Baños, Ecuador

At 2 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, the exact moment the test results for the Oregon bar exam were released, Michael and I were still sitting on a bus in rural Ecuador, stuck watching old Jackie Chan movies, our stomachs in knots. We planned on hopping off the bus at a stop somewhere to check the internet, but either we never had enough time or the internet cafe was closed due to of Semana Santa. When we arrived in Baños – four hours after the results were released! - all the internet cafes there were also closed. We finally begged a hostal owner to let us use his computer to check our results and…

WE BOTH PASSED THE BAR!

We screamed with excitement and hugged each other, leaving the hostal owner to wonder at what had just happened. I literally cried tears of relief. It was a huge weight lifted from our shoulders.

Happy, but also hungry and exhausted, we set out to find a reasonably-priced place to eat and celebrate. Due to Semana Santa, all hostals and hotels had at least tripled their prices.  Semana Santa was about the same in Baños as it was in Cuenca – crawling with people (all Ecuadorians, not international tourists) driving ritzy and expensive cars (including new F150s and Hybrid Tahoes) down the main street while blasting Spanish rap and drinking their way through town. I felt like I had been transported back to my home town of Fresno, California!

Once Easter Sunday rolled around (which is not nearly as celebrated as Good Friday, the day we arrived), the masses of people left the city and it was actually quite a nice little town! We found a hostal with a lovely garden and hammocks, soaked up the “sacred water” of the natural hot springs, and ate the best spaghetti of the trip so far for three dinners in a row.

The on-going eruption of Tungarahua, with stars in the background

But, hands down, the highlight of Baños was that we arrived just as the volcano looming over town, named Tungarahua, began to erupt.  It was so cool (SO COOL!! according to Michael).  Accounts vary as to the last time it erupted (from 1 to 11 years ago), but it is, apparently, not a very common event. On our first night in Baños, we drove 3,000 ft up a hill on the opposite side of town with a good view of the volcano and, after waiting for 1.5 hours for the clouds to clear, got to see the bright red lava erupting from the center and flowing down the sides of the volcano. It was amazing. 

The smoke from Tungarahua and lights of Baños, just after sunset

The second night, we drove even higher up for sunset and Michael took some fantastically out-of-this-world pictures before the clouds flooded in.  After waiting in vain for three hours for it to clear, we walked 1.5 hours back to Baños via the freakiest, most-murder-scene, pitch-black and fog-shrouded road imaginable. 

Tungarahua´s lava, flowing high above Baños

The last night, I stayed in town to Skype while Michael gave it yet another try and had a little more luck before the clouds, once again, obscured the volcano. I think he still entertains the idea of returning to Baños only to sit up there waiting for the clouds to clear long enough for him to get the picture he wants…