Baños

We went to the most beautiful place this weekend.  It is called Baños and it is amazing.  There are so many waterfalls and the mountains are gorgeous.  The little city is very nice too with many places to eat and little shops to shop in.  Matt even bought a new hat and haggled to only pay $10 for it.  When we were walking in the street we saw some cuy, which is guinea pig and looks so gross being cooked on a stick.  There are hot springs which we ended up not getting to go to, but maybe we will return and get to go.  The kids and I started off the trip by ourselves by taking a bus to Quito and then another bus to the meeting place.  I had the backpack, the suitcase and both kids alone which was a challenge, but true to their nature someone helped me get on and off of all the buses and a girl even waited with me to help me find the right bus.  When we got to the meeting place they were having a work meeting with the families from the special needs school.  They ended up presenting me to the families and telling them how much the kids love me.  It was a little embarrassing, but I survived.  After that we left in the 12 passenger van 1.5 hours later than we were supposed to, but got to Baños around 11:30PM.  The people we went with from my work found us a hostal for $7 a person and we headed to bed.  The next morning we met up with Matt and Jared who came from Santo Domingo and had breakfast.  We all then headed out to see the amazing waterfalls.  Pictures do not do this place justice.  On the way we stopped to do the zipline which I did Superman style.  It was awesome!  The waterfalls were wonderful and we had a fun time with everyone.  After getting a late lunch we headed back to take naps and then went out to see the viewpoint of the city.  It was a little bit of an adventure trying to find it and we had to ask multiple times for direction, but we made it.  Matt took the kids back to the hostal after getting dinner and I headed out dancing with my co-workers and Jared.  We had a really great time.  After closing the place down we went to the hostal and talked for a long time.  Everyone had questions for me about what I think about Ecuador and the people and physical therapy.  I got to practice a lot of Spanish and they said that my Spanish was very good.  It was really helpful to practice it more.  After sleeping for a little while, Matt, the kids and I went exploring in the city and saw a procession in the street with a Mary figure among other cool things.  All in all it was amazing and I would recommend going to Banos to anyone that can. 

AMAZING

There is me flying in the gray jacket

Gorgeous

The cave you have to climb through to get behind the waterfall

Cuy

Tired out.