happened)
We were like, "Hey, we wanna jump off a bridge. How much is it?"
"$10 for the lower jump and $15 for the higher one."
Meghan and I look at each other... "$15?" "ok""
We wanna do the $15 one."...
"Alright, let's go''and we legitimately walked to the bridge right then. like, it was 3 minutes away. We walked there, put on the stuff and they're like, alright let's jump! It was so accessable; I was expecting it to take longer to do. AND we didn't have to pay until AFTER we jumped. But, it was super windy (as you can see and hear in the video that I posted on facebook) so once Meghan and I got onto the platforms we were sitting on the edge of the bridge looking at eachother like, ''Why are we doing this?!'' The guys behind kept telling us to ''Stand up!'' and they probably had to tell us more than 10 times until we actually did. Then my guy told me, in spanish, to put my arms out (like an airplane) but it was so windy and I wasn't really thinking in spanish cuz I was so scared that I didn't understand him and automatically assumed that he was telling me something really important and I MISSIED it!! So, I screamed ''WHAT?'' and, in english, he goes, ''Like this!'' and puts his arms out. And then the started counting....there was no backing out after they started counting. I looked down and immediately had to look up and focus on the horizon cuz if I didn't, I wouldn't have done it. When the guy said ''TRES!!'', I screamed and dove off of the platform. I think I closed my eyes until I felt the rope catch cuz I don't really remember seeing anything, haha. But, as Meghan and I were swinging back and forth for about two minutes, every time we made eye contact our eyes were wide and our mouths were open in that HOW-AWESOME-WAS-THAT?! kind of way. Then we were lowered down to the ground and walked back up the bridge. It was so awesome and I'm sooo glad I did it. I'd have to pay like $100 and watch a stupid video if I did this in the states. I like the Ecuadorian way better. =]
After all that adrenaline, we found another little touristy place and went on a ''tour'' to El Paillon del Diablo, a really sweet waterfall (pictures on facebook). It was quite a hike on the way back and I got really light headed and I took extra long to get back up that hill...but I made it. =]
Once we got back, we pretty much just walked around the town. There were a lot of interesting sights. Besides all of the little shops and restaurants, we saw probably 4 different parades of people complete with a band leading the way and little cheerleader-type girls dancing to JLo and Enrique Iglesias. <--This part kind of reminded me of the constitution day parade with the little twirlers and their tiny batons. =] There were also a very large crowd of people carrying flowers and a couple of men carrying a shrine-type thing with a woman in it on their shoulders. In one of the parades, the shrine was a legit float and had little girls dressed up as angels sitting on it. It was quite an interesting thing to witness.
We also saw a very interesting game of soccer. We found the game because we heard a band playing and we saw a crowd of people and a bunch of streamers, so we decided to crash the party. Everyone was watching this game of soccer that a bunch of men were playing in the streets. They were all wearing rain boots and they were playing with a really small ball, more like a kids play soccer ball than an actual soccer ball. But then we saw the interesting part...all of their boots were filled with something. It was white liquid so we called it milk. I doubt that it actually was, cuz that would be a waste of milk, but every single one of them had this liquid in their boots, and when they would fall or splash too much of it out, some guy would come rushing over with a little bucket, and refill their boots! It was hilarious. The weight of the liquid made it harder to run and harder to kick the ball. I decided that I'm bringing this version of the sport back to the states with me. =]
For the rest of the night we walked around and looked in the shops. We found an artisan's market place and it made me really want to get my souveniers but I'm saving my money for when we go back to Otovalo. Just walking through it made me excited. =] Then we got some dinner, Meghan had Choclo (a potato soup) and Nikki and I shared Llapingachos (a fried potato cake with cheese in it...i.e. my FAVORITE ecuadorian dish ever! ). Then we headed back to our hostal and pretty much just chilled in the room for a while. We channel surfed for a while and we kept hearing this really loud banging outside. We'd been hearing it all day but didn't know what it was until we looked out our windows...they were setting off fireworks! And they were going off right by this church that had really tall towers like a castle and was lit up by blue lights, so we were pretty much a disney world, watching fireworks behind Cinderella's castle. =] It was sweet.
We were bums and went to bed kind of early, but jumping off a bridge takes a lot out of you, and we were all exhausted. Sunday morning, we got up around 10 and packed our stuff up, payed and found a little bread shop and got some breakfast. Pinnapple juice and a cheese sandwich. =] We walked around a little more, but I had pretty much run out of money so we bought our tickets for the bus home and then left around 12.
Even though the trip wasn't long and we didn't do a WHOLE lot, it was still really fun. =] I'm glad we went and I'm SUPER glad I jumped off that bridge. =] It was really neat to see all the festivities of what seemed to be a local celebration. I'm glad we experienced what we did and I'm glad I didn't blow off the trip like I had planned. =] haha
My life is pretty boring for the next few days...until Friday that is. =] Friday morning we leave for the Galapagos!!! I'm so freaking excited!
I'll for sure have some things to write about when I get back.
Until then!
World Traveler
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