Baños, Ecuador - Up

and More Up
We finally got good weather, enough for us to be overly ambitious.  First, a hike to Bella Vista, a lookout point over the town then a bike ride later in the afternoon.  Bella Vista is marked by a large white cross - you can see it if you look very closely in this photo.

This gives you a better idea of how the town sits at the bottom of the volcano.  We were going to hike out of town, diagonally across the steep edge of mountain and up to Bella Vista.

Even at a diagonal attack, it was pretty much straight up right from the first step.  So steep that your achilles tendons were stretched to the max with each step.

After just ten minutes we began to get a good perspective on the town. 

Another ten minutes and I was breathing really hard.  The town is at 6,000 feet to start.  Dodo was 20 feet ahead and I saw her talking to someone.  I caught up and was surprised to see a woman, at least 75 years old, walking stick in hand, smiling. "Buenos dias" she said.  She lives at the top of the trail and walks down to town and back every day.  She was dressed like a prototypical Andean - with a colorful shawl and black fedora.  We chatted for a while, then shook hands and were on our way.

The trail weaved between the cliff's edge and some tighter paths dug into the mountain.  We passed two farmers who were fixing a fence that enclosed their corn field.  Unlike the Peruvians, who would've terraced the field, this one simply clung to the side of the mountain.  The corn stalks barely reached the mid point of their neighbors, one row higher.

Taking photos is my way of pretending I'm not totally winded.  I like to take at least three to four shots so I can catch my breath.

We caught sight of the cross after 30 minutes.  It looked tantalizingly close but it wasn't.

When we got there, we approached from the backside.  There was an a glass encased altar with the virgin inside, some crude wooden lookout decks and a cafe.

The view is impressive.  You see the entire town, looking west.  We sat in the cafe, drinking water and tea and could have called it quits at that point.  I looked at the map.  "Your fancy spa is only a short hike from here, you know" I told her.  "We could go check it out."  She agreed.  I asked the waiter for directions, and it got funny at that point.  First, he gave me the "foreigner" directions, which is along a paved road.  Then he gave me the "shortcut" which he explained cut off a few miles.  Finally, he gave me the "local" way, which was a tiny path through some pastures straight up the mountain side.

The better part of laziness and daring led us to the "local" path.  It was easy to follow at first then it became nothing more than a six inch wide cow path.  It didn't appear to be leading us towards the spa, so after a mile or so we backtracked.

We got onto the shortcut, which turned out to be a dry creek bed.  I think he'd said that it led to the paved road, but I wasn't sure after a mile of steep climbing.

Finally, we got to the road, which was surprisingly smooth and modern.

We followed it up, knowing we had a few miles ahead of us.  It was a beautiful day, no more than 70 with a light breeze.

We had the road to ourselves, there was the odd car or truck but hardly more than that.  It felt great to be out after having been cooped up for two days.

When we arrived at the spa we were happy to see they had a cafe.  We'd been hiking for about 3 hours and hadn't had a snack.

We walked down a long driveway towards the spa.  You knew you were headed towards something fancy.  It felt tended, even planted.  

Fancy indeed.  Turns out, this is where my Ecuadorian colleague stayed while he was in Baños.  Now I was beginning to understand his point of view.  We walked towards the cafe only to be told it wasn't going to open for a few more hours.  We could've called it quits at that point.  "Hey, your tree house is only a few more miles away, you know?" I told her.  She wasn't so quick to say yes.  She mulled it over.  Ok, she finally said.  And our short hike, which had become a medium hike was now going to take all day.

We were now on our way to "La Casa de Arbol" which translates to "the tree house."  Most hire a taxi to go there, some take a bus, crazy people like us walk there.

We followed the road and hoped it wasn't leading to the peak in the distance.

There was even less traffic - just cows and the odd farm.  The farmers at this elevation grow tomatoes under huge tents that cover entire fields.  We got a peek into one - it was packed with gigantic seven-foot tall tomato plants absolutely loaded with fruit.  We'd been eating them every day in the market.

The signs were mocking us.  This one seemed to be saying, take a left and then go up some more.  We'd started walking at 9:30am and I was beginning to get hungry.  At 1:30pm we stopped at a small store and ate ice cream and drank some soda.  The store owner asked where we were headed and then gave us three sets of instructions on how to get there.  I zoned out - I was determined to stay on the road.

We finally got there after another long hour of hiking.  Dodo immediately headed for the main attraction - the tree house.  She got in the swing and locked herself in.

You can swing out over the cliff's edge.  Go back to the satellite picture five pictures up and you will see what I mean.

There is a worker who takes great pleasure in pushing you higher and higher, he puts his whole body into it.  He then exhorts you to let go.

The grounds are pretty.  We'd hiked from 6,000 feet to 8,000 feet.  It seemed like you were on top of the world, until you turned back and looked for Tungurahua, another 8,000 feet up.  She was hiding in the clouds, not to be seen today.

We spent an hour there, had lunch, then asked about the bus only to find out it wasn't coming for another two hours.

We started back down on foot then got lucky.  A four by four pulled up and offered us a ride back down to the spa.  It was an American family who'd moved to Ecuador a few years ago.  They lived in Cuenca but were visiting Baños with friends who'd flown in from Florida.  After they dropped us at the spa, we back tracked down the dry creek bed then took a break at the cafe at Bella Vista.  The waiter looked surprised to see us again.  We paid to have his mom drive us back to town.  We got home just before dark.  We ate dinner and before long I was ready to go to bed.  We'd covered about 15 miles.