the #1 best thing about baños-you are never short of anything to do, and it is almost all fun...the #1 worst thing about baños-when the fun is over, you always have to go back...UPHILL.
i wish this was a joke, but seriously, minus the horseback ride...once you thought it was over, the hard stuff had just begun. the best example is of the bike riding day. on a mission to find waterfalls- and for $5 dollars a day for a bike why not? and helmets? well, yes kim...they are clean, don´t worry...the lady said one one ever actually uses the helmets...
day 1-but why not! there was nothing i wanted more than a helmet once it became clear where we were actually riding...lets see...for the grand rapidians reading this, i would be like college ave, only with 3 times as many busses and three feet less of space and no sidewalk...for suburbia chicago folks...well, lets just keep you with the grand rapidians cause i don´t know-but kim does...and for you detroiters, its like one side of woodward, with only two lanes, not sidewalk, but with the same amount of traffic, and way more hills and bridges...in a sum...it was scary!! and the worst part was that there was nowhere to go if you fell, because what would bet he sidewalk was actually this concrete ravine...it would have been alot easier if we had the same blinders they put on horses, but we had no such luck...
we start to ride, downhill of course, my breath was taken away for many different reasons...the size of the mountains we were actually riding along! amazing, and i still can not get over it! the fact that if i move 3 inches to the left of where i am right now, at any point i will be taken out by a bus full of like 50 people...i will be a gone and the only way they will be able to identify my body is because kim is riding behind me and she knows who i am...unless it takes her out too...breath, gone! and for some reason i am having to peddle to keep up with kathy in front of me...but i am going downhill...weird...
we only found one waterfall on our bicycle adventure of many adventures...and it was fun...especially when after miles of riding i handed over my bike over to kim in a exhusted pant of defeat...and she took my bike that you had to pedal downhill with...and i got her bike...and for the record-she could handle...not because she is ¨she-woman of thick strong leg¨ (but she is much stronger than me) but because she is ¨she-woman of think strong leg and thick stong brain with biker husband¨ and realized that my wheel was so crooked it was like i was riding with my brakes on...yeah $5 a day! once i got her bike i just kept playing the rocky theme in my head over and over...i felt like i could do the ride all over again! except for the busses almost taking me out every 30 seconds...that i could do without...
there was then volcano tour, which really consisted of a bunch of volcano ash at night...this is where the almost everything is fun...this was not... and i am really glad the bus ride was at night, because if i would have had to see where how close we were to the edge of the mountain going up, i would probably would have cried like a baby without its mother...
day 2-waterfalls! waterfalls! waterfalls! jungle! jungle! jungle! loved it! loved it! loved it! this was so much fun! three hours from one waterfall to the next with a trip going down (of course you start out down) into the jungle to find the best of them all! i really cant even descibe it...hopefully you will check out the pictures on flicker from here...but sorry, you still will not get an idea of how great it is unless you go yourself...
and of course what a better was of finishing off the waterfall tour but by jumping off a bridge and swinging around for a while! (and living to tell about it is always a plus...)
day 3- the horse back ride...oh the ¨you think your butt is ready for this, but your butt will never be ready for this¨ horseback ride...
chocolate was his name, and letting me ride him was what i thought was him game...oh was i wrong...actually chocolate had a mind of his own, and where his mind told him where he wanted to be was in the front of the pack...at all times...no matter what...and walking? what was that? these horses really only were comfortable with trotting...especially on broken, hard pavement...thats where they loved to trot...have you ever tried trot on ground like that? take a moment to close your eyes and imagine riding a carosel horse...only instead of the ride going around and round it goes up and down...and instead of 1 minute, it lasts 4 hours...you think i am kidding...try to imagine the pain your butt would endure...now take that same thought and pretend your horse is made out of concrete...does is hurt in your imagination? now you know how i felt trotting with this horse on concrete...
was it worth it? absolutely! every single moment was worth the pain that was endured to ride in mountains...actually see where the volcano went though...on man, that is an unforgettable moment in my mind...i think i am a pretty cool person, stand in the path of where a volcano went through and you realize how small and insignificant you really are...and then to see the same volcano smoking on the way down...its alive!!
and..of course...more waterfalls!
and at the end of everything...and after going uphill...you get to say i did all this in the bathroom!
yay baños ecuador!
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