Baños!

This weekend we went to Baños, which is about 4 hours from Quito.
It was a little stressful getting there.  We always see Baños busses pass by our university, so we figured we'd just catch that and be on our way.  We asked some people to make sure this was true, and they all said yes.  So we waited for a while and finally saw a Baños bus and we asked to make sure it went there, but they said no we had to wait on the other side for the bus going the other direction.  So we switched sides and waited again.  Then when the bus finally came, they said it would take us to the station but we would have to switch there.  So we did this and finally we were on our way.  The movie they showed was Just Go With It, with Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston.  I was so excited, I kinda love the movie.  But it was in Spanish which took away some of the humor, but it was still great!
We finally arrived around 8 and we checked into our hostel, ate, and then met up with the rest of our group.  Not too much excitement.
The next morning we woke up, ate breakfast, and then some of us went puenting/jumping/puentismo.  Basically it is Latin America's version of bungee jumping.  You're attached to a rope and you jump off a bridge and then swing.  So you don't bounce back like with bungee jumping.  I have been kind of wanting to do it since I got here, but the opportunity hadn't presented itself.  So when a bunch of people said they wanted to do it, I joined!
I watched some people go before me, some of them were hilarious to watch (one girl had to be pushed off because she was backing out!).  But then it was my turn.  I had already seen the drop, and most of the people when they got onto the platform got even more scared, so I knew that I could not look down.  I climbed up, and almost fell before I was ready.  And then I counted, or maybe they did, and I faltered for a second and then just leaned forward and went! It was so fun and exhilarating! It didn't last too long, but I swung around for a minute until they lowered me to a man on the ground.  Then I walked up the hill and they had a video and pictures of me.  I bought them, and now I'll always have proof that I did it!
After this we went back and reserved our spots for horseback riding.  I got lunch with Miguel, Molly, and Anna Marie.  It was an almuerza del dia which consisted of soup (chicken's feet soup, which I didn't know until after I had spit out a foot and asked what it was), delicious carne, potatoes, and a pastel.
While waiting to go horseback riding, I was talking with some men (Brian and some name I could not pronounce).  We were talking about how I loved Ecuador and wouldn't mind living here.  They told me I should marry an Ecuadorian and have a baby with him because then I could stay here forever.  They then asked me if I knew how to salsa and I told them only a little.  They then said we had to go dancing that night.
Horseback riding was beautiful.  We rode through the streets for a while until we got to a path.  It was very different than riding in the US.  The horses were all fighting to be in the lead so we were a huge pack instead of the traditional line.  Also the guide was generally in the back, so we were just relying on our horses to know the way.  They like to randomly trot, which was fun and scary.  We rode up to a waterfall where all the rocks were from volcanic eruptions.  It is also the path in which the lava flows when Tunguragua erupts.
After that we all got ready to go eat dinner.  It was 6pm, so a little early for Ecuador, so Miguel, Anna Marie, and I just kinda walked around for a while.  During this walk I ran into Brian (my new Baños-novio) four times.  He told me where he was going (aka where we would salsa that night) and that he would get us shots.
After dinner we went on a chiva (a bus with no sides) and danced as it was driving up to a mountain where they served us a typical Ecuadorian drink (canelazo).  Then we rode back down and got into a discoteca for free.  There we spent the rest of the night dancing and celebrating Rachel's birthday.  So I never got to see my Baños-novio again.  But I wasn't too sad about that!
The next morning we caught the bus back fairly early and I spent the rest of the day taking it easy.  It was a great trip, and I want to go back again to see all of the beautiful waterfalls!