On Friday, we knew that Ismael would not come due to his class, so we taught the younger kids some new verbs and useful phrases. First, we learned “jugar” (to play) and some words such as “cards,” “basketball,” “volleyball,” “hide and go seek,” and “tag.” Then, we went over how to describe weather and the differences between Spanish and English phrases for weather (in Spanish, it “makes” cold, whereas in English, you say it “is” cold). We taught them how to say it is hot, cold, sunny, windy, snowing, raining, and humid in sentences. We then practiced the new words and phrases using hangman and the “tingo” game. The kids responded really well to hangman in a group setting!
Since Matt has not been able to cut his hair for over a month since he got to Ecuador, Justin helped him buzz his hair to a size 5 fifteen minutes before heading to Baños. Although it was uncomfortable at first, Matt was very brave and survived the haircut in the end!
Around 4 p.m., Luis came with Kris (Carla’s mom) to pick our group up to drive to Baños, a cloud forest town in the Andes a few hours south. On the way, we drove through the valley along Quito and then through the Avenida de los Volcanes, from which we could see mountains and volcanoes including Cotopaxi, the tallest active volcano in the world (the tallest non-active volcano is also in Ecuador) – on the way there, we could see some ash spewing from the volcano, which had erupted 2 weeks before and covered the south of Quito in ash. Our cars also briefly stopped for some ice cream and a bathroom break. Around 7:30 p.m. after it had already gotten dark, we arrived in Baños and checked into our hostel, Plantas y Blanco. The hostel was really nice and safe, and the man at the front desk gave us some recommendations for our time there.
After dropping our bags off in our rooms, we immediately spoke with a travel company to arrange a night tour of Bellavista, a high point with a glowing cross that looks over the city of Baños. Before our 9 p.m. bus departure, we had less than half an hour to find food (we were starving!), and settled for a fast food burger place (so American of us). However, only one lady was working there, and we soon realized there was no way she could prepare 6 burgers in less than 15 minutes, so we waited anxiously for our food before sprinting to the tourist office to get in a pickup truck. When we hopped in the truck, the driver said he would take us a few blocks to another stop, which we were confused by before he pulled up next to a full-on party bus and motioned for us to get out of the car and hop into what was basically a rave on wheels! On our way up, the bus blasted electronic dance music and some Spanish hits before we arrived at Bellavista.
At Bellavista, our bus driver gave us a 10-minute explanation of the city of Baños in Spanish, asking those of us who speak Spanish to translate for our friends (which was impossible, since he described the detailed history and altitudes of multiple locations in and around Baños without any pauses, but we tried our best!). We were also offered a hot, sweet tea called Guayusa, a rare tea cultivated in the Amazon. From Bellavista, we could see the city of Baños lit up at night, which was beautiful. It made us even more excited to see it during the day in the morning!
Once we made it back down, we walked through the town to get a better feel for the city of Baños, and hung out together in our hostel to get ready for a busy weekend.
EGL Family Abroad 