Baños de Agua Santa



Baños de Agua Santa, Ecuador

The baths of the holy water! Where to begin... Baños is this this quaint little town in the Ecuadorian Andes that sits on the hillside of Ecuador's largest active volcano, Tungurahua (16,480 ft). The town is named for it's natural hot springs, and at 6,000 feet and an hour away from the Amazon, Baños is known as the adventure sports capital of Ecuador.


The mighty Tungurahua... there have already been 2 evacuations
this year, but lucky for us, she was sleeping when we visited.

Back in April, a couple volunteers and I took a 3 day weekend trip to Baños, and it lived up to all the hype. We went river rafting, hiked through the Amazon, visited a monkey reserve, ate some cuy (guinea pig), swang from jungle vines, learned about all kinds of bugs and plants that will help us survive if we ever get lost in the rainforest, and of course, relaxed in the hot baths! I took a ton of pics and a couple videos, so I'll let the pictures and videos do most of the talking. The best place to start, though, is probably the last thing I did before I left... jumping off a little bridge in town. Looks like bungee jumping, but you actually jump off one side of the bridge with the rope tied to the other side; so after the freefall, you swing back and forth like a pendulum. Here's the video...

Considering the $18 cash transaction and lack of any sort of "if you die it's not our fault" waivers, puenting probably wasn't the most prudent decision I've made this year... vale la pena though!

So we took an overnight busride from Guayaquil to Baños Thursday night and got in at around 5:30am Friday, April 8th (Standard timing disclosure: I went on this trip back in early April and I'm just getting around to uploading/blogging about it now... we can pretend it was last weekend though). We had absolutely zero plans for the weekend, and Don Diego knew it when he saw us get off the bus. He offered us a place to stay for $6/night, and considering it was dark out, nothing else looked open, and $6 is a great deal, we took it. Kipp, Tasha, and I all got our own full size beds in a room with cable TV and a bathroom with hot water (both luxuries I have not indulged in since the US of A... can't tell you how amazing that hot shower was). We got settled in, took a quick nappy, then hit the road at 9am to go river rafting on the Rio Pastaza (Don Diego hooked us up with some buddies of his who run adventure tours).

Click here to see my River Rafting pics

I'd only been river rafting once before, so I'm no pro by any means, but this stuff was way more intense than the PwC sponsored booze cruise I did on the American River back in '04 (oh the glory days of a public accounting internship...). Full body workout, helmets required, running head on into walls of water taller than the raft, etc. All at the foothills of the Andes as they meet the Amazon Rainforest. Mamazing.

After our half day rafting adventure, Kipp and I did some chompa (sweater) shopping at the local artisan market. In addition to the triumphant baby blue aguila (eagle) chompa I picked up, I also got a sweet-ass mood ring. It was an impulse buy, and after a solid weekend of blues, deep greens, indigos, and purple moods, it no longer changes colors =( Either that or I'm just incredibly boring. Friday night we hit up the famous hot springs beneath the beautiful Cascada de la Virgen (Waterfall of the Virgin--pictures in the album above). After the 8 hour bus ride the night before and river rafting all day, soaking in those hot baths was just what the doctor ordered. I wasn't sure if the European speedo culture had made it down here, but I brought my banana hammock just in case. I mean trunks are cool, but if life gives me a chance to wear my speedo in public, I'm gonna make lemonade. Lucky for me (and everyone else there, of course), I deemed the hot baths of Baños speedo appropriate (sorry ladies, no pictures). Simply liberating.

the triumphant aguila

Day 2 took us into the Amazon for a full day of visiting a monkey reserve, canoeing down the Rio Puyo (like the Rio Pastaza and pretty much every river east of the Andes, it's a tributary to the actual Amazon River), visiting an indiginous Ecuadorian community, and hiking through the selva (jungle) to an incredible waterfall and swimming hole (see pictures below). We even got to do some Tarzan swinging on real live jungle vines (video below... don't mind my all natural exfoliating jungle face mask):

Amazing day, and to cap everything off, Don Diego takes us to this vista point overlooking the whole Puyo River Valley... there were hammocks set up to take in the view, and the biggest rope swing I've ever seen to take it all in (video below).

Day 3 (Sunday) was a half day since we had to get back to Durán to work the next morning. We made the most of it, though, and ate some bbq'd rodent then jumped off the Puente San Francisco (first video above). Here's my album from Days 2-3, which has all the pictures from the Amazon (monkey reserve, indiginous community, waterfall, various flaura and fauna, etc.) and Baños (bridge jumping, guinea pig eating, etc.).

click here to see my pics from Days 2-3

in the Amazon & Baños