Waking up to the rising sun, surrounded by luscious mountains, we walked to the panoramic breakfast area of our hostel in Baños to start our first full day in the city.
Each of us ordered traditional breads and muffins with scrambled eggs…besides Ben. Ben ordered pancakes, which turned out to be an enormous pile of syrup, fresh fruit and cream, with pancakes buried underneath. After breakfast, we picked up at a map and decided to hike up to the “casa del arból” on the top of the volcanic mountains. The hike was very strenuous at first, just a dirt path straight uphill. However, the views were amazing along the way and we stopped frequently to take pictures. Half way up the mountain, there was the famous “cruz”, which is a cross that you can see from anywhere in the city of Baños – it even lights up at night.
We continued our hike, through intense brush at first, but then along a paved road for the remainder of the trail. We passed time by singing throw back songs or learning new Spanish music. Finally making it to the top of the mountain, we all were in absolute awe of the views. For the one dollar fee, we were able to look out over the gorgeous Andes mountains and volcanos from a tiny tree house. Then, we were able to get on the tree swing and swing out over the edge of the cliff to get an even closer view of the volcano. The locals will tell you we swung off the end of the world. After breath taking views, we needed to rush down the mountain to get back for our next excursion. We found a local man that was willing to let us ride in his pick-up back to town, which meant three of us ended up in the bed of the pick up, Matt, Lauren, and Justin. The ride was bumpy but full of beautiful pictures and lots of laughs.
Justin swinging at the end of the world!
When we got back to town, Matt wasn’t feeling well, and spent the rest of the afternoon in the hostel room. The rest of the group rushed to grab sandwiches and run to the location for our zip lining tour. We ate our cheese and guacamole sandwiches as we rode with the nicest, most down to earth woman back up into the mountains for zip lining. She encouraged us to do more of the extreme sports adventures, and make sure we bartered for a good price, because we were good customers she said. Upon arrival, we jumped right into the course. The zip lines varied in length but all had absolutely amazing views. The company even did some of the lines in different poses, for example one of them we rode upside down, spiderman style over the canyon. Then, we had a second harness put on our legs and flew like superman across the next line. Andrew and Ben even got to race as supermen as well.
After a long day of physical activity, we all decided to wash up and head to an Italian restaurant for dinner. We ordered three giant pizzas that were immediately devoured by the hungry group. After dinner, a local band even came into the restaurant for some after dinner entertainment. Last, the team headed back to the hostel to plan out the next day and re-coup from all the physical activity.
EGL Family Abroad 