Ecuador, Summer 2013 (Part 5)

THE FOLLOWING BLOG POST WAS WRITTEN BEFORE THIS WEBSITE WAS EVER CONCEIVED ON MY OLD TUMBLR ACCOUNT. IT HAS BEEN EDITED FROM ITS ORIGINAL FORM FOR GRAMMAR, PACING, AND TO MAKE IT AN OVERALL BETTER READ.

I woke up this morning at 6:00 AM to get to the Quitumbe bus station in southern Quito to catch a bus to Baños. Traffic was so bad that even though I left my uncle’s apartment around 7:30, I didn’t make it to the Quitumbe bus terminal until around 9:20.

I entered the terminal and looked for the ticket office to buy my ticket to Baños. The next one departed at 9:50 AM so I purchased my ticket for $3.50. I still can’t get over how cheap bus travel is here. As a general rule of thumb, a bus ticket costs you about $1 per hour of travel. I purchased a few snacks and drinks before heading onto my bus.

The bus to Baños wasn’t nearly as nice as the one that took me from Guayaquil to Quito. It didn’t have a bathroom, the seats weren’t as comfortable and it just felt much more cramped overall.

The mountains and valleys on the route from Quito to Baños offered an incredible view. Combined with the music from my iPod the trip seemed to be passing really quickly.

Just outside of the town of Ambato, the bus started to suffer some mechanical difficulties. Fortunately we were able to make it to a nearby bus station where we all transferred onto another bus operated by the same company.

To be totally honest, the bus we were transferred onto was way nicer than the one we were on before. The only real downside was that this one was pretty much completely filled which made it feel a lot more cramped compared to the previous bus which was like 90% empty.

We crossed over a bridge and officially entered the town of Baños. The bus terminal in Baños was a very short drive from my hostel, “Great Hostels Backpackers Los Pinos.” I could have walked but without really knowing the town too well, I didn’t really want to get lost.

I entered the common area where the reception desk was. The manager showed me around the hostel and then gave me some information about tourist locations around town.

Afterwards, the manager took me to my room. I used to be quite overweight which caused me to snore loudly in my sleep in the past. Because of this I used to be pretty self conscious about sleeping around other people so I got a private room with a full-sized bed. The extra $10/night was a reasonable price for some peace of mind.

I was completely amazed by this place; Wi-Fi around the whole compound, private bathroom with shower in each room, and (a very limited) complimentary breakfast 7-days a week on top of a complimentary family meal style dinner Monday - Wednesday.

I rested in my room for a little while after my journey before going back to the common room. Although empty when I first arrived, the common room finally had some people in it and more people slowly began trickling in.

The diversity among the hostel’s guests is part of the beauty of backpacking, there were a few Australians, a couple of Brits, an Irish guy, a group of Germans, and a few Americans and Canadians. Everyone there was in their early to late twenties.

Even for someone as awkward as me, making friends is easy when traveling by yourself and around 6PM, we all went to the “Termas de la Virgen” (aka the “Thermal Springs of the Virgin Mary” for you gringos).

The water in the pools, which is heated by the nearby thermal springs from which the town of Baños gets its name, was very hot, bordering on uncomfortably hot at times but the views from there were absolutely amazing. Located in a valley, Baños is surrounded on all sides the Andes mountain range.

Tungurahua, a volcano kept active by the same forces heating our pool, looms over the city. From the Quichua word meaning “throat of fire,” Tungurahua has seen numerous eruptions since reawakening from a semi-dormant state back in 1999. The threat of it erupting is such a reality that all the hotels and hostels in Baños have to keep an evacuation map on hand at all times to guide guests to designated safe locations.

Dinner was going to be served back at the hostel around 8PM so we got out of the pools and headed back to our rooms to shower before dinner. We were served a simple but tasty spaghetti bolognese, and you can’t argue with decent free food.

After eating, a lot of us stayed in the common room talking, reading, messaging loved ones back home, playing pool, or watching "The Dark Knight Rises” from the hostels impressive collection of nearly 500 DVDs, all mostly bootleg copies.