Oh wow, have I enjoyed Baños...the first night we all went out, and by we I mean Marie and Kym (the Belgian sisters), and Ben (the English bloke - haha). The four of us played Ring of Fire (better known to me as King´s Cup) in our room with Ron Abuelo (love my Panamanian Rum) and then headed out to the Leprechaun Bar. At the LB we talked and danced and I shook my ass. It was a fabulous night closing down the bar and eating, no wait - devouring, tacos from the stand next door. The next morning I had to get up pretty early and head out on the river for a little white water rafting on the lower Rio Pastaza. It was pretty good class IV/IV+ rafting and I enjoyed myself. A couple from Berkeley was with us as well as a Swiss guy.
That afternoon, we acquired a couple of new roommates - a hottie from Brazil, Antonio, and a crazy French girl, Natalie. Also, Ben´s friend Leila came to join us from Guayquil (they had met earlier in Argentina and now she is working in Guay). Leila is super friendly and loves to talk to everyone, so when she came down to meet us all for dinner, she naturally brought along two of her roommates - Ana (not sure where she was from) and sLogan. Our little party group had quickly grown from 4 to 9 - and it was Saturday night! A really long game of never have I ever got the group pretty disgustingly close and knowledgable about each others exploits and then off to the bar we went. Closing the LB down AGAIN and Marie and I eating about 3 extra dinners between taco bars, burrito bars and hamberguesas. It was a fantastic night out.
The next day we all rented dune buggy´s and headed down the road to Puyo to see some of the beautiful waterfalls and go swimming in the ¨jacuzzi¨which was cold and well...not actually a jacuzzi. It was a fab day and upon return Marie and I went to go eat some fantastic food from the market (btw, I will have to eventually write an entire blog on food since I have pretty much left that out so far). And when we got back to the hostel, Simon (crazy English guy biking down to the tip of Argentina), had just arrived! He was craving beer but unfortunately it was Sunday and they don´t serve beer on Sundays! :( Good for the rest of us though cause we were needing a break after 2-3 days of late night partying.
Monday rolled around and most of us took it pretty easy. Marie and I walked up part of a hike for a nice view of the Baños. Then we went and got facials and pedicures and I also got a full body massage - all for $45!! And it was fantastic! In the evening, being our last night all togehter, we played one last huge round (we gained about 6 more people but lost Leila who had to return to Guay for work) of Ring of Fire and then headed to the bar. Unfortunately there werent too many bars open, but we all went into one (insisting on a free shot if we went entered the bar), and partied hard, as always.
Tuesday I spent mostly napping and trying to recover from Baños and then Ben and I attempted to catch the 5:30 bus to Guayaquil. The bus was supposed to arrive at 11 but when we were heading down a random dirt road at 11:30 and the bus kept stopping for long periods of time, we new we were in it for the long haul. When the bus backed up 100m on a dirt road with a ditch on one side and then proceeded to make a 7 point turn in someones driveway, I was incredibly grateful for that part of the drivers test... EVENTUALLY, we arrived at 2:30am and tried to call Leila so that we could crash at her place. Unfotunately the cabinas are closed in the middle of the night, my cell phone wouldnt work and the cab driver didnt have one...so we ended up at a hotel around 3:30am. And thus the need for McDonald´s French Fries and an empanada for breakfast at the bus station while we wait for our bus to head to Puerto Lopez. And now I have to go catch it cause it leaves in 7 minutes!
1 comment:
How much more fun can one have? And some pretty challenging bus rides to boot!
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