Action in Baños

My stay in the very beautiful town of Baños unfortunately didn't have such a pleasant start: My camera was stolen from my backpack on the bus from Latacunga here. I'm not exactly sure how and where, but it's gone. Unfortunately, this happens very often here, another girl in the hostel had her laptop stolen from her backpack in the same way just one day earlier. Well, shit happens and maybe now a poor Ecuadorian can feed his 5 children for a few weeks. At least my passport, phone, and credit cards are still there, and most of the pictures were already transferred to my phone.

Baños is surrounded by green peaks, thermal baths, jungle, rivers, waterfalls, and volcanoes, and offers a variety of outdoor and adventure activities - bungee jumping, rafting, zip-lining, canyoning, cycling, hiking... It wasn't that easy for Bianca and me to decide. In the end, we decided to go for rafting and canyoning.

The rafting tour was once again really great. The ride along the road of waterfalls to the starting point was sensational. With a total of 3 boats, we went over wild rapids for about 1 1/2 hours. In our boat, we weren't necessarily the brightest bulbs on the cake, but after a short adjustment, we all managed to paddle and follow the commands of the guide. At least we managed not to capsize the boat completely. One of the boats actually capsized in the rapids and we had to rescue all the people swimming around. So there we were, 12 people in a completely overcrowded boat, trying to navigate the next rapids somehow without being able to hold on properly. It was also too crowded to paddle properly. Nevertheless, we made it through unharmed. There were actually some really intense waves and rapids that raised the adrenaline level.

We took it a bit easier for the rest of the day and strolled around the town. In the evening, we joined one of the worst tourist tours of all time. We rode in a Shiva, a colorful brightly lit open party bus with extremely loud music, to a viewpoint overlooking the city. Unfortunately, the party bus wasn't really a party bus. There were many children and absolutely no good atmosphere. The view of the illuminated city was nice (nice is famously the little sister of shitty) and the whole atmosphere felt more like a very bad village festival. Fortunately, we only had about 20 minutes up there and then we were taken back with the 'party bus'.

The next day, canyoning was on the agenda. Equipped with a helmet, harness, and wetsuit, we were taken to a nearby waterfall. After a short briefing on dry land, we were ready to go. At the first waterfall, we rappelled down by ourselves and walked halfway down the smooth stones in the water, and then we could jump into the freezing water for the last few meters. After that, we got to slide down a small waterfall on our butts. Even the slide itself wasn't very pleasant for the butt, and unfortunately, the water at the bottom wasn't deep enough, so we slowed down with our butts hitting the ground, which led to a painful bruise for some (Bianca 😄). The last waterfall was quite spectacular. From the top, you could only guess how far down it went. Somehow, I was the first one to go down, and I assumed I had to rappel down slowly again. But somehow, the guide intentionally ignored my questions about what I had to do now and just told me to keep going down. Okaaay, so I did, and suddenly he just let go of the rope and I went down several meters in free fall through the waterfall. It was quite a shocking moment, but also really exciting. Then I was slowly lowered to the ground. From below, there was a great view of the waterfall, the surroundings, and the other brave souls who were unknowingly being hurled down the waterfall. Definitely an amazing experience!

After this adrenaline-filled (what a beautiful word) experience, we treated ourselves to a one-hour relaxing full-body massage for $15.

In the evening, we hit the clubs and rocked the dance floor until the early morning hours. Luckily, everyone here can salsa dance so well that you just get swept along, even if you're not that good at it.

After a long night, we took it easy on the last day and didn't go to Casa de Arbol, a viewpoint high above Baños until the afternoon. Here, you could swing through the air on a giant swing with breathtaking views of the surrounding mountains.