Last weekend I returned to Baños. I went after school on Friday with Sasha (whose parent's own a hotel there), her daughter, Jean (another teacher) and her kids.
Initially my main reason for returning to Baños was to check out the hotel, facilities and possible activities for my class' residential trip in May. However soon after arriving I realised that I was acually going to spend a weekend being spoilt rotten by Sasha and her family.
The Sangay Hotel is the oldest hotel in Baños and is a very stylish establishment. I had a very comfortable double room which would usually cost $80 a night - I'm a lucky gal though and was staying in it for free. On Friday night we were treated to dinner, with the possibility of a three course meal - I decided to go for soup and a salad! An early night soon followed!
Saturday morning dawned bright and sunny. I made my way to breakfast - a gastronomical feast: a wide variety of fruits; cereals; breads; eggs cooked to order in front of you! Jean and the kids were already there, so I joined them and we discussed possible activities for the day. My first priority was to discuss my residential trip with the hotel operations manager. However Sasha's Dad, Brian, had other ideas and offered to take us all on a tour of the waterfalls - it was too good an offer to be passed up!
The waterfalls were beautiful. First we stopped by Cascada Agoyan - here I experienced the thrill of flying over a waterfall in a cable car! It was brillant! (If a little hairy to begin with). The second waterfall visit was to Pailon de Diablo in Rio Verde. Here we walked down through lush vegetation, always surrounded by the noise of water. As we drew nearer to the waterfall, I became incredibly aware of the energy of water. Brian was an excellent guide giving us much interesting information about the area. People passed us looking quite wet, but I'd decided not to take a jacket - knowing it would just make me feel hotter. We walked to the viewpoint area and the feel of the spray on my face was wonderful.
Waterfalls are incredible and the Pailon del Diablo is the most powerful I have ever seen. I have always loved them and the idea of them, this passion is certainly being fuelled in Ecuador! It is possible to crawl up through a crack created by an eruption to the top of the waterfall and stand behind it - I have always wanted to go behind a waterfall, so was very excited about this possibility. However, as I crawled on my hands and knees, and bumped my head, I started to feel quite claustrophobic. I always forget that I can get claustrophobic because it is only on very rare occasions that I am in such cramped situations. I persevered though and luckily the tunnel wasn't too long. At the top it was amazing - I got absolutely soaked - it was great! Luckily the tunnel wasn't so bad on the way out.
We made our way out of the valley and back to the hotel for lunch, followed for me by a mud treatment and massage. Well, I'm worth it and decided some pampering was what I needed! Chillout time followed and a little bit of internet action - I discovered that Pete and Sha were also in Baños and we arranged to meet at 7.30pm. I was very excited because I really wanted to see them again. However there was a slight flaw to our plan, a case of mistaken identity. I waited for them in Casa Hood, whilst they waited for me in Cafe Hood. We all waited for some time, but by the time I spoke to Claire to find out if there were two places named 'Hood', Pete and Sha had gone a wandering. Messages on facebook showed that I'd probably missed them by minutes - damn!
I decided to head to The Leprachaun bar, I went there before when I was in Baños with Claire. On arriving, I was immediately accosted by William the guy on the door. He'd decided I was his girlfriend for the evening and there didn't seem to be a lot I could do with about it. I enjoyed dancing - particularly salsaing, but was not quite so keen on his macho posteuring and attempts to stick his tongue down my throat. I spotted two English girls and a guy come in and decided that they were my escape route! They headed out to the outside bar and it was not long before I followed them.
I bounced over to them and gave a big, friendly, "Hello!"
"Hello," exclaimed one of the girls, "You ignored me in Tena." This baffled me somewhat, I knew that she looked vaguely familiar, but didn't remember seeing her in Tena - I intimated this. Laura told me that she'd been in Buenos Aires and stated to her friends that I'd 'pulled' the fittest bloke at the hostel - this I couldn't deny! (Hahahaha!) I also let her know that he'd taken me out for dinner, etc. Ok, yes, I was showing off a little, but it was doing wonders for my self esteem! Turned out that one of her friend's had had a huge crush on him! It was actually really lovely to talk to someone who had met Mr Buenos Aires! Most hilarious quote of the evening has to be, "You're famous in South America!"
Laura, Helen and Rob were great fun - tequila shots followed and we laughed and danced a lot. As escape routes went, it'd definitely been a good choice. Amazingly, I had two mojitos and three tequilas and was still feeling relatively normal! Laura on the other hand was bouncing off walls, people, etc. (she did have more tequilas than me though!) Eventually we walked her back to the hostel and as it was really close to my hotel I decided to head to bed.
On Sunday, after another splendid breakfast, Brian took us up to the viewpoint to look at Tungarahua. He pointed out the refuge - when it was visible through the clouds. However the top of Tungarahua still eluded me.
I finally got round to discussing details of my residential trip at about 1.00pm! At 3.00pm we left Baños to return home. Sadly Sasha wasn't feeling well, so her parents very kindly asked one of their employees to drive us home. I couldn't thank Sasha and her parents enough, they were so generous.
The drive home was an experience in itself - the guy was a very good driver, but he also overtook cars when there were other ones coming towards us. It was a bit scary sitting in the front, luckily I slept quite a bit.
