BAÑOS (Day 1)

First of all, I would like to thank my mom and dad for my adventurous side. As nervous as it makes them now, I am thankful that I have parents like them who are always trying to make the best of every situation and who take advantage of opportunities. I debated on weather or not I should mention to them what all I was thinking about doing while I was in Baños, but eventually I did tell them...it was a mistake (sorry). When I came back that Sunday and skyped with them, they were happy to see me alive and well. Not only did Dad tell me that Mom had been worrying all weekend, but I also received this in an email the next morning:

"Obviously We are concerned with you down there making big decisions that could affect your life forever so all I can ask is think before you go with your freedom instincts. :)   I want you to spread your wings but do it smartly. :)  I support what you do so have fun. Always keep your head about whats going on and don't depend on someone else cause usually someone else falls short of doing what you thought they would!   Ok  enough of that.  Mom obviously is worried and wants you back in one piece.  :) ME Tooo"

As you can see, this weekend brought the daredevil out of me for reasons that I am going to blame on my skydiving/scuba diving parents. Hah! Well, here it goes...

When a group of us decided we wanted to go, we met up at the mall to plan our weekend trip. This involved some time on the Internet, searching for our hostel, calling people about prices and times, and deciding what all we wanted to do. For the most part, everything seemed to be worked out and we were ready to go!

DAY 1:
Friday morning, the five of us met at the bus station early in the morning to get to Baños early that afternoon. Our hostel was perfect, once again, for $8.50 a night/person. Once we checked in we grabbed some pizza and set out for our first planned adventure: zip lining.

Our guides harnessed us up, gave us us our gloves and helmets, and then started describing to us what we would be doing. The map showed four different lines that we would be zipping down, each getting a little longer...over the trees, through the valleys and over the rivers. It was BEAUTIFUL! I wish I would have been able to take my camera with me to show you guys what it looked like from the line, but instead we were able to give it to the guides who took pictures of us coming in.

 

 

On the very last line, I was the first to go down and watch every one fly along the river. Nicole came after me and seemed to be going a little slower than she should have been. Sure enough, she got stuck probably 20 feet away from the platform, hundreds of feet above the ground. At this point, she would have been pretty helpless if it wasnt for the guide with the long rope to pull her in. I'm assuming this happens often because he didn't really think anything of it, unlike Nicole who was happy to finally touch the wooden platform; the same thing happened to Lorene. The hike back to the top was a bit exhausting, but I will say the ride was definitely worth it!

After zip lining, we headed back to the hostel to change into our bathing suits to go to the hot springs! The five of us, (the girl you guys probably don't recognize is Lorene, she's from California), were all looking forward to chillaxin' in the warm water until our two other friends arrived to Baños to grab dinner. We got to the hot springs and learned that we had to buy/wear plastic shower caps if we wanted to get in. Boo! They're ugly...and so we didn't take pictures :x. Anyways, we bought the lovely hair holders and were ready to run from the dressing room to the pools because at this point, it was a little chilly out and we were seeing a little too many guys in speedos.

There were about five different pools to choose from and so we chose the natural, brown water one. The five of us got in the luke-warm water and laughed at each other for a while in our shower caps. So were we chillaxin' in the warm water? Yes, until two six-ish year old girls JUMPED into the pool and splashed us all. Excuse me, those shower caps aren't doing anything when they're filled with water, chicas.We sat there and watched these girls swim in tiny little circles in front of us, jumping in and out of the spring...we moved to the crowded, clear water pool and managed to laugh at the whole situation.

Once we made it back to the hotel, a woman greeted us and asked what our plans were for the weekend. We told her we were wanting to go rafting and puenting for sure and that we were trying to fit it in that next day. She smiled at us and said, "You can do rafting, canyoning and puenting all tomorrow for $60." We all kinda looked at each other for a moment before we started asking her who she is and if its a scam. (Hah, we really did tell her that we thought she might be scamming us.) She assured us that she was an agent and that it was her job to sell the package deals. Instead of answering right away, we told her we would let her know in a few minutes. After talking to the people at the front desk, we decided to go for it and pay her the money.

While taking turns getting our showers, our other two friends, Tori and Lauren, made it to the hostel and were ready to get something to eat. A friend that was here last semester suggested that we go to a restaurant called Casa Hood while we were there, and so we did. I'm really glad that she suggested that because it was so good we ended up going back the next night too. Mmm, Roy's Chocolate Shake! <3

After dinner, we were hoping to be able to take the volcano tour on the chiva (party bus with music and dancing), but we got there late and there wasn't enough room. That's okay though because the volcano wasn't erupting at the time so we wouldn't have been able to really see anything anyways. Instead we went out dancing for a little bit and then made it back to our hostel where we just hung out for the night and discussed what all we wanted to do/were expecting for the next day. Hah, just wait to see what it consisted of! :)