Monday, January 31

This morning, we said good-bye to the Amazon Rainforest & hello to a gorgeous 3-bedroom airbnb in Baños, Ecuador. After spending 5 days in the jungle, we were all craving creature comforts like hot showers and more space to spread out. However, I was definitely going to miss having three hearty, home-cooked meals being served to us everyday!

We arrived to our airbnb mid-day and spent time unpacking our things and lounging around the house. Tory and Aden spent time FaceTime’ing their friends back home playing Roblox together & catching up on all they’d missed after being out of touch the past week.

Around 2:00pm, we decided to walk into town to get a bite to eat and some groceries. The energy in Baños was electric with many cars coming & going on the busy streets and vendors lined up along the streets selling candy, convenience goods, and various foods. We decided to eat a a parrillada restaurant along the way. These bbq spots have become our families favorite because there’s something on the menu that each one of us enjoys. Andi and Aden both ordered breaded shrimp entrees and said it was the best shrimp they’ve had on the trip so far. Tory ordered her usual cheeseburger, and I ordered a 1/4 chicken entree. I almost ordered the whole rotisserie chicken (pollo enteno) but the surprise on the waitresses’ face told us I’d said the wrong thing in Spanish. A more suitably portioned rotisserie chicken breast was more like it.

After lunch, we continued walking into Baños’ city center. It’s a beautiful small-size town nestled into the valley of Tungurahua volcano with an old church and a large park in the middle of the city. Andi wanted to grab an espresso (his first in five days!) so we popped into Honey Coffee & Tea across from the town square. Ecuadorians don’t drink much coffee and if they do, it’s usually instant coffee. Locals prefer hot chocolate or hot tea here. That’s not to say there aren't coffee shops, but they’re mainly catered to tourists. Honey Coffee & Tea was the perfect coffee shop to sit & relax, or even for someone to work. Two large picture windows overlooked the main intersection in town so they people watching was fantastic. Andi said the coffee was excellent and Tory and Aden loved the bakery treats. We laughed at Andi because his eyes were practically rolling back into his head when he took his first sip of espresso — it was that good!

After coffee & treats, we walked around downtown Baños, sat in the main square to people-watch for a bit, and toured the Church of the Virgin of the Holy Water. The cathedral is beautiful inside with many statues dedicated to the Virgin of the Holy Water who is known for conducting miracles. The second floor of the church is a museum with many religious paintings and statues. We took our time wandering through the nearly-empty church admiring its beauty.

Next, we went to the mega grocery store in town for some basic staples to get us through the week. We purchase a loaf of bread and jam, hot dogs for Aden, chicken, ground beef, fruit and yogurt. The grocery store’s produce section was pitiful, so we figured out quickly that locals must buy their groceries from individual vendors (go to the fruit stand to buy fruit, the veggie stand to buy vegetables, the panaderia to buy bread, etc.) Our grocery bill was over $20 which is a lot by Ecuadorian standards! Afterwards, we walked across the street to a vendor selling fresh produce and the selection and prices were much better. There, we picked up strawberries, dragon fruit, passion fruit, beets, carrots, and onions all for under $3.

Tory and I weren't hungry for dinner, so Andi grabbed a falafel platter to-go and a hot dog for Aden from a restaurant downtown. The lady working at the restaurant was so confused when Andi ordered a hot dog with nothing on it. Yep, that’s how Aden eats them and he was a happy camper.

We cabbed back to our airbnb and turned in for the night. We heard the town of Baños is noisy, so Andi opted to rent a house a little ways out of town. However, we could already tell it was going to be loud here no matter where we stayed. Constant traffic, barking dogs, and roosters crowing at all hours.

Tuesday, February 1

Tuesday morning, Andi worked while Tory, Aden and I did school. The kids were not happy about doing school work after having several days off in the Amazon. There was a lot of grumbling and a lot of threats to lose privileges from Mom.

Around 1:00pm, the four of us decided to go do an activity in Baños. Baños is known as the adventure capitol of Ecuador — there’s several zip lining companies, canyoneering, mountain biking, paintball, and more. Our family was still pretty tired after our adventures in the Amazon though, so we opted for a nature walk through the Cascade El Pailon Del Diablo. For $6 admission for the entire family, we waked along the paths of a well-manicured park to view a gigantic waterfall cascading down the cliffside. The sheer power of this waterfall was incredible! It was huge. Lots of steep stairways lead up and down into the canyon so that you can get close enough to the waterfall to get wet.

From Cascade El Pailon, we hopped into a taxi which took us to another attraction in Baños — a tarabita cable car that zips passengers across the canyon. This was a really neat and very simple activity for families that only cost $6. The views were incredible.

Next, our taxi took us to Discovery Baños to ride go-carts which was on Aden’s wish list. We saw the go-carts yesterday on our way into town & since then, it’s all Aden has been talking about. Discovery Baños didn’t even look like it was open — there wasn’t a single customer there. But, it was. That’s how everything in Ecuador seems to be — none of the activities we’ve visited throughout the country have been busy. Tourism is still very slow here.

Andi paid for 3 go-carts — one for him, one for Aden and one for Tory and I to share. Aden was in his element. He hopped into his car and hit the gas, racing all around the track. Andi was neck & neck with Aden zipping around. Tory, on the other hand, was having a hard time getting our car to go. We kept crashing into the side bumpers. When our time was over, the go-cart operator held up a finger to let us know it was time to bring the cars back to the starting place. Aden kept on going around which made everyone laugh. Luckily, there weren’t any customers waiting so it wasn’t a big deal.

We had our taxi driver drop us off downtown so we could visit Honey Coffee & Tea once again. Andi ordered another espresso & Tory and Aden split a chocolate muffin and lemon tart. Then, we went back to our airbnb for the evening. The comforts of having a home are drawing us in this week and making us a little lazy. It’s so nice to relax in a house, do laundry and have our own kitchen.