Back in Cumbaya, Kate was waving excitedly from my window - a great welcome home!
Initially my main reason for returning to Baños was to check out the hotel, facilities and possible activities for my class' residential trip in May. However soon after arriving I realised that I was acually going to spend a weekend being spoilt rotten by Sasha and her family.
The Sangay Hotel is the oldest hotel in Baños and is a very stylish establishment. I had a very comfortable double room which would usually cost $80 a night - I'm a lucky gal though and was staying in it for free. On Friday night we were treated to dinner, with the possibility of a three course meal - I decided to go for soup and a salad! An early night soon followed!
Saturday morning dawned bright and sunny. I made my way to breakfast - a gastronomical feast: a wide variety of fruits; cereals; breads; eggs cooked to order in front of you! Jean and the kids were already there, so I joined them and we discussed possible activities for the day. My first priority was to discuss my residential trip with the hotel operations manager. However Sasha's Dad, Brian, had other ideas and offered to take us all on a tour of the waterfalls - it was too good an offer to be passed up!
The waterfalls were beautiful. First we stopped by Cascada Agoyan - here I experienced the thrill of flying over a waterfall in a cable car! It was brillant! (If a little hairy to begin with). The second waterfall visit was to Pailon de Diablo in Rio Verde. Here we walked down through lush vegetation, always surrounded by the noise of water. As we drew nearer to the waterfall, I became incredibly aware of the energy of water. Brian was an excellent guide giving us much interesting information about the area. People passed us looking quite wet, but I'd decided not to take a jacket - knowing it would just make me feel hotter. We walked to the viewpoint area and the feel of the spray on my face was wonderful.
Waterfalls are incredible and the Pailon del Diablo is the most powerful I have ever seen. I have always loved them and the idea of them, this passion is certainly being fuelled in Ecuador! It is possible to crawl up through a crack created by an eruption to the top of the waterfall and stand behind it - I have always wanted to go behind a waterfall, so was very excited about this possibility. However, as I crawled on my hands and knees, and bumped my head, I started to feel quite claustrophobic. I always forget that I can get claustrophobic because it is only on very rare occasions that I am in such cramped situations. I persevered though and luckily the tunnel wasn't too long. At the top it was amazing - I got absolutely soaked - it was great! Luckily the tunnel wasn't so bad on the way out.
We made our way out of the valley and back to the hotel for lunch, followed for me by a mud treatment and massage. Well, I'm worth it and decided some pampering was what I needed! Chillout time followed and a little bit of internet action - I discovered that Pete and Sha were also in Baños and we arranged to meet at 7.30pm. I was very excited because I really wanted to see them again. However there was a slight flaw to our plan, a case of mistaken identity. I waited for them in Casa Hood, whilst they waited for me in Cafe Hood. We all waited for some time, but by the time I spoke to Claire to find out if there were two places named 'Hood', Pete and Sha had gone a wandering. Messages on facebook showed that I'd probably missed them by minutes - damn!
I decided to head to The Leprachaun bar, I went there before when I was in Baños with Claire. On arriving, I was immediately accosted by William the guy on the door. He'd decided I was his girlfriend for the evening and there didn't seem to be a lot I could do with about it. I enjoyed dancing - particularly salsaing, but was not quite so keen on his macho posteuring and attempts to stick his tongue down my throat. I spotted two English girls and a guy come in and decided that they were my escape route! They headed out to the outside bar and it was not long before I followed them.
I bounced over to them and gave a big, friendly, "Hello!"
"Hello," exclaimed one of the girls, "You ignored me in Tena." This baffled me somewhat, I knew that she looked vaguely familiar, but didn't remember seeing her in Tena - I intimated this. Laura told me that she'd been in Buenos Aires and stated to her friends that I'd 'pulled' the fittest bloke at the hostel - this I couldn't deny! (Hahahaha!) I also let her know that he'd taken me out for dinner, etc. Ok, yes, I was showing off a little, but it was doing wonders for my self esteem! Turned out that one of her friend's had had a huge crush on him! It was actually really lovely to talk to someone who had met Mr Buenos Aires! Most hilarious quote of the evening has to be, "You're famous in South America!"
Laura, Helen and Rob were great fun - tequila shots followed and we laughed and danced a lot. As escape routes went, it'd definitely been a good choice. Amazingly, I had two mojitos and three tequilas and was still feeling relatively normal! Laura on the other hand was bouncing off walls, people, etc. (she did have more tequilas than me though!) Eventually we walked her back to the hostel and as it was really close to my hotel I decided to head to bed.
On Sunday, after another splendid breakfast, Brian took us up to the viewpoint to look at Tungarahua. He pointed out the refuge - when it was visible through the clouds. However the top of Tungarahua still eluded me.
I finally got round to discussing details of my residential trip at about 1.00pm! At 3.00pm we left Baños to return home. Sadly Sasha wasn't feeling well, so her parents very kindly asked one of their employees to drive us home. I couldn't thank Sasha and her parents enough, they were so generous.
The drive home was an experience in itself - the guy was a very good driver, but he also overtook cars when there were other ones coming towards us. It was a bit scary sitting in the front, luckily I slept quite a bit.
Back in Cumbaya, Kate was waving excitedly from my window - a great welcome home!
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