When we’re not working or partying, we’re jumping off bridges. There’s this bridge in Banos called San Francisco, which is the longest, tallest bridge in town. Go to the bridge at any given time and you’ll find a couple of guys hanging out offering a chance to swing jump off the bridge.
We stumbled across this apartment when we were trying to help our friends, Miin and Neil, to find an apartment here in Baños.
The guy quoted us $25 per person per week to this 3 br apartment right in the center of the city.
(You should’ve seen the face of the wife when she found out – she knew she could’ve charged us more.)
It comes with cable TV, free WiFi, and hot water. And we even have hot water in the kitchen – the first we’ve ever had in South America.
What happens when you hand 30 kids soda bottles 3 days in a row? Fun creatures is what happens.
All of the stuff below were made during activity time at the Foundation in Baños – where we spent 3 weeks working with local kids and teaching English to adults.
In case you’re curious, we’re still in Baños, Ecuador at the moment. We’ve been here for 5 weeks. Don’t worry, the end of this week we’re really, this time for real, going to move on.
A couple of weeks ago, I left Jack behind in Baños while a girlfriend and I made a weekend trip to Cuenca.
On the agenda: girls-only time and visiting Ingapirca.
Unfortunately, for my first Inca ruin ever, Ingapirca turned out to be only mildly entertaining.
We had a plan to send postcards to our families back home from the places we’ve visited during our around the world trip. But not until Galapagos did we finally get a chance.
It was interestingly hard to come up with something to write about knowing there’s no ‘Ctrl-Z’ button to save us if we make a mistake. We couldn’t remember the last time either of us has written so much using pen and paper.
We’re on our last week here in Baños. It’s hard to believe that we’ve been here a month. It’s sad to think that soon we’ll be leaving our newfound friends behind and once again we’ll be facing the unknowns and the unexpected that our travel will bring.
We’ve spent our month here in Baños wisely, we think. We’ve volunteered our time working with the kids of Baños (more on this later) and both Jack and I have improved our Spanish by taking private lessons. We now know how to express our confusions in words other than mute blank stares (boo yah!).
As we all know, traveling is not without challenges. Especially when you’re traveling in a country where you don’t speak the language. Especially if you’re traveling in a country where you don’t speak the language during rainy season.
With so many waterfalls and rivers around Baños, it’s no wonder that every tour agency in town offers some sorts of water related activities, like canyoning.
I had my doubt about this whole canyoning thing at first. Rappelling is just a fancy name ‘Don’t let go of that brake hand or you’ll get in serious trouble.’
We’ve been in here for 2 weeks now. The longest we’ve ever stayed in a place. And the crazier part? We now have a routine. We have English classes to teach and children to supervise. We have Spanish classes to go to. We’ve been busy.
We took close to 800 pics during our trip to Galapagos. Which is not that many compared to other people. My seasickness prevented me from being photo-happy like I usually am.
Regardless, we’d love to share some of these pictures along with the stories behind them with you guys. Hope you enjoy!
I have to admit that I hit the ‘Couchsurf with me’ button as soon as I saw that they keep llamas at the place we were looking to couchsurf in Quito.
“Llamas?! How cool! How… South American!” I squealed with delight.
Visions of ourselves frolicking on top of llamas in high Andean meadows quickly came to mind.
Puerto Ayora, Galapagos, Ecuador
Finding a budget place to eat in Galapagos, especially if you’ve given up on cooking in hostels, was tough.
Still reeling from the price tags of the waterfront restaurants of Puerto Ayora, we stumbled across this eating place on a street called Charles Binford, 3 blocks inland.
Sharing the cramped eating space with a group of local cops and taxi drivers confirmed what our $5 lunch bill told us: This street, is the place to eat on a budget in downtown Puerto Ayora.
Charles Binford Ave at night
We ate here for almost all of our meals.
Give the local’s favorite, encocado de pescado (fish in coconut curry) a try. For $6, it’s not cheap by the mainland standard, but compared to everything else in Puerto Ayora, it’s a steal.
And it’s delicious.
Then again, coconut milk makes everything delicious.
Of the many restaurants there, one stood out
Our favorite restaurant is this gem called K.F. Williams.
Remember the restaurant with an identity crisis in Cartagena? Well, we might’ve found one that tops that. Check this out: the owner has murals of himself painted on the walls of the restaurant.
A mural at K.F. Williams of K.F. Williams' head
Not only that, when I asked for a menu, the girl pointed to the wall behind me.
William, William's portrait, and I
He’s got the menu painted, PAINTED, on the wall of the restaurant, complete with prices. Not painted on a board that hung on a wall, but actually on the wall itself.
I imagine they probably don’t change the menu and the prices too often there.
And who do you think prepared encocado de pescado? Nobody but William himself. We recognized him right away (how could we not?). And of course we had to drag him out of his busy kitchen to take pictures.
Is it just us or is the whole thing just simply hilarious? Not to mention a great marketing stint? We can’t seem to get over it.