Baños, Ecuador, here we come!

After going back and fourth on what to do and where to go we decided to go to Baños. We were supposed to leave by 9am but I got breakfast late and then my host dad asked if we could wait for his brother to take us. He is a taxi driver. We left pretty late and on our way out our host parents suggested we take our driver's licenses for the go-karts available at our destination. My host dad then took Juan Jose and a boy they were babysitting to the park.

So his brother and his wife took us to the terminal en el sur. We took the freeway, or autopista, and it was great. I had no idea how much I missed it. It took us a long time to get there but when we did we hurried inside and bought our tickets. I love how easy and cheap it is. Our bus was to leave at 11:30 but left at 12pm actually. We met this lady who was going there as well. She was going with her little girl so she could get to know the place for the first time.

The bus ride was 3ish hours long. On our way we saw the Cotopaxi. Woah, it looked FAKE! We will be going there soon so I can't wait!

yummy pizza

We arrived and headed toward our hostel. Yonseili's book helped with that. We tried two hostels and they were full. The third one we checked, Hostal Carolina, offered one room with one bed and a private bathroom, and TV cable. This cost us $15. Not bad for the high season. The low season cost at this place is $7. Ah, I almost forgot to mention that our room, number 13 by the way, was on the last floor on the terrace. It overlooked the waterfall, the church, the plaza and even the place where we would be renting out the go-karts. We definitely got a good deal and it makes me wish we had more hostels back home.

When we put our stuff down we searched for a place to eat. We ended up at a Pizzeria and it was chill. I ordered one with ham. We ordered a medium each. It had 8 thin slices. I ate 6 and I was very satisfied. We walked around the town and we really love it. There were a lot of people out and about, at the plaza, at the church, everywhere. There were plenty of places to shop, plenty of places to eat. We stopped at cool internet cafe. Not too much was special about it, but I liked how clean and organized it was. The computers each had headphones for the Skype available on them. It was by far the best internet cafe I've been to. People were friendly. There were of course many other tourists, not just from outside the country but from within as well. We later bumped into Doris, the lady we became acquaintances with at the bus terminal. She was walking around with her and we walked with her for a while. We went into the church and as we were leaving, after we saw the paintings and such, we took a picture of the bride. Yes, you read that correctly, the bride. She had a very nice dress by the way. She probably wondered who the heck we were taking pictures of her.

We chilled at our hostel for a while and then we got a text from Lauren that she was going to be at Cafe Hood with her friend at around 8pm and then they would hit the bars. We went over to the cafe with them for a while and then we headed back to the hostel so that we could head up the mountain to overlook the city. We bought the tickets for this thing right when we got the hostel who was selling them. It was $3 so that a chiva could take us up there. There were plenty, and I mean PLENTY, of chivas when we got there and plenty of people in them.

The view was great. The lady guide was talking to us about the city but honestly I didn't really listen. It was neat to briefly listen to her about the hotel that we could see next to the crater. After she gave us that talk and after we took pictures, or actually in the meantime, we bought some goodies. Those goodies were basically meat on a stick and corn on the cob. There was also a cold coke in the mix. Then we got a show from a clown and other circus people. We couldn't really see. Then it was time to go and so we headed back to the chiva, and back into town. As part of the chiva tour, we were given a note/slip to get a free cocktail at a bar/discotheque. We just got in and got out without our free drink. We gave our slip to some people in there.

Then we walked to what was a street where there is bar after bar after bar because that's where Lauren and her friend were. We found them and hung out with them. In total we went to three bars, but the last one was definitely the best. What made it so was that everyone in there was dancing and was very happy. I'm not just talking about the guests, but even the barmen and the DJ. They were great. Plus, no one was "bumping and grinding." It was great to see people simply dancing and having a good time. The music was excellent and the place was just right.

We got home kind of late. I didn't want to know what time it was because I know we'd have to wake up early for church.

Highlight of the day: The city overall and it's peacefulness even in the midst of a lot of tourists/people