A Baños, a Baños, a Baños

Where have I spent my last couple weekends?

Maybe you guessed Baños from the title and you would be right. I have written about Baños a couple times as it is an absolutely gorgeous place, relatively close to Quito, and has a ton of fun, outdoor activities to do in the majestic green mountains.

I love going to Baños, and I also wanted to share this beautiful place with my girls, my crazy, sometimes frustrating, but overall amazing high school students. So on April 18th and April 25th, I took two different group of girls for (a very long) day trip to experience a taste of Baños. What amazing, adventurous, and genuinely fun days!

April 18th at 6am (well I guess 5:15am my alarm went off) the first paseo (trip) to Baños began with Ximena, Tania, Katty, Gladys, and Mariana - my costura (sewing) ladies! Before the sun was even peeping out, I walked over to the Ofelia bus station and met my girls down in La Marin (the downtown center). When I got down there at 6:55am, 4 of the 5 girls were already there waiting....very UN Ecuadorian, but I guess they are getting the hang of us Americans ;) We met the last girl at her house and then headed down to Quitumbre, the bus station to get to Baños. Without problems we got on the bus and all my girls packed into the back 4 seats, sharing seats and just giggling away. So cute! They bought ice cream at 9am (and even one for me!) and just enjoyed singing along to my iPod. We finally arrived in Baños, in 3 hours exactly, and the first thing we do is run to the baños (bathrooms)! Of course my teenage girls thought this was SO hilarious, but hey anything to make them smile and laugh means my goals are being accomplished.

With the sun shining and breathing in the fresh air, we walked around town a bit, took some pictures and ate the picnic lunch I brought. The girls were beyond grateful and respectful...they didn't ask for anything and everything I offered to buy them they wanted to share! So we just ate the turkey and tuna fish sandwiches and everyone shared a liter sprite bottle, but we were all full and with energy for canyoning. Going to a tour agency for this 'extreme sport' was such an exciting experience for them, and I could tell they were nervous because as soon as we entered the agency they were silent and super shy. They got on their wetsuits (of course embarrassed to come out) and we headed out to the waterfall. All the girls were such troopers and extremely encouraging of their classmates. One of the highlights for me was hearing my shyest girl, Gladys Chaluisa, scream and laugh as she slid down the biggest waterfall! I've barely seen this girl smile much less ever heard her scream for joy. What a great moment!

Our tour ended up taking longer than expected, as we got to go to the bigger, more intense waterfall, so we changed quickly, ate a sandwich and headed on the last bus back to Quito. Getting back to Quito at night is a little 'adventuresome,' but praise God for keeping us safe, for these beautiful, caring girls, and for parents who were flexible and supportive!

April 25th - doing the same, but of course VERY different! I met again at the crack of dawn downtown with Blanca, Martha, and Gladys. We got on the bus, again had delicious ice cream at 8:30am, but unfortunately this time it was rainy and cloudy the entire bus ride. Oh no, what were we going to do in Baños before we would go to the waterfalls? Well, when we arrived, we went to the bathrooms first again, and then had a little team meeting to discuss what we could do in the rain. GRACIAS A DIOS! (Praise God) Honestly as we were discussing going out to lunch or something, the sun started peeking out a bit and it stopped raining! And the entire rest of the day, the sun was out (albeit a little cloudy) and it didn't rain one more drop! What a blessing.

These three are all 15 so a little less mature, but still so sweet and had so much fun running around and laughing. We had a picnic lunch again before beginning our canyoning trip. So I'm sure I've written about how Ecuadorians in general are smaller people, but Blanca, Martha, and Gladys are especially tiny! The guide had to search for children’s wetsuits as XS were too big for them! We then headed out to the Chamana waterfall, which is smaller and less intense with more open air. It was perfect! I enjoyed it a lot and was happy to do this one that took less time and also got to feel the warmth of the sun a bit! (Rio Blanco is sooo cold) Edison, our guide for the past 3 weeks, was so nice and helpful and it's great to see someone who truly just loves his job. A million pictures, a sandwich, and some sugar cane taffy for the road later, another successful day in Baños was complete. It was still after dark when we arrived back to Quito, but it was a much calmer ride home in which everyone got to their homes with their parents!

My Sundays in April were wonderful days with my girls, and I was so proud of them and the way they acted! I feel my goals were accomplished: they felt important, had great time to bond with their girlfriends, and they each got to experience something beyond their imaginations! I would do it all again in a heartbeat…..which is good because I've got one final trip left this Sunday. I am going to Mindo this time though and we are going to do the canopy (ziplines). The girls are excited, but of course nervous as well! I can't wait! Pray for safety, sun, and more ‘good girl bonding’ time!

