About Baños, Ecuador- The perfect mountain getaway- Day 1( Baños Town)

Weekend is hereee.... and the cherry on top of the cake is that it is a long weekend. With three whole days to doing nothing(not that other days I do much, considering I am unemployed ;D ); the big question was: WHERE TO GO???

If there are few places you will hear and read a lot about, when talking about Ecuador, one of them is definitely going to be the world famous: Baños. If you happen to be a mountain person, more than a beach person; then this will be one of your favorite places for sure. I happen to be the latter, but I also happen to be an adventurer at heart, and this town happens to be the 'adventure capital' of Ecuador. The moment I heard this, I was all geared up to head there and start exploring.

So, the long weekend gave me the perfect chance to drag my husband and my dog, who is big yet harmless (the dog not my husband); to the road which leads me to my next destination- Baños :).

So early Friday morning, we were all packed up and ready to go. Now, for someone planning to go from Guayaquil to Baños, you have two good options. One, take the bus service. Though it takes longer(around 7 hrs) to reach, yet the services are reliable, frequent and most importantly free you of worrying on whether you are on the right path or not. The second option is taking a car which will take you around 4-5 hours to reach.You can rent one if you are not from the city and don't already own one. We went with the second option since I was travelling with my dog, and I must say that it was a great decision.(Both the car and the dog).

The drive happened to be beautiful and more, with the great roads, great weather and the oh-so-beautiful surroundings. The scenery kept changing every half an hour or so and each one was even better than the other. The hills, the clouds, the cute little houses across the many small towns we crossed were a treat to the eyes. The phrase, " I AM ALIVE" describes my state of mind on that journey.

We crossed the famous town of Riobamba on our way to Baños and we made a pit stop here since we had heard so much about it from our friends back in Guayaquil.

Riobamba is the capital of the Chimborazo province, is the third largest city in Ecuador and is freezing perpetually all year around. In fact, some locals call it as Friobamba instead of Riobamba as 'frio' in Spanish means cold ;).

After having our share of the city and after ensuring that Leo(my harmless Akita remember) had his share of peeing all around to mark his territory, we started once again back on the road, eagerly waiting to reach our destination. We managed to get lost quite a number of times after Riobamba, and after trying permutations and combination of various roads (GPS never works when wanted the most.grrrr.),we finally reached Baños. :)

Located at the foot of the Tungurahua volcano, this town is far more than 'just beautiful'. In the midst of a valley, it is surrounded by green hills and one just has to turn the head and a beautiful sight of a waterfall awaits you. P.S: Do not forget to get your warm clothes when visiting Baños as it can get pretty cold at times.

Though tired after the journey, I couldn't wait to explore the small town and thus we decided to check in at the hotel, leave our luggage and head back out.

But before going to the hotel, we did a very wise thing(proud look on my face). We had been told about these organised tours to the Amazon forests which involved trekking through rough terrain, riding canoes, finding our way deep into the forest to explore waterfalls and finally a visit to the indigenous camps or the camps of the Native 'Indians'. Since we had heard that these tours start early in the morning and finish by the evening, we decided to make our reservations for the next morning so as to avoid last minute confusions or delays. After making our reservations with the Amazon Tours, we headed to look for our hotel.

As we were travelling with a dog, and it was a long weekend which attracts many tourists, we had made out hotel bookings in advance in Club Ejecutivo Hotel, which was located at the centre of the town and close to all the restaurants, discos etc. I would suggest that to avoid last minute hassle of looking for a place to stay, make your reservations in advance.

Anyways, so the room given to us had a window opening up to a beautiful waterfall which made waking up, all the more special. But the rooms I would say, were average and looked much better in the pictures on the booking sites than in reality. The price we paid was far more than what I thought was appropriate for the stay. So maybe, you would want to research a bit more before booking.

All cleaned up after our travel, we were ready to hit the streets of Baños and to explore what we could of the main town square. Majorly famished, as is the case with me most of time; our first aim was to find a good place to eat. After walking just two blocks from our hotel, we reached the lanes with the many dozens of restaurants(different cuisines) and bars.

Just few steps down this lane which is called Vicente Rocafuerte, I spotted just the place where my hungry stomach wanted to be- STEAK HOUSE BAMBU. A cute little wooden door invited us right in, and the ambience was magnificent and energetic. Amidst chattering of the customers and live music by a band we decided our dishes and waited for them with our glasses of Sangria full to the brim. Aahhh....This is life.
To be honest, after the yummy meal of lamb with cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes, I was happy, content and ready to hit the sack. But then, my inner 'party loving' conscious, made sure we stepped into the lane called Eloy Alfaro y Oriente which was full of bars and crazy loud music, to take a walk and take it all in. To be honest, a walk was not all that we ended up doing. Additionally, we went into a bar(LEPRECHUAN BAR), ordered drinks, stepped into our dancing shoes and managed to move our booties to reggaeton numbers.

Finally remembering our early morning trip to the Amazon where we were to report at sharp 8 am; we decided to call it a night and walked back to the hotel for a good nights rest, and to charge up our batteries for the next day.