February 27th, 2017

Day 335: Baños

We woke up early the next morning, and after loading up at the delicious breakfast buffet, we caught another private transfer out of town. The drive took another 2hrs. to get to the city of Baños, then another 20min to reach our hotel which was located high within the foothills of nearby Volcan Tungurahua. We arrived around 10AM – a tad early to check-in, so we dropped off our bags with the manager and asked for directions to the famous Casa de Árbol – a rustic treehouse with an “edge of the world” swing that is supposedly an Instagrammer’s wet dream. Our host told us the attraction was a 20min walk away, so we headed off to get our sightseeing of Baños started!

Lindsay napping on the early morning transfer to Baños

 

Our mountainside B&B – cute & cozy with hammocks and lots of farm animals running around

 

Goats and llamas grazing outside our room

 

Our spacious digs at the Las Orquídeas Hostel

 

Taking the steep, forest shortcut up to the Casa del Árbol

We’ve been very fortunate so far in our travels – with only a handful of disappointing exceptions (mostly in China), most places we have traveled so far to visit have been wonderful and totally worth the effort. Casa de Árbol, however, was NOT one of them. Touted by various, “Top 20 Wanderlust Locations you have to Visit,”-type articles as “picturesque,” and “thrill-seeking,” the place is anything but. At least that was our impression when we visited late in the morning on a holiday weekend. Either these “travel writers” have never been here, or they came here 10-15 years ago and the place has become a victim of its own success (I suspect the latter may be true as many of the pictures of the treehouse show different windows, meaning it’s been remodeled at some point).

Here are a couple of updates on the Casa de Árbol for any friends and family who may be contemplating a trip to Ecuador: first, the place is stupid popular with both foreign and local tourists – if possible arrive exactly when they open, on a non-holiday weekday; second, there are now *6 choices* of swings to choose from (four are free with your entrance to the Casa de Árbol, two are pay per swing outside the park; third, if swings aren’t entertaining enough for you there are also kiddie ziplines; and finally, there is nothing “dangerous” about these swings anymore – all of them have harnesses now so you can’t jump off the swing over the cliff (so plan a different suicide method).

 

What they told us we’d see vs What we saw – BUZZFEED LISTICLE YOU LIED TO ME!!!

 

The Casa de Árbol complex is an absolute zoo, with literally hundreds of tourists waiting in lines for 5 pushes on one of 4 swings. LAME.

 

Lindsay is super bummed that this place did not live up to the hype.

 

Cloudy view of Volcan Tungurahua and a cow hiding in the bushes

 

Just outside the Casa de Árbol complex there are an additional 2 swings (one which rotates 360⁰ for thrill seekers) – these are pay-per-ride, so the lines were much shorter

We walked back to our hotel, only happy that we were so close to the Casa de Árbol that we didn’t have to waste money on a taxi to visit that disappointment. We checked into our room, then mulled over our options for the rest of the day. It was already too late in the day to book an excursion like rafting or canyoning (most leave from Baños city around 7-8AM and return after lunch); we didn’t want to spend more time in taxis, trying to drive to the various waterfalls in the area; and finally, Igor was too much of a germaphobe to share the hot springs with what would probably have been hundreds of tourists (once again, we were here on a holiday weekend, so no doubt it was a madhouse).

We ended up simply taking a 2hr walk down the side of the mountain from our hotel into the city. It wasn’t particularly exciting, but it was quiet and scenic – not a bad way to spend an afternoon. But in hindsight, we didn’t give ourselves enough time to do Baños properly – we should have just stayed in Latacunga a second day. Oh well, live and learn!

 

Taking a scenic walk down the mountain into the town of Baños

 

The walk down the mountain is peaceful and beautiful, passing by several rural farms houses and corn fields

 

A quick stop at the touristy Café in the Sky to admire the view of the city below

 

More cows on the trail – MOOOOO!

 

Street art…in the mountains!

 

A mirador with a giant statue of Virgin Mary sits atop a giant staircase leading into town. We pass several exhausted tourists making the strenuous trek *up* to the viewpoint as we descend – poor souls

Once we got into Baños proper, we realized we may have made a mistake – the Carnival madness was in full swing. The kids of the town were gleefully patrolling the streets armed with water balloons and giant cans of foam spray. We proceeded cautiously, hiding behind parked cars and ducking into stores, but we knew sooner or later we would get creamed if we stayed out. We quickly picked up a USD $7 bottle of wine (Viña del Maipo Merlot!) and a giant bag of cheesy bread for USD $2 (we were only trying to ask the price, when the hurried woman shoved a bag of 12 rolls at us – guess we’re going to have plenty of snacks for the next few days!).

With our goods in hand, we searched the streets for a taxi. We finally found one, with streaks of pink residue on the windows – apparently this guy had been a target for foam sprayers! We drove out of the city with the windows rolled up, despite the heat. We let our guard down and rolled down the windows once we were on the mountain. As we were turning a bend in the road, a large car with kids in the back seat drove by and, “PPPPHHHHFT!” Foam spray shot into the car via the open windows! The driver was pretty annoyed, saying he expected this in the city, but, “en el campo?” Poor guy – Carnival is far from over. Luckily for us there were no revelers in our hotel, and we passed the rest of the evening in peace.

 

Relaxing in our room in front of OUR PRIVATE FIREPLACE. Nice.