Also please pray for Mom and Dad who are traveling Egypt and Israel right now, may they also be having a trip of a lifetime!

Love you all! Keep smiling and laughing!

Taylor

Holy Week - Spring Break 2010!

What a beautiful, blessed adventure the last 2 weeks have been! It all started with a great “Palm Sunday” weekend with the Christian concert, Procession of the Palms, Chiva, and Maria’s House party…all written about in the past blog. Then Monday was the adorable little Easter bunny dance performance by the preschoolers. Anything they do is cute! Then Thursday began my mass marathon…but all very different and interesting. On Maundy Thursday, I went to both the Cotocolloa and La Marin reenactment of Jesus’ last supper with his disciples before he was crucified. It was cool to see the Word come to life. Then Friday morning I went to mass and ‘living’ Stations of the Cross at La Marin. It was really powerful to see the reenactment of Christ carrying the cross, being nailed and hung, and then taken into the tomb as actions. And after each ‘station’ we prayed a communal prayer and sang a short hymn. It definitely hit me as I saw it. After this, Adam and I went to the plaza grande to see the big Good Friday procession that happens every year in Quito...it was very hot and a ton of people. It really his like a pilgrimage for the people who process with the crosses (heavy, actual wood) without shoes on for miles around Quito. On Saturday morning, we went to Easter mass at the Center in La Marin. It was definitely different for me – Good Friday was definitely a much bigger deal in the Catholic Church here. On Easter Sunday, I chose to go to the soccer game in the morning, but really wanted to go to church. During our Easter dinner, I asked my friend Cinthya if she would want to go to me to the ‘protestant’ church service that night. We went and it was interesting…basically the opposite of the Catholic mass -very focused on the living Christ that is no longer dead and therefore moves within us and does miracles. Wrestling with the huge differences in the services, I also watched Blackhawk’s sermon online…a good in between that I enjoyed – focusing on all of our sins that needed to be erased through the cross, but on the importance of the resurrection being that Jesus conquered sin and death. It was great hearing all the different interpretations…how big and amazing is our God!
Then all the fun, sometimes unexpected, and wonderful adventures began! Stephanie arrived on Friday night (early actually!) and we settled in a bit and headed out to celebrate Lauren’s birthday. It was fun to hang out with everyone and then dance a little bit, although also a bit strange being that it was Good Friday. Saturday after mass we rested and then went to watch the Final Four basketball games! Unfortunate about the Big Ten and then a total Duke blowout, but enjoyable to watch nonetheless, and a fun time with this crazy guy from South Korea that kept wanting to buy us drinks…although no one was really interested as we wanted to be well rested for Sunday. Sunday morning was game day! Liga versus Barcelona…vying for the number one spot! It was an unfortunate 0-0 tie in the end, which put Barcelona (the Guayaquil team) still in first place…no worries though; we’re just barely approaching the half way mark so Liga has lots of time! Despite the poor outcome, it was still fun as it was a high energy game with a lot on the line – Stephanie even got to experience a bit of a riot after the game! (yikes! sorry!) Then Madre Cindy made delicious ham and potatoes, etc meal with great pies and ice cream for Easter. I love how she works so hard on holidays to try to make us feel more at home. And after the meal, Cinthya and I went to church and then we all just went to bed to start off at 5:00am the next day for our adventures.

By 5:30am on Monday morning, Lauren, Cinthya, Stephanie, and I were catching a taxi down to the bus station to go to Tena. We made it to Tena by about noon, found a hostel, and got lunch. Then we went to the Jacundy caves to do some caving. It was weird at first as we were literally the only ones there…we thought they were closed, but it ended up working to our advantage as we had about a 2 hour tour instead of the 45 minutes it was supposed to be. It was a bit creepy hiking around with only our headlamps and having to swim through parts, but it was also sweet! We even got to jump down into a waterfall...in the dark! I didn’t like the huge spiders or bats too much, but overall it was cool and we were all glad we got to do it. After caving, we went back to the hostel and made a reservation to go rafting the next day. We got all showered and got ready to venture out in the rain for some dinner. Then I found a restaurant that had cable and asked them to change the channel for me so I could watch the Big Dance! Wow, what an awesome game-wish Butler could have pulled it off! I literally shut the restaurant down, but made a nice high school friend and we talked about the basketball, and of course, soccer which he was more interested in.

