Adventures and the Bandits of Baños

Returning to ‘normal’ backpacker life left us under a grey, lingering, Galápagos-shaped cloud that would follow us north to the Colombian border. Everything just felt a little less special – wildlife neighbours were replaced with bunk bed snoring hostel-goers, amazing untouched scenery was exchanged for crowded towns and there was an end to our silver spoon, cruise lifestyle. We had some fantastic moments weaving our way north but sometimes we found ourselves stuck in a wee bit of a rut.

On our return we headed for the coast, in the hope of sunshine, bliss and some surfing. We found none. On approach to the small beach town of Montañita, thick grey clouds loomed all around and rain refused to let up. Not much of a sunny getaway. We spent the next couple of days holed up in a beachside bar, making the most of happy hour mojitos and enjoying the best bands we had seen in South America.

The other reason for venturing this way was the search for humpback whales. 1 hour north of Montañita was Puerto Lopez, a place where mothers and newly born calves based their oceanic nursery. We headed for the boats hoping to turn our Monta-misery into a moment to remember. Sure enough, within 30 minutes or so, we spotted a handful of whales, although they were slightly too far away or quickly disappearing – the experience was far from the magical awe of what we had witnessed in the Galapagos. Reflecting on the bus back, Rosh, reeling from her Galapagos hangover, claimed ‘it just wasn’t the same’.

Don’t get us wrong, the ocean was absolutely swarming with humpbacks and we saw so many swimming all around us, it was just…not Galápagos

With no hope of changing weather, we left the dreich beaches of Ecuador for the green mountains of Baños, a small town in the Andes with lots of adventure on it’s doorstep. We fell fondly for it after a few days spent wandering around, getting drenched by thunderous waterfalls, eating cheap and tasty food and staying in a great little hostel.

We spent one day monkeying around in a park. Known as ‘The Swing at the End of the World,’ plenty of fog ensured it looked to us like the swing at the end of our garden – but we still had fun trying to keep up with the young kids running around

The waterfalls we ventured to ended up being more exhilarating than initially thought. To get a good, up close view of the water, we had to crawl through narrow cliff caves and navigate slippery steps (not ideal for 6ft5, gangly and unbalanced giants from the north) before being soaked by cascading torrents of water. Nevertheless, these were some very picturesque waterfalls and surrounding landscapes – including a rickety bridge that Cal was not the most confident on.

The onset of nerves, however, quickly switched and took over Rosh when we stopped off at a zip line over the valley. Determined to conquer her fear (that is, movement and height related activities), Rosh stepped up to the platform, ready to take a leap of faith. Dramatically however, at the final seconds before lift off, Rosh decided this was too much too quickly. Cal, already strapped in and ready to go, zipped across solo while Rosh kept an eye out for the next bus out of there.

It was all smiles and helmet checks for 5 minutes, until the dread set in. At least Rosh had the view of this magnificent canyon while she waited

Back at our favourite hostel in Ecuador, accompanied by Tito, Rosh’s favourite dog of the trip, we planned an Amazon expedition, thinking Baños was the best place to do it. Sadly, this was the beginning of the end for Ecuador

From the moment of setting foot at the starting point of our Amazon tour, Baños would forever be associated with the time we got scammed. We arrived in Lago Agrio, the bleak and depressing town and starting point of all Amazon tours, and we were picked up by young Ivan and presumably his mother. We handed Ivan a suspicious brown envelope that we had been instructed to give him by the Baños agency (later realising it contained a significant amount of cash). Upon arriving at Ivan’s ‘office’ (a converted garage with a desk), we discovered that we were actually on tour with a different agency – using the garage WiFi we realised this was far from the advertised tour we had booked, reading a review of Ivan’s company, ‘do not go with them, you will have a better time by not going… it’s similar to a prison camp etc.’ After several hours of battling in broken Spanish to avoid the tour and get a refund, we walked away with a broken promise of a bank transfer.

In summary that was our 22 hour detour, losing $100 in the process, for what should’ve been a 3-hour journey from Baños to Quito. Oh, the backpacker life! Don’t worry, there’s a strongly worded review on Tripadvisor.

We think Quito is an okay place to visit but we are not actually that sure because all we saw was the view from our hostel rooftop. It was a very nice rooftop, complete with a lovely view but as for the rest of Quito, who knows! While spending the day with pizza and Lonely Planet, we knew the only thing that would get us out of this rut was the exact place that was next up. The country that was tipped to be the winner. Everyone, we mean everyone, had said only great things about Colombia. We headed straight for the border, ready for salsa and sunshine!

Exodus: Of course, life is not so fortunate for everyone and while we were excited to get into Colombia, for thousands of Venezuelans the border crossing was an essential barrier to get through. This was the first time we had seen the effects of the economic and political crisis currently occurring in Venezuela and it was quite shocking. The mass migration southwards had caused lengthy delays at borders, in particular the Colombia border where there is only one access point with Ecuador, due to the presence of guerrilla groups. This had created a funnel effect, with people literally piling up at the immigration control – families had apparently waited weeks in a snake like queue resembling a scene not dissimilar to that of a refugee camp.

As non-Venezuelans, we got through the alternative, shorter line that took us 5 hours. Other travellers were spotted attempting queue jumping before line-patrol, PC Patel stepped in to give ‘em an ear full, they quickly retreated. While obviously an annoying and slow process for us, this was clearly a small window into a huge, engulfing issue for millions. The experience was a shrewd reminder of just how lucky we are – giving us a renewed appreciation for our backpacking lifestyle we sometimes had taken for granted.

What we’re listening to: Dejected, wet, $100 out of pocket – we were not in a good place in the bus terminal of Lago Agrio. Thankfully a tune was played over the tannoy that became our swan song of tragedy – She Will Be Loved, Maroon 5 – singing with all our gusto, “its not always rainbows and butterflies” in a painfully high pitched shrill. This was all part of our redemption from being scammed by the Baños bandits.

Love & hugs,

Cal & Rosh xxx