Behaving badly in Baños

Well I arrived in the pissing rain (a theme appears to be ocurring here) and was unsure what everyone was raving about. Very touristy and very cloudy was all I could conclude. No one in my tiny dorm apart from a teetotal American lady who I obviously had nothing in common with. Found a cafe for dinner where they showed Last King of Scotland and booked myself on canyoning, which was terrifying me a bit cos I had no real idea what it actually was, but the man selling it was very enthusiastic so I thought there wasn´t much to lose.

Arrived in the morning and thank god there was only one other girl, Natalie, doing it and she had no idea what it was either. So we headed off with our guide and it turns out that canyoning is abseiling down waterfalls, which is great! Really loved it, although its very scary and you have to put a whole lot of faith into the rope and the guide. Its not a good idea, halfway down, to start thinking....what if the rope snaps, will I die etc etc. Better to think, this is amazing, this guide has done it hundreds of times and if I let go I really really wont fall...look no hands!

Natalie was great, loads of energy and although we hated the first couple of waterfalls, we really loved the last ones despite the fact we were going down ridiculously slowly, only to be shown up by the guide who came down head first.

On the way back to town the guide was talking about paragliding. It terrifies, but fascinates me and within about 10 minutes of discussing it I thought, fuck it, am going to do it....and so did Natalie...

So, two hours later I found myself on the edge of a cliff, absolutely bricking it, waiting for my turn. Dan, the head of watches in Harrods ;), went first and loved it. He came down buzzing. I, on the other hand, didn´t have such a lovely time;). JESUS, paragliding is not for me...quite frankly I was terrified....despite saying to myself (whilst millions of miles up in the air, attached to a very professional guide)...the ropes wont break, the guide has done it hundreds of times, if I fall I really wont die...all I was thinking was...for the love of god GET ME BACK DOWN TO EARTH NOW. No matter how hard I tried to conquer my fear, I discovered that my body does not like to feel weightless, it does not like to be floating around aimlessly, it likes to be on the floor or coming back down to the floor ASAP. This all culminated in me coming down to the ground a bit too ASAP and dragging myself and the guide through a potato field. Covered in earth from head to toe and feeling totally peculiar, I then had to pretend to Natalie how amazing it had been in order to not freak her out just before she launched herself off the cliff. Unfortunately I had to pretend for about an hour cos the wind picked up and she wasn´t able to take off safely. She told me later, thank god, that I had successfully lied to her and she had no idea how much I hadn´t enjoyed the experience. Despite all this I would like to add that I still would like to do a tandem parachute jump....reason being....will be hurtling back down to earth quite quickly ;).

Needless to say stiff drinks were in order and I went out for a few and some dancing and finished my night having a pash (new favourite NZ word) with the watch man from Harrods. Stumbled in at 3am and think I thoroughly poisoned the air cos the next day the American lady had checked out and I was sure she was planning to stay for a few more days....oops.

Well, spent the next day DYING and did bugger all apart from blogging and self loathing. Then went to meet Dan and the group he was travelling with for a Salsa class. Turned out Dan had got lost on the way home the night before and then nearly knocked the guide out with fumes of booze the next day. Salsa was cancelled, thank god, so we went out for dinner and then....a few more cuba libres. Why is it hair of the dog works? Its really not fair. Did more misbehaving and rolled home at 5am. Things were deteriorating.

Next day got up and made myself go on a tour of the waterfalls on one of these hideous touristy buses which blast out loud pop music for the duration....just what I needed. But I was brave and tolerated it and it pissed with rain (no comment) and I met a lovely Ecuadorian family who looked after me and fed me crisps.

Was on the internet when I got back and Barbara messaged me to say Scottish Rob was in Baños, so I got in touch with him. He had had his bag nicked from the bus and was in need of a beer (oh god, you can see where this is going). So we met for a beer, and a lovely dinner which he treated me to, and then some wine and then some cubas and then it was 4am and then I needed to get to my bed before more misbehaving occurred.

IT WAS TIME TO LEAVE. Quite frankly I am easily lead astray and I have to remember that I am travelling to enjoy the experience of seeing the country and not getting twatted at every opportunity (Reynolds style).

So I got on a bus to Latacunga....