After we finished working in the communities, we were ready to relax a little bit, starting off with a good hot shower. We decided to visit the Uber-touristy city of Baños, a six hour bus ride from Otavalo. We arrived late at night to find our hostal to be very local and a little seedy. They ended up charging us double what we had been told originally, but we really had no choice but to pay. Luckily we were able to move to a much friendlier hostal called ‘Transilvania’ the next day, where we paid less ($7 each per night) for much better accommodations and big tasty breakfasts. The food in the area was also good, with lots of quasi-Mediterranean places and good street sweets. There is also a lot of taffy being made outside of shops, with store owners pulling and slapping the dough on a wooden peg mounted to the wall. The taffy is good while it is being pulled (and there were a ton of free samples!), but after a few minutes it gets really hard.
While in Banos we visited the thermal baths the city is named for. These are essentially crowded, murky swimming pools that are unusually warm. We could barely even get into the water there were so many people, but once we found a corner it was pretty relaxing.
We also went horseback riding up into the mountains outside of the city. The day was really rainy but it was neat to see all of the low clouds moving around us and our horses. We ended up cutting the ride a little short after getting soaked to the bone. It was all worth it just for how good the hot shower felt afterward!
Our final mini-adventure in Baños was to go to take an open colorful bus called a chiva to see all of the waterfalls outside of the city. The mountains are literally leaking with tons of water, and we saw over a dozen big falls in only a few hours. Ecuador is ridiculously rich with natural beauty, and it is overwhelming sometimes just how much cool stuff is in one small place. What is even crazier is that we have grown accustomed to the surroundings, and it takes a dozen waterfalls to remind us just where we are.
