11 - Quito and Baños

This past weekend I flew up to Quito (where I studied abroad two years ago) to visit my host family, my professors, and just to do some reminiscing.


The flight there was incredible because we flew over the Andes, and there were a bunch of volcanoes sticking up through the clouds. This is the glacier covered picture-perfect Volcán Cotopaxi, the second highest peak in Ecuador (5897 m). I took this picture from the airplane.



Here I am with my host mom, Matele.


Don Jaime and Kelly Swing, my two favorite professors of all time.


I met up with a bunch of the kids doing the BU Ecuador study abroad program now. On Friday night we went to La Mariscal and I partied like a well-practiced Gringita. Saturday morning I woke up early and Matele drove Samantha (Matele’s current BU student) and me to a bus stop where we met up with a bunch of other study abroad kids. From there we took three buses to the bus terminal, and then spent 4 hours on a bus to get to Baños. Baños is an incredible little town, and I was lucky enough to make my third visit. Baños is surrounded by beautiful green hills, blue rivers, and huge waterfalls. When we arrived in Baños I led the group to my favorite little hostal where we found my favorite little hostal worker, Roberto.


I met Roberto when I stayed in the same hostal two years ago. Last time I was in Baños I went on an incredible day of biking with my closest friends, and it was awesome. At $5 for renting a bike for the day, why would I skip on doing it again? So again I led the group to a bike rental shop, we got some bikes, and off we went for a grand biking adventure.




Our bike ride took us past some amazing waterfalls.





Press play to watch a short video clip.


Here I am at the Pailon Del Diablo


Here I am getting soaked behind the Pailon Del Diablo. We had to crawl up through a narrow tunnel to get behind the waterfall. It was AWESOME!


We took a tarabito (kindof like an open-air gondola) across a river to get a better look at a waterfall.