After my Galapagos trip, I returned to Quito for a few more days of fun.  Robby and I left town on Sunday, making tracks for Baños.  Despite its funny name (it doesn’t really mean bathroom… it’s named for a number of natural hot springs in the area), Baños is a beautiful town.  Much, much smaller than Quito (finally, a town that’s walkable from end to end), its nestled in between high mountain peaks.  Really breathtaking views.

Our first full day in town, Robby and I rented mountain bikes and headed east out of town, on a (thankfully) mostly downhill journey along the mountain roads. Along the way, we saw about a half dozen remarkable waterfalls.  About 25 km from town, we decided to head back.  The busses to Baños are all ready to pick up weary bike riders.  My leg muscles thanked me.

The next day, I decided my legs had it to easy and they needed a little punishment, so I took off on one of the many trekking paths out of town. I found myself making my way up towards Tungurahua, the huge volcano that sits behind the town.  After a few hours hike, the peak was still hidden behind clouds and the path was blocked off by caution tape.  Not a complete loss, as the views of the other mountains were spectacular.

On my way back to town, I saw a small sign saying ¨Mirador de la Virgen: 20 minutes¨ pointing down a small grassy path.  I remember reading about Baños’ Virgin Mary monument, and decided I may as well go see it.  The small grassy path became an incredible steep dirt path, that became harder and harder to climb without slipping back each step.  I grabbed a large, sturdy piece of bamboo and used it as a walking stick (considering the wild state of my beard these days, I suspect I looked more than a bit like a young Moses).  The path took a sharp turn at one point and opened up to reveal a staircase.  It seems I had taken the hard way up.  When I had enough amazing views of the city from on high, I made sure to take the easy way back down to town. 

The next day, Robby and I decided it was time to head to Peru. Three buses and seventeen hours later, we arrived in the small beach town of Mancora, Peru.  It was 4 in the morning, and we didn’t feel like A) going to bed or B) paying for an extra night at the hostel, so we stayed up until  morning, chatting and sharing a few beers with some local night owls.  In the morning, we checked in, caught a few hours of sleep and then hit the beach!

You may notice one big thing missing from this post: Photos.  Well, that’s because I noticed one small thing missing from my bag when I got off the bus: my camera.  This is of course, the camera David was nice enough to lend me after I lost my iPhone, which was my only camera after my Nikon was broken.  This was almost certainly stolen as the buses, especially the night buses, are notorious for such things.  I’m not even sure I want to replace it at this point. With my luck, the thing would probably explode as soon as I touched it.