Amy and I met up with April in Baños Monday night after a fun bus ride through the mountains and along the river. April had been hanging out with a French chick and 2 American guys whilst staying at Baños and I think she had a really good time there too because........she has decided to go it alone for a few weeks, saying that she just wants some time alone. We weren't real happy with that, but if she wants to go solo then that's what she´ll do. So I'm sorry to all of April's friends and family that read this blog, but she wont be featured in it until we meet up again. She'll have to update you all by email on her adventures.
So the next morning Amy and I hired a dune buggy and went cruising around the mountains to the waterfalls that dot the landscape of Baños. It was so much fun and those things actually go really fast. It was a little scary when you get overtaken by big trucks and speedy cars, but fun at the same time. We even got to go through tunnels and down special tourist roadways that wind themselves around the side of cliffs. The time flew by and before we knew it we were back in town ready for the next activity of the day...hot baths. The area of Baños is surrounded by volcanoes so there are thermal waters running under the ground. They pump this water into concrete baths and the waters are meant to have some healing properties. We went in the afternoon and the baths were packed with locals. There were 3 to choose from; the cold pool, the medium bath and a really hot one. Going from one to the other is extreme, especially from the really hot one to the freezing one! It was really relaxing sitting in the hot baths and looking out over the town of Baños and the waterfall only meters away. After lazing around for a little while we went bak into town and did some bus research for the next day. We were planning on going to Cuenca, which is a little colonial town in the mountains..but more on that later.
That night was quite the (unplanned) adventure. We bought tickets to go up the mountain to a church to get a night view of the city from up high and when we got on the bus we were the only ones. We were then taken on what felt like laps of the town until they told us to get on another bus that was full of teenagers, so we did and then headded up the hill. When we got up there this guy said something to everyone in Spanish (i didn´t really understand) and then we looked at the view. I was pissed that photos didn´t work because it was too dark, but I have the beautiful vision in my mind so thats ok. After a while, and some weird tasting tea, we went back down and they dropped everyone at this night club. It was so weird, we felt like we had gatecrashed some school excursion with all these little kiddies (i don´t know why they went to the club though??) We decided to go back to the hostal because we had an early morning the next day.
In all Baños was really fun! We got to do everything we wanted to do in just 1.5 days so we were both stoked with that. The next morning we went to the bus terminal to catch the 7:10am bus to Cuenca, which was 8 hours away. We wated and waited and the lady kept saying that the bus was only 10 minutes away. When 10 minutes came and passed this other guy came over and said that we should get on another bus that would take us to Cuenca. We were skeptical when he was telling the driver of the other bus that he had to take us to Cuenca because that bus wasn´t actually going there it was going to Guayaquil. But we hopped on and enjoyed the ride anyways. When it actually came time to make the turn off to Cuenca the guy didn´t come and get us or anything even though he knew we were going there so we headded for Guayaquil. We re-assessed our plans and decided that if we ended up in Guayaquil then that was ok as we were on our way down to Peru anyways. And as it turned out we did end up in Guayaquil....and the bus station is huge. We decided to go straight to the international bus terminal and buy tickets to Peru. We heard from many people that the boarder crossing from Ecuador to Peru is the worst in South America so we went with the best company that wouldn´t entail us changing busses at the border. But it turns out that if that was the worst border crossing in South America then the others must be a breeze, because this one was EASY! The bus simply dropped us off at the Ecuadorian immigration then we got stamped out then drove to the Peru immigration and we did the same thing. God only knows why the 2 immigration offices are so far away from each other, but it was no worries for us.
We got off the bus in this little beachy town called Mancora at 3am and were so lucky that there was a taxi there to take us to a hostal that was open. We were so tired that we just slumped into bed and were awoken pretty early the next morning by the guy who said we had to change rooms because they were doing construction work on the one we were in. We were pretty much awake by that stage so we went for a walk around town to check it out...it is so cool! The perfect beach, the perfect wave and surfers galore. It is easy to see how people could come here and stay for the rest of their lives. Another great thing about this place is the food; fresh fish and seafood is pretty much at every restaurant and the quality is garunteed as we are right on the water. The shops are cool too, fake ray bans everywhere and i´m finally going to buy some of those hippy pants that ive wanted for ages! We loved it so much here we stayed for 3 nights, next stop is Lima to get visas for Brasil...I really hope we don´t have to spend much time in Lima because i heard that its nothing special.