Well, Tena was pouring rain the whole night so when we got up in the morning we weren’t really sure what to expect, but knew the river would probably be high. It was more than high, due to the ‘drought’ they had in the jungle (oxymoron right?), the river completely overflowed and there was water up to the second story of houses and businesses. When we got down to this area, which was where the rafting tour agency was, we were in shock. Of course they told us that they would not be able to take us rafting, but even more that they were using the boats to help rescue people in town. Trees were down all over the place and people were completely emptying out their businesses. Wow, honestly all we could do is just pray for them and know that God will help and protect them. So after hanging out by the river for a while, we went to the bus station to find out if and when we could get out of Tena. Many of the roads were closed due to mudslides and such, but supposedly by 5:00pm the road to Baños was going to open, so we could get on the 2:00pm bus from Tena to hopefully make it to the problem area by around 5:00pm. Everything was smooth riding on the bus until we made it past Puyo and all the sudden the bus turned off and we could see in front of us a huge line of cars. Oh no, the problems we expected! Well, gracias a Dios there was a one way pass and we just had to wait a bit for it to open up to our side…and we must have had great timing as we only waited about 10 or 15 minutes. Whew. Being on this road multiple times (and biking it), I definitely could tell the differences and where the road had been destroyed and the mudslides. It will be quite the job to totally repair. Praise God we finally made it to Baños though, and not too late, where we enjoyed dinner and then played cards at an ice cream shop. We hung out with friends for a while, but then went to bed to be rested for our second attempt at rafting!

It was raining most of the night in Baños too, but thank goodness at 9am the next morning we were being picked up to go rafting! Yay! We were back on that torn up road on the way to Puyo, and we had to carry our boat through more mud to get to the river, but we were going rafting. We were with this huge group of middle school and high school students. We were paired with a couple people that didn’t really know what they were doing, but it definitely led to some good laughs and a fun time! Poor Cesar, who guided our boat, had to do a lot more work though. And another crazy, but also funny, thing that happened was that I lost my contact in the middle of rapid – painful, but also Cesar had some fresh water that I could use, and he and Stephanie helped block the wind and rain so I could get it back in. Goodness, I hate being blind! What a fun time though and a delicious lunch afterwards as well! After showering and resting a little, we went out to celebrate Stephanie’s birthday. We got dinner and a birthday crepe, before heading out for a little dancing.

Thursday morning we got up, checked bus times, and then rented go carts to go to the bridge you can jump off of. It was so fun driving that cart all over…even on the highway through the mountains! Stephanie, Lauren, and Cinthya all jumped (it was a once in a lifetime experience for me!) so that was so cool and exciting. Then we headed back with our go carts to town and did some shopping and had lunch. We were about to head back to Quito when I talked to Cesar who was going to be going canyoning (repelling down waterfalls) in 20 minutes with a group. We were planning on doing that earlier in the day, but then rafting took longer than expected so we really wanted to get to the bungee jumping first. Well, Lauren headed out to Guamote, but Cinthya, Stephanie, and I decided at the last minute to throw on our suits and go on the canyoning tour. It ended up being a lot longer than expected (we didn’t get done until about 7pm), so we realized if we left for Quito we would get back really late and not make a bus to the beach. We stayed another night in Baños, but just hung out and talked for most of the night. Then we got up, ate breakfast, and looked at a few shops before heading home to Quito in the late morning. What a great, yet exhausting, adventure!

Exhausted, but wanting to relish every minute of Stephanie’s time here, we got up Saturday morning and went to the market town, Otavalo. It is always fun to see this beautiful, colorful market, and I swear I can never leave without buying something. I limited myself to one necklace though! Then we watched a movie on Saturday night and relaxed. Sunday, we worked out in Parque Carolina and toured Centro Historico in the rain. It wasn’t pouring too hard though, and Stephanie still got some beautiful pictures of Old Town. We watched another movie Sunday night before packing up and sending Stephanie off at 4am. Whew, early but at least we both woke up to our alarms!

As can be seen, we packed in a lot in the past week, but it was amazing. I thank God for keeping us all safe and giving us patience and flexibility with everything. Even if things didn’t go exactly as we planned, God definitely had a perfect week planned and worked through our entire group. Tomorrow begins the ‘beginning of the end’…crazy to think that it is the last trimester. Please pray for a strong finish for all of us at the Center! Love you all! Que Dios les bendiga muchisimo!