I just got back from my first exploration out of the city of Quito. Some friends and I went to the small city of Baños which is about a 3-4 hour bus ride south of Quito still in the midst of the mountains. It is a well know tourist town because of its active volcano, beautiful waterfalls, and hot spring baths (hence the name). However, in our less than two full days there we did not have the greatest weather. It was cold and raining for half of the time and foggy for the rest. However, we didn’t let the weather get us down too much. Most of Saturday was just chilly and foggy so we took advantage of the lack of precipitation and purchased an afternoon tour to some of the best waterfall sites around. We rode in a chiva, which you may have heard of before as a well know Latin American party vehicle, but if not, a chiva is basically a bus with rows of seats, no doors and a roof on top that you can ride on. It was loads of fun and we even got the driver to play one of our CD’s of reggaetón music which helped to liven up everyone’s spirits. We saw lots of waterfalls of all sorts of lengths and sizes along with some really cool tunnels through the mountains (which we rode on top of the chiva for). There were some spectacular views of the clouds weaving through the higher mountains. It was rare when you could find the top of any mountain, and every once in a while it would appear out of the mist much higher than I would have guessed. Some cool views that you just can’t portray on a camera.
While on this tour we also got the chance to do two other things. One was ride as a group across this sort of large metal basket that is suspended across a great river valley. It was really high off the ground when you got to the middle of the valley (I can’t give you a number of feet because I have nothing to compare it to, maybe one really tall building). Everyone in my group did this because it was simply a go there and come back experience, plus it only cost a buck. (Our entire chiva trip by the way, of about 4 hours, cost a grand total of $5 US. I love this country.) But there was another adventure option during our trip of which I was the only one to do. It was a sort of pendulum bungie jumping thing off of a bridge over one of the rivers. I decided that it wasn’t high enough for me to freak out in fear of heights, and it was one of those things that I just felt I couldn’t pass the opportunity to try once. It was only $10, and soooo worth it. I don’t think it’s really possible to describe, just that it was thrilling and didn’t last long enough. I don’t think I’ve ever had such an adrenaline rush before in my life, I was practically high for the next hour! See the video below that one of my companions took with my digital camera, hence the crappy quality. Note to concerned family members and friends: Don’t be upset with me for being reckless, I mean when else would I be able to do that? That’s one of the reasons that I’m traveling all over the country, to take advantage of everything that I can.
Besides this fun afternoon, the rest of our trip was spent hanging out in town and eating lots of really cheap and really wonderful food. For example, on Saturday morning all 10 of us went to this small breakfast joint. For $2 a person we got juice, hot chocolate, bread and cheese sandwiches, a fruit bowl, and 2 scrambled eggs with ham. Way more food than most of us could eat at 9:30am, not to mention a fantastic deal. The funny thing is that the restaurant apparently realized this also because when we went back the following morning for more then had upped the price by $0.50 and taken away one of the items. I laughed because I know it was because of us and we decided to go and try our luck elsewhere.
Interesting sights of the trip: 1) on the way to the bus stop in Quito we walked by a guy dressed in a squirrel costume riding a bicycle and holding a flag that said no smog. Rather hilarious to behold, but also a bit pathetic because this city is very highly polluted and I doubt that one squirrel on a bike is going to make any difference. 2) In Baños I saw my first sight of cooking cuy (a type of guinea pig considered a delicacy in these parts) which I did not eat, and also a guy walking across the street with literally a half cow on his back. Like a butcher shop worker with out the butcher shop. I tried real hard to get a picture of that one but they guy was too fast for me.

p.s. I am having problems getting the video and pictures to work, but will try again later. Look for updates...