Baños, the land of bathrooms - 5/23/09

I have left Arutam for some fun in a town called Baños. I love it here; it is so adorable! I am staying at the oh so popular hostal Plantas y Blancos with all the other Arutam volunteers. The town is in a valley with green mountains and waterfalls surrounding and towering. There are a ton of nice little shops and restaurants. THe day we arrived we met this Chicago-ite who was working at the school in Salasaca for a month where I want to volunteer at. He said it was incredible and to just show up without talking to anyone because they can always use more volunteers. So Kristina and I are going to venture there on Monday. That afternoon we all went with this Chicago guy to a nice outdoor restaurant called El Jardin for Happy Hour and then back to the hostal roof terrace for some drinking games and chatting. Jacob (Chicago) ended up being pretty much the loudest psycho ever; he also insisted on putting his stellar dance moves on display no matter what location we were in. I´m okay with not hanging out with him again. Later we went to a relaxed pool bar and we met up with this big group of tourists that had visited Arutam which was fun. I also met this Brit named Carl who knows all about the school in Salamanca and told me absolutely to just go and that the guy who runs it is really a wonderfull guy. I´m so excited! Then we went to the Leperchau bar which has one part for dancing and then in the back has a huge bonfire going all night. I got some Ecuadorian guy, who wasn´t creepy (big plus!), to teach me how to salsa. It was such a nice night! The next day some of the people we met went bridge jumping which is sort of like a bungee but you swing out; i thought it looked terrifying and did not take part. You have to jump head first; there was just no way. That afternoon we went to a really cozy restaurant called Casa Hood that shows movies every day and has amazing food. Later Kristina and I just walked around for hours and eventually wandered into this church that dominates the center of town. It was super ornate and had some really terrifying paintings, one of which looked like a zipline gone bad - strange... ALSO, in the Casa Hood Restaurant there was a wall with a Michigan license plate that said Yooper on it and all sorts of post cards and wall hangings having to do with the UP. So random! The next day we hung around for awhile and then went on a nice hike up one of the mountain sides so we could see the entire valley. A very good weekend and tomorrow I am off to Salasaca!