Baños de Agua Santa



Baños de Agua Santa, Ecuador

The baths of the holy water! Where to begin... Baños is this this quaint little town in the Ecuadorian Andes that sits on the hillside of Ecuador's largest active volcano, Tungurahua (16,480 ft). The town is named for it's natural hot springs, and at 6,000 feet and an hour away from the Amazon, Baños is known as the adventure sports capital of Ecuador.


The mighty Tungurahua... there have already been 2 evacuations
this year, but lucky for us, she was sleeping when we visited.

Back in April, a couple volunteers and I took a 3 day weekend trip to Baños, and it lived up to all the hype. We went river rafting, hiked through the Amazon, visited a monkey reserve, ate some cuy (guinea pig), swang from jungle vines, learned about all kinds of bugs and plants that will help us survive if we ever get lost in the rainforest, and of course, relaxed in the hot baths! I took a ton of pics and a couple videos, so I'll let the pictures and videos do most of the talking. The best place to start, though, is probably the last thing I did before I left... jumping off a little bridge in town. Looks like bungee jumping, but you actually jump off one side of the bridge with the rope tied to the other side; so after the freefall, you swing back and forth like a pendulum. Here's the video...

Considering the $18 cash transaction and lack of any sort of "if you die it's not our fault" waivers, puenting probably wasn't the most prudent decision I've made this year... vale la pena though!

So we took an overnight busride from Guayaquil to Baños Thursday night and got in at around 5:30am Friday, April 8th (Standard timing disclosure: I went on this trip back in early April and I'm just getting around to uploading/blogging about it now... we can pretend it was last weekend though). We had absolutely zero plans for the weekend, and Don Diego knew it when he saw us get off the bus. He offered us a place to stay for $6/night, and considering it was dark out, nothing else looked open, and $6 is a great deal, we took it. Kipp, Tasha, and I all got our own full size beds in a room with cable TV and a bathroom with hot water (both luxuries I have not indulged in since the US of A... can't tell you how amazing that hot shower was). We got settled in, took a quick nappy, then hit the road at 9am to go river rafting on the Rio Pastaza (Don Diego hooked us up with some buddies of his who run adventure tours).

Click here to see my River Rafting pics

I'd only been river rafting once before, so I'm no pro by any means, but this stuff was way more intense than the PwC sponsored booze cruise I did on the American River back in '04 (oh the glory days of a public accounting internship...). Full body workout, helmets required, running head on into walls of water taller than the raft, etc. All at the foothills of the Andes as they meet the Amazon Rainforest. Mamazing.

After our half day rafting adventure, Kipp and I did some chompa (sweater) shopping at the local artisan market. In addition to the triumphant baby blue aguila (eagle) chompa I picked up, I also got a sweet-ass mood ring. It was an impulse buy, and after a solid weekend of blues, deep greens, indigos, and purple moods, it no longer changes colors =( Either that or I'm just incredibly boring. Friday night we hit up the famous hot springs beneath the beautiful Cascada de la Virgen (Waterfall of the Virgin--pictures in the album above). After the 8 hour bus ride the night before and river rafting all day, soaking in those hot baths was just what the doctor ordered. I wasn't sure if the European speedo culture had made it down here, but I brought my banana hammock just in case. I mean trunks are cool, but if life gives me a chance to wear my speedo in public, I'm gonna make lemonade. Lucky for me (and everyone else there, of course), I deemed the hot baths of Baños speedo appropriate (sorry ladies, no pictures). Simply liberating.

the triumphant aguila

Day 2 took us into the Amazon for a full day of visiting a monkey reserve, canoeing down the Rio Puyo (like the Rio Pastaza and pretty much every river east of the Andes, it's a tributary to the actual Amazon River), visiting an indiginous Ecuadorian community, and hiking through the selva (jungle) to an incredible waterfall and swimming hole (see pictures below). We even got to do some Tarzan swinging on real live jungle vines (video below... don't mind my all natural exfoliating jungle face mask):

Amazing day, and to cap everything off, Don Diego takes us to this vista point overlooking the whole Puyo River Valley... there were hammocks set up to take in the view, and the biggest rope swing I've ever seen to take it all in (video below).

Day 3 (Sunday) was a half day since we had to get back to Durán to work the next morning. We made the most of it, though, and ate some bbq'd rodent then jumped off the Puente San Francisco (first video above). Here's my album from Days 2-3, which has all the pictures from the Amazon (monkey reserve, indiginous community, waterfall, various flaura and fauna, etc.) and Baños (bridge jumping, guinea pig eating, etc.).

click here to see my pics from Days 2-3

in the Amazon & Baños

Veintiocho

Continuing my theme of posting things well after they've happened, I wanted to share some pictures from Carnaval (yes, way back in early March), and some stories from Veintiocho de Agosto, another neighborhood in Durán where Rostro runs an after school progam.

