Latacunga and Baños

We took a 2-hour taxi ride down the bumpy roads from Cotopaxi and, after some confusion about the streets, eventually got dropped off at Hostal Tiana in Latacunga. This was a recommendation from the guy who owns Secret Garden. It should be no surprise that we checked out after only one night; the room was oddly freezing (no a/c and it was warm outside) and there was a noisy gym through our wall. At the recommendation of the front staff, we went to a "Mexican" restaurant for dinner to get nachos and tacos, but were underwhelmed.

We moved down the street to Hotel Central. Best decision ever! Thursday morning we took the bus to Saquisili to check out the weekly market. It was almost entirely food, which made us think of cooking and how much we don't do that here (i.e. not at all). Lots of bags of pasta, rice, and various flours. We're not sure what the purple flour was. Taro? Do they have taro here? Back in Latacunga we got pizza for lunch (Hilary was feeling homesick), and it was surprisingly good. They even tossed the dough and had a deli slicer for the meat. The pizza was giant and we saved half for dinner.

Friday we didn't do much...practiced a little Spanish and chilled out. Had pasta & lasagna for dinner (there is a lot of Italian food here) and saw a guy from Cotopaxi. He went to climb the mountain but his buddy got sick 150 m from the top and they had to turn around. Bummer. Latacunga was a nice town, and it was really great to be able to walk around at night.

Saturday we hopped on a bus to Ambato, then in Ambato switched to a bus going to Baños. We walked the 1.5 km to our hostel: Hostal Casa Real. Got a nice room with a hammock looking at the waterfall.

We walked around Baños for a bit, got some lunch, hung out in one of the parks, etc. While we walked around we noticed a sign that said "La Cascada Cerveceria"...Brew Pub! For dinner we went back and it was open; sure enough, it's a brew pub. We tried three beers, one made with local rock sugar and oranges, one with local berries (mora), and the IPA. Pretty good! The sandwiches were good too, including the AF&C: almond butter, fig jam, and cheese. Apparently it's the Belgian idea of a sandwich. At the bar we met a couple from San Francisco (who used to live by Lake Merritt). They took us to a local bar after we were done at the pub and we grabbed another beer. While we were there, four British tourists we met in Cotopaxi walked in. Small world! On our way back to the hostel, we saw another couple from Cotopaxi. Baños starting to get creepy at that point?

Sunday we decided to hike to Bellavista, the hill above Baños on which there is a big cross. At night they light it up and, due to the lack of other lights, it looks like it's just floating in the sky. The track was really steep, but you could see all of Baños. We kept going toward Runtun but turned toward Mirador de la Virgen when we got to this fancy cafe, Cafe del Cielo. Mirador de la Virgen is on the ridge opposite Bellavista and it has a giant marble statue of Mary on it. On our way, we passed a little old lady hiking up this crazy path with two puppies.  Emphasis on little and old... she was pulling on the weeds on the side of the path to get up it.  Crazy.

Today we went into town and perused the bike rental places. We found one with the least crappy looking bikes and started down la Ruta de las Cascadas, which is the road from Baños to Puyo that follows the river and passes tons of waterfalls. The road is mostly downhill, and mostly paved except for one spot where the road slid down the hill (they're fixing it) and the numerous tunnels which require you to take the cobbled and/or gravel path around (no bikes in the tunnels). We stopped first at Manto de la Novia (Bridal Veil) falls and took a surprisingly fast cable car down to a suspension bridge and crossed the river.

Further down the road we stopped at Pailon del Diablo (Devil’s Cauldron) and took the ~1 km hike down into the valley. After paying the entrance fee, we hiked up to the viewpoint. Next to the lookout was a sign for the path to Grieta del Cielo (Crack in the Sky, or maybe Heaven's Crack?); the path however required a bit of crawling and climbing up vertical pipe cut into the rock. (You can see Aaron in the picture.) At the top was the falls. You could walk under them through a sketchy-looking tarp and then to a path on the edge of the cliff guarded by a single strand of green string, but I stayed on the near side of the falls.  We were more than happy to stop back up on the road for a chicken and cheese empanada at some random woman's house.  Oddly enough, we met a dude from Cornell who was also enjoying the empanadas in her kitchen.  Seriously, it's amazing how small the world feels sometimes.  It makes me feel thankful that we live in a place that allows us to travel... and so many of our compatriots as well.

Further down the road were lots more falls; we occasionally stopped but didn't do any more of the cable cars or hikes. We did pass through the town of San Francisco. :) At the town of Rio Negro we stopped and waited for a bus to take us back to Baños. Tonight we'll return to the brewpub to try the remaining two beers and tomorrow Hilary has a massage scheduled (Baños is the place to go for massages). Then we'll hop a bus to Puyo and see about a jungle adventure.