Baños day 4 - Ecuador

La Casa del Arbol

So Cara and I made an appointment to meet up at 8:30 in the morning and grab breakfast. This was when we began to walk.

la Casa del Arbol(the tree house) is an actual tree house at the top of a mountain. A swing hangs off the same tree and when you swing it feels like you are swinging over a cliff(which truth be told you are). Now, most people pay two dollars for a bus to take you up there. We decided to hike. And so we began what little did we know was going to be the most difficult hike of our lives.

We had been told the day before that the hike should take about two hours. It took us three. How did this happen?

We began our trek with high spirits, expecting it to be uphil most of the way. We didn't expect to be practically on our hands and knees on a barely trodden muddy path that simply led up at something close to a 45 degree angle. We didn't expect this torture to continue the whole. Damn. Way.

At one point I was telling Cara, "Listen girl, this isn't the right way." Her reply, "The swing is up. So if we keep going up we will find it eventually." and so we kept going up. And up. And up. We came upon a cow farm that we went around, barely touched paths, mud and lots and lots of up.

Eventually we did find it. We sat down for a breather, took off our sweat drenched shirts and laid them out to dry before helping ourselves to a crackers and peanut butter snack. Then we put our shirts back on and took turns on the swing at the end of the world while taking plenty of photos. All the while, fresh faced lazy people, all done up in makeup and sweat free came to stand in line for the swing after getting off the bus.

We decided that nothing could possibly be more difficult than the hike we just did. So off we began to take the correct path down. We must have gone wrong somewhere yet again because we found ourselves in unmarked paths once more.

We got ourselves dinner on the way back. Upon arrival at our hostel, we showered and went to sit at a cafe where we drank something warm and read. A relaxing end to a taxing day.Read more