Like most of Latin America, Carnaval (aka the weekend before Ash Wednesday... same idea as Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday minus the tittie beads and booze) is huge in Ecuador, and I think it's safe to say Carnaval is my favorite Ecua-holiday thusfar. I can't speak for the rest of the country, but for 4 days in Durán, the streets turn into a no-holds barred paint/water fight all day every day. It's one big hot sticky dirty wet mess.

The pictures below are from the Sunday of Carnaval weekend, when we went out to Veintiocho to play with some of the kids my roommate Jessie works with at Manos Abiertas.

click here to see my photo album from Veintiocho!

I think I mentioned Veintiocho way back in one of my first blogs, but I can't say enough how special this community is. It's only a couple miles from where I live, but in those couple miles, the paved roads turn to dirt and mud, the cinderblock houses to cane, and other than intermittent electricity, all signs of infrastructure disappear. I took some pictures on the drive out there, and it's still dramatic for me to see having lived here 9 months.

Because my job sites are elsewhere, I don't spend too much time in Veintiocho; but my roommate Jessie is out there working with these kids every day. Rather than retell her stories, I thought I'd just let you read her blog here: Impressions on the Heart. I also copied some more background about Veintiocho de Agosto below, from the Rostro de Cristo website, explaining the history of the community and the dramatic needs they face there. The realities of Veintiocho are easily some of the hardest I've seen this year.

Also, NPR came down to Guayaquil recently to do a couple stories on different "social entrepreneurs taking on world problems"--whatever that means. They focussed on a couple programs down here, one of which, Chicos de la Calle, is the shelter/trade school for street boys that Jessie teaches English at in the mornings. This article (I think you can listen to the actual radio show, too) follows Maribel, a single mom in Veintiocho, and her two sons, Hamilton and Christian, who are students at Chicos. Through her involvement in Veintiocho and at Chicos, Jessie knows the entire family very well and often spends her weekends visiting them in Veintiocho. If you have time to give it a read, it's pretty interesting to get the NPR perspective of life down here. Sadly, Maribel is just one of countless mothers here who struggle daily with the demands of raising a family of 7 alone amidst this poverty I see every day now, but could not begin to imagine 10 months ago.

NPR: Ecuadoran Family Finds Refuge With Salesians

Veintiocho de Agosto

Founded on August 28, 1997, this growing community is based around what used to be an active trash dump. Eleven full trucks each made two trips a day, seven days a week, providing a recycling industry for members of the community brave enough to search for plastics and glass products underneath and within heaps of household waste. Herds of cattle and pigs would feed on the trash and, unsurprisingly, various health problems accompany the ever-present insects. To keep their neighborhood from literally turning into a mountain of trash, the people burned all that is non-recyclable; there are horrendous consequences for general respiratory health. For these and other reasons, many childern living in Veintiocho de Agosto are, on average, three years behind developmentally in terms of normal height and weight for healthy Ecuadorian children.

The 28 community was able to build a two room elementary school ("Escuela Particular Alan Lynch") and medical dispensary in April of 2003 with funds raised by Rostro de Cristo and activists in Durán. What started as a small cane structure with less than 20 students has now grown into a school that can educate 150 children, grades kindergarden through sixth. Whereas three years ago most children in Veintiocho finished going to school after elementary school, the majority of graduates from Escuela Particular Alan Lynch continue on with middle school and high school education. The last year alone has seen numerous improvements structurally, as well as more involvement from parents and local citizens. Brick walls replaced the former tarp and metal clad boundaries of the school, and all classrooms now have cement floors in place of former rock and dirt floors. Many of these long-term projects have happened with the help of former volunteers as well as retreat group participants.

Because of the overwhelming health concerns, people working in Veintiocho have realized that many school children who attend Escuela Particular Alan Lynch are malnourished and not able to perform up to their full potential during the school day. In the summer of 2005, a lunch program began to provide nutritious meals for the children attending school. Everyday, a group of mothers volunteer their time to prepare and cook nutritious lunches for about 150 children. This has in turn created more parental involvement within the school and community.

The people of Veintiocho are in great need of medical and educational aid. Once a week a doctor voluntarily visits the school to check children as well as other members of the community. This service is focused on the Alan Lynch school but is open to all residents. Escuela Particular Alan Lynch also houses the after school program Manos Abiertas, where kids can work on their homework and projects in a safe and spacious environment under the supervision and guidance of Rostro de Cristo and Ecuadorian volunteers.