Ecuador, Summer 2013 (Part 8)
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.
Seeing as how my luck is always so good, I woke up this morning with the early symptoms of a cold. The group I’ve been hanging out with in the hostel was going to go on a guided abseiling tour down some waterfalls near Baños as well as going on a guided ATV tour through the mountains in the area.
Due to my early cold symptoms I almost decided to sit this adventure out, thankfully a serious case of FOMO compelled me to go. In hindsight, I came close to missing out on the adventure of a lifetime.
We walked as a group to the tourism place where our guides would train us as to how to abseil properly down a canyon/waterfall without killing ourselves. We all put on wetsuits and shoes for abseiling; unfortunately, having size 15 feet in Ecuador means you will not be able to find shoes so I would have to use my own.
After we got into our gear, we went to an artificial cliff wall where we would practice. The climb up the wall was dangerous enough as we had to climb up a makeshift metal ladder to get to the top before abseiling down to the bottom.
After we all got a bit of practice in, we hopped into the back of a truck and headed to the base of the mountain we would hike to begin our excursion abseiling down the waterfalls.
The hike up the mountain itself was difficult as it was an upward climb for about 20 minutes.
Once we finally reached our starting point it was time to go down the first waterfall (there would be five total). It wasn’t too bad but it was definitely harder for me considering I didn’t have the proper shoes so it was hard to get a grip on the slick canyon wall, especially with a ton of water falling down on me every second.
After abseiling three more waterfalls we made it to the last one, which was really more like a water slide which the guides said was nicknamed “El Rompe Culo” which translates in English to “The Ass-Breaker.” They were right. I landed ass-first on some rocks when I reached the bottom and it really hurt.
After we made it to the bottom we were taken back into town where we would change and get some lunch before continuing on the ATV portion of our adventure. The majority of the group went to go get lunch at a vegetarian place because some of them are “cleansing” themselves in preparation to take “Ayahuasca.”
Ayahuasca is a type of brew which contains an extremely powerful hallucinogen called “Dimethyltryptamine” or more commonly known as DMT. Before taking Ayahuasca you are supposed to go without meat, sugar, sex, and a couple of other things about a week before hand for a better experience supposedly. Since I was not exactly in a good head space, I decided to skip one of the most powerful hallucinogens known to man.
Paul, one of the Aussies in the group, and I went on a quest to search for Mexican food. Sadly the only restaurant we knew in town that had Mexican food was closed so instead we went to another restaurant next door that served more typical Ecuadorian fare.
After lunch we all met back up at the tour guide place where we mounted our ATVs. Most of us were given manual-transmission ATVs but I was given one with an automatic-transmission which I think was for the best as most of everyone else was having trouble using the transmission on their ATVs.
The whole manual-transmission thing made it really hard leaving town and some of us got split off from the rest of the group as some people fell behind as they tried to get a handle on operating the clutch and shifting gears properly.
I got lost for a bit but finally made it up the mountain and met with the rest of the group where we had an amazing view of the Tungurahua volcano.
We traveled through the mountains for about three and a half hours but we were having so much fun it felt significantly longer.
The trip was amazing. Our guide was awesome and knew exactly where to take us to see some incredible sights as well as have a lot of fun riding in our ATVs.
We made it back to Baños at around 7:00 PM. Upon getting back to the hostel and taking a long shower, I collapsed on my bed exhausted and fell asleep. When I woke up the next morning, my cold was even worse than it was the day before.
I decided that morning to head back to Guayaquil to get some rest. I said goodbye to the people that I became friends with along the way and checked out of the hostel.
I walked to the bus terminal but stopped for a bit at a nearby chocolate shop to buy some gifts for people back home.
I bought two tickets back to Guayaquil so I could have the whole row to myself. Being sick I really did not want to be forced to be cramped next to someone for the seven hour trip. Even though I bought two tickets I only ended up paying $12. Not a bad deal for a little extra comfort.
We rolled into Guayaquil right around 8 PM and I was picked up by my mom at the bus terminal. It took me about a week to get over this cold and by then I only had a little over a week left in the country. I spent the rest of my time in Ecuador seeing family and reading before flying back to Texas.
Ecuador is a backpackers wet dream. Although smaller than the state of Nevada, within Ecuador’s borders lies a huge variety of different climates, terrains, wildlife, and most importantly, adventures to be had. Due to its status as a developing nation, things can be done for relatively little money here, making it a hot spot for 20-somethings looking for big adventure on a college budget.
Epilogue
Shortly after returning home to the states, I went back to school where I briefly got back together with my ex before we broke things off for good shortly before my birthday.
Feeling depressed once again, I tried distracting myself with the everyday hustle and bustle of my every day life as a college student: going to class, hanging out with friends, operating my party bus business, and running meetings for a student group I was the president of.
One day, as luck would have it, a face I had never seen before came to a meeting. We went to a bar afterwards and we kind of hit it off.
Her name was Audrey, and the rest is history.
