Hola! Me llamo Balin, (some sick bilingual action for you right there), and this is a blogpost being written in the Amazon about Banos. Forgive the delay as we do owe this blog post some photos. The leaders of the week were Balin, Nayeli, and Alice M. The blog will also be in three parts, each written by a different leader.
Homestays in Baños
I think for a lot of us Banos was a very very welcomed break. Banos exists in a perpetual Portland spring weather all year round. Theres also no bugs! And chips! And restaurants! Lots of things to be grateful for. Banos, which means baths, was our first homestay town and first time being on our own from each other. We all stayed in groups of two (one trio) with local residents. Personally, and I hope for everyone it was amazing. I stayed in the group of three with Tiernan and Kayla. Our homestay host was mainly David although his parents also lived there. His mom is a lovely painter and his dad manages a gallery in town. One of our last days he invited our cohort to a concert hosted at his families art gallery. Me, Tiernan and Kayla got to eat for free because he likes us, he even introduced us to his friends as his kids which was nice. We got to listen to about three of the four bands that performing that night. Pequenas Estaturas, No Name, EstereoFonico and Venerdi. Unfortunately we had to leave early cause our curfew was 10pm but by that time we all knew our way around Banos well enough most of us exited at different times and navigated back home in our individual groups. On one of the last nights me and Tiernan got to have a really in depth conversation about Ecuadorian politics and cultural beliefs with David. We compared and contrasted Ecuador with the United States and discussed how Ecuador is so small that there’s nothing like state laws even though it is such a diverse country in terms of climate, geography, and peoples. Personally, Banos and the concert was the most fun I’ve had on the trip. But, we did a lot more during our time in Banos like Spanish classes so, I’ll pass the mic to Alice M.
Raices Spanish Classes in Baños
This week we continued classes at the Raices Spanish Learning School for Students. All of our hearts felt like they where pounding with excitement, all students arrived at the school not knowing who there instructors would be. Yet we where all excited to learn the new Ecuadorian language. We have spent our time at Raises, making friendships, building up local community with the locals from what now we are able to comprehend. The language itself has really started to grow on me. Hola, bueno dias as we wake up every morning to great our homestay families. Comprehension of irregular and regular verbs, desvestir, visitar, pintar, destuirid, comprar. But not only what language I have learned myself. It has been the the relationships Iwe have been able to build up with the small communities. I can know be one of the many who ventured on this trip that can actually start a conversation with the young people here. Such as hola, como estas, moy bien. Yo practicar mas esponal en la clase, es moy importante. Yo intento mas esponal. And even when the food is so bomb here I got Spanish for that too. La comida is muy rica, es bueno. Though my favorite Spanish word has to be chevere which means cool, great, awesome. These are just many of the few words or phrases we all where practicing this week, and I can’t be more proud.
Adventures to the Actual Baths (aka Hot Springs), Casa del Arbol, Quilatoa and Cotopaxi!
While exploring this city we found a natural hot spring spot named Termas de La Virgen. This location had 3 pools of different temperatures of water, one of which was super hot while the others were warm enough to be able to relax. This for sure was a good spot to go to when we needed to relax after a long and tiring day. A very cool activity many of us were excited for was heading over to La Casa del Arbol. This place was so green and it sat on top of a mountain. This place is home of a swing that sits at the very edge of the mountain. At first some of us were scared before getting on the swing but as soon as we got off we were glad we got on the swing and got to experience it. After a calm and relaxing week we ended it by hiking up Cototpaxi Volcano. We started our day bright and early to head over to Latacunga where we would stay the night. The next day we began our hike at 10am. We started at a lower altitude to acclimate our breathing since we would be hiking at a much more higher elevation. Doing this would help our breathing get adjusted to the higher elevation once we moved up locations. After walking around the lower elevation we hopped on the van and headed over to the higher elevation. When we got to our destination it was very cold and windy so wearing layers came in handy for the hike. The hike was a really huge challenge for many of us but the feeling of accomplishment really paid off once we reached a height of 15,910ft. Hiking up his volcano was definitely very difficult but we managed to push through and finish. We will all cherish all of our fun and exciting experiences while staying in the beautiful city of Banos.
That’s all for now! Thanks for reading, buen provecho, adios, ciao. :)