Banos to Tena

I spent the last 5 or so days doing a little traveling with my bro, who got here late Wed night, and my friend Meredith from the camp who stayed an extra week to chill!

On Thursday morning we left Quito for Banos, an Ecuadorian tourist destination in the Andes south of here. Situated on the side of a volcano, with multiple hot springs, it was super relaxing and really fun. Its a pretty small town, but due to its location there is tons to do and tons of people, both Ecuadorian and extranjero, always passing through, especially on the weekends. It took about 4 1/2 hours to get there in a bus even though geographically its not too far, so when we arrived we spent the rest of Thursday hanging out, exploring etc.

On Friday morning we woke up determined to hike at least part of the volcano. The actual volcano is huge and snow covered, but we wanted to hike up to this tiny town way up on the mountain called Runtún where we could get a better view. The whole hike took about 5 hours and was super intense and equally unbelievable. It began with a path that went basically straight up to the first lookout point, the highest part that you can see from the town of Banos which we originally thought we would never get to. Then the organized path turned into a grove cut out of the forest, which was more like jungle than normal forest due to the lower elevation and proximity to the jungle, that looked like it had been made by years of rain running down the mountain. The forest cover and plants were amazing and at intervals gave way to lookouts on parts of the mountain that families had cleared to farm. When we finally reached Runtún we weren't able to see the volcano because it was kind of rainy and we were literally surrounded by clouds, but it was worth it to wander through the tiny village of houses made of planks of wood, pastures of cows, and the occasional house with a radio blaring or family eating lunch. After a hike like that we decided we deserved to relax so we all got hot stone massages which only cost 20$! and then went to the hot springs on the edge of town that were literally fed by a waterfall coming down from the mountain.

On Saturday, wanting to continue to do every extreme thing we could think of, we rented bikes and rode about 20 miles farther down the mountains toward the jungle town of Puyo. The road passes at least 30 waterfalls and is incredible since it follows a river in the groove of the mountains. It was literally like riding on the side of a cliff for 2 hours. We stopped in a little town for a typical lunch when we got caught in a downpour and when it subsided continued riding to the biggest waterfalls of all. To get to them we had to hike down the cliff to basically the level of the river where there was a wooden bridge with a sign that said only 5 people at a time. I was positive we were going to fall into the river and die on the spot with the strength of the falls below us, but we survived and for an extra dollar we climbed up to right underneath/behind the waterfall.. incredible. From the falls we took a little cart/truck thing back to Banos where we had to ride in the back with all the bikes and just as we were arriving in Banos we looked up to see that the volcano had errupted a big cloud of smoke. Literally we hiked a volcano that errupted the next day!

Saturday night we took a bus from Banos to Puyo and then another bus to Tena, another small city on the edge of the jungle. Amazing as it may seem, the main road that connects these two eastern cities of ecuador is made out of dirt and nearly impossible to travel in the rainy months. We arrived in Tena around 11pm, super skeptical due to how run down it is and even more skeptical after we got into two separate taxis who informed us the hostal we were planning on staying in didnt actually exist. Luckily on a whim we had booked rooms at 2 hostals and the second one, a little outside the city center set back off several dirt roads turned out to be really nice. We woke up Sunday morning to a tiny city with thick forests and the Andean foothills in distance. We had planned on going whitewater rafting since Tena is the whitewater rafting capital of Ecuador, where the River Tena and River Napo meet, but since we hadnt made reservations and everything was closed becuase it was Sunday we decided we should chill a little. And by chill, we decided to go to these caves in a town a little north that turned out to be huge. We went in with a guide and wandered around in the mud and water and pitch black for about an hour before we emerged through a different exit deep in the jungle! If nothing else, it was a personal feat that I managed to remain calm for so long in the cave. When our guide started pointing out the different bugs and things that live inside though, I had had enough and decided we needed to get out of there!

Sunday night we went out to dinner at a family run pizza place where we were served by the cutest 12 year old boy, who went to the store to buy us wine when we ordered a bottle and they didnt have it. It began to pour and due to the fact that all the buildings have tin roofs, we spent the night sitting on the covered balcony of our hostel listening to the rain, talking and playing cards. On Monday we took an afternoon bus back to Quito, but before we left we spent the morning walking around this island turned park/zoo at the place where the 2 rivers meet seeing crazy plants and animals like monkeys, tucans, and yeah a few snakes... luckily they were all in cages! The bus ride back up to Quito took about 5 hours and was a nice combination of dirt and paved roads and truly the most beautiful ride of my life. In true South American fashion the bus stopped at a house/restraunt in the middle of the mountains so the passengers could eat dinner, before continuing to drive like maniacs on the tiny road full of switchback turns back to Quito.

I was really amazed by Tena. Banos was cool, but it was a tourist town. Tena, on the other hand, while it caters to tourists who want to go rafting or hire a guide and go into the jungle for a few days really was very poor and run down. While we were there I went to the Red Cross and asked about doing some volunteer work, to which they enthusiastically replied that whenever I come back I am more than welcome to work with them! I am really excited about going back, not just to work with the Red Cross but also to do some outreach work for the foundation. My friend Carmen was saying last night that the jungle has one of the highest rates of type 1 diabetes in Ecuador and remains unexplored territory for the foundation. We are trying to work out a time when we can go back and start working.

Mo and I have spent the last few days hanging out in Quito, but since this is getting very long, I will save that for another time. If you have been emailing me and I havent been answering... I promise to do it soon!!!! Hope all is well!
xox