Volcanoes, Taffy and Insufferably Haughty Heffers

Now, where were we? Ah, yes... We last left our hero in the beautiful city of Cuenca, recovering from his recent shenanigans at Cajas national park. He has since finished his five-day whirlwind tour through Southern Ecuador, and has returned to his homebase in Archidona. But fear not, faithful reader! There remains one more fantastical story to share which preceded the end of this particular adventure. The grand finale, if you will.

I awoke rested and refreshed on Monday, day four of my vacation. My plan had been to explore the city of Cuenca a bit more, but alas, it was a rather dreary day; nevertheless I walked around for several hours before hopping on a bus to my next and ultimate destination, the town of Baños. Now, this particular town is rather unique in its geographical location: it is located on the slope of Tungurahua, an active volcano. The town itself is quaint and beautiful, possibly my favorite of the three that I visited during this excursion. One of the most beautiful aspects of Baños is that fact that it is surrounded -- nay, utterly encapsulated -- by lush, rolling green hills. It is quite the sight to see. Moreover, it is a place of rest and relaxation. The town features mineral-rich thermal baths, where the hot water comes rushing from the earth, heated directly from the volcano to rather impressive temperatures. People come from all over to soak in the healing properties of the baths; they are the reason for which Baños is known (and after which it is named).

I arrived in Baños rather late Monday evening after a long 7 hour bus ride. I booked a hostel, and walked around the town a bit, grabbing some snacks along the way, including french fries (salchipapas, or french fries with hot dog chunks, are a very popular snack in Ecuador) and choclo mote (the corn, potatoe and meat snack I described previously, often sold at bus terminals -- one of my favorites).

After a full night´s rest, I awoke once again ready for adventure. I headed over to the thermal baths at 7:30 am. It´s really quite interesting the way the natives utilize these baths -- it is much different than the mentality that we have toward hot springs in the US. Even arriving at the rather early time that I did, there were already a good number of natives partaking of the energizing waters -- probably a good 40 of them. Furthermore, it isn´t exclusively adults, as I would have expected; a good number of kids also join in the fun, treating the hot springs much like a water park, bringing along various floaties and pool toys. Even the adults treat it like a day at the pool, swimming around the springs rather than just sitting and relaxing. It was a very interesting dynamic to observe.

There are three different hot springs in Baños. The one that I attended was located on the side of a hill, right underneath a beautiful waterfall. It provided an impressive view of the surrounding hills, and was really quite a beautiful location. There were three different pools: a cool one, much like a swimming pool; a warm one, though I use the term warm rather lightly, as it was really about the temperature of an American hot tub; and finally, the ridiculously hot one. I intially tried to go into the hottest one, but could hardly make it in past my ankles. I was soon informed that the proper technique was to spend some time in the warm one, then hop into the frigid water which was being diverted directly from the waterfall above. Then and only then would the hot pool be bearable. So, after spending some time relaxing in the warm one, I was indeed able to partake of the hot one, though only for a few minutes. I also asked to see the "ojo del agua" (eye of the water), where the blazing water comes rushing from the ground (and is subsequently diverted to the pools). The whole experience was lots of fun, and certainly very relaxing.

After a quick breakfast, I headed on my final outing for this weekend getaway: a four hour hike through the hills surrounding the city. Compared with my last "hike", the term is used much more appropriately in this circumstance -- however, that´s not at all to say this was a simple undertaking; it was haaaard. The trails were steep -- relentlessly so. And if the hard work wasn´t enough, it was also rather hot at times. Fortunately, I was blessed early on with a light rain along with a very welcome breeze; these gifts from nature, in combination with the canopy above (as much of the hike was under the cover of trees), resulted in a wonderful mist that helped me to endure. And endure I did -- despite the difficulty, I kept pushing on. In the end, I´m hoping that it helped prepare me for Machu Picchu, which will likely prove to be an equally daunting foe.

The trail led first to Bella Vista, a viewpoint featuring a big white cross offering gorgeous views of the city and surrouding landscape. It was breathtaking. In fact, the entire trail offered impressive views and wonderful photo ops. Based on the information in my guidebook, I was planning to hike all the way up to Runtun, a colony even higher up in the hills, which supposedly boasts its own outstanding views. After some more significant legwork, I did ultimately make it to Runtun; however, I never really found the "views" to which the book referred, which was rather unfortunate. I think I may have simply failed to go far enough, or missed a turn at the end; there were several downed signposts toward the top. Nevertheless, I still had a great time on the hike. Once I reached Runtun, I did find some signs pointing toward a different viewpoint for tourists, but it was quite a bit further yet. After having wandering around aimlessly looking for the original viewpoint for some time, I was pretty tired and wet. Nonetheless, I was determined. So I decided I would try to make it to this next viewpoint, which was still another 3km or more away. However, determined as I was, there were two uncompromising forces in direct opposition to my conviction. First, the weather had become rather dreary -- it was wet, windy, and foggy, so I figured the view would probably be less than desirable anyway. Secondly, it was getting late, I wasn´t sure exactly how long it would take (or how far I was from town, for that matter), and I needed to make it back in time to catch a bus to Tena to make it back for dinner. So, in the end, I decided to turn back early for these reasons. Oh yeah...so also, there was this giant freaking bull blocking my path, mooing angrily in my general direction. And as much as I wanted to make it to the top, I really would have preferred to do so without being gored. Besides, that was one angry looking bovine, and who honestly wants to risk getting mad cow disease?

After a long hike back to town, I had to hurry to catch a bus to try to make it for dinner. But not without picking up a few packs of melchoca, a flavorful taffy for which Baños is famous -- they blend the taffy, quite uniquely, by swinging it around on a wooden peg (quite the sight to see whilst walking through town). After that, I jumped on a bus -- well, after waiting for an hour and a half because it was so late. But that´s ok. We ended up making the purported 4 hour trip in just three hours -- which, in retrospect, is pretty dang scary considering the cliff sides we were driving on. I had my nose buried in a book, so it didn´t seem too crazy at the time, though I do recall thinking "wow, did we just catch some air?" on several occasions.

And that, my friends, is that! I arrived back just in time for dinner -- with all 8 members of the second group, I might add! They are all second-year students from Midwestern in Chicago, the same university as Danny and Chris. All 8 of them have now joined my in their own Cabanas at Amupakin; the place is now much more lively than it had been with just Danny and I. Yesterday was my first day back in the clinics -- I spent the morning at the Archidona hospital (where I will probably be working for the majority of my remaining time here, though I may do some more rotations through clinics), and then spent a few hours in the afternoon doing some good-ol´-fashioned manual labor -- that is, we spent some time helping to build a playground at a childrens physical therapy clinic attached to the hospital in Tena. It was a nice change of pace -- though it was unbearably hot outside, way hotter than it has been for the past few weeks (of course). But after several long hikes and a day of physical labor -- boy am I sore. And today I´m at the hospital again, currently taking a long lunch, waiting to watch a surgery (laparoscopic ovarian cyst removal) that should start -- rather soon. In fact, I should go. So with that, folks, I will leave you to ponder my wacky, wild adventures. As always, more insanity and hilarity to come.