I arrived in Banos and couldn't catch a cab at first so I started to walk in this small moutain town where people were looking at me like I was crazy carrying all these bags. It certainly looked like a tourist moutain town but there weren't that many people or taxis. I finally found one after walking the wrong direction and arrived at my hostel. It was on the street side and I was at first hesitant as I wanted peace and quiet but I found myself (as I've come to realize) to not judge the room right away and give it some time. So I talked to the receptionist and planned the next couple of days. Then I went to get dinner next door and had the soup of the day which was this chicken soup an tried the tea with ice cream (Ecuadoran artisenal drink). It was everything I wanted and more! Went to my room to do some computer things and went to bed. I find that on the bus rides, I've been either trying to learn Spanish or draft my Instagram or relax and sleep (trying not to use up my data).

The next morning I rented a bike and went on this waterfall bike self-guided bike tour. The breakfast was really yummy in the hostel and the receptionist was super helpful! It was pancakes with strawberries, chocolate, orange juice, bread and eggs and some fruit. I had a map to use to figure out where to go but it wasn't very straight forward so had to stop and figure out where to go at times. I ran into this French couple and we stopped at the first few waterfalls and then they wanted to do bungee jumpin and I didn't want to wait around so I went on my own. I also ran into another couple (American) who were from California. The bike ride was on this busy road and thankfully there was a bike road outside of the tunnel option (I was first going to go in the tunnel but thankfully the French lady had shown me the other bike road around on the side). At the last waterfall, I had recognized this guy from another waterfall and he was parking his bike next to mine and we started talking. He's from Israel and also traveling solo so we walked to the last waterfall together (the biggest one) and got to know one another along the way. It was the most powerful waterfall I had seen that close up and it was really nice talking to Avi (Aviram) as we went from one viewpoint to another. We got in a truck afterwards to take our bikes back to Banos and went to get lunch since we were starving (it was almost 2pm). We went to this cute coffe/restaurant and both got fish, tried different drinks and apple pie. Then we walked around the town and went to get some drinks (tried Michelada which is this South American drink with beer and tobasco sauce and salt around the rim). It wasn't that great but we both drank it and then got dacaris (not frozen). He was taking the bus to Montanita that night so we went back to my room and smoked a little and he left and I organized for the next day and went to bed.

I left for the day tour to the Amazon around 8:30am since that was when they told me to be there. I had to wait 30 minutes to leave so I asked the lady to pay for my coffee because I was fed up by how long it was taking and I could have been sleeping. Finally we left around 9:15 but then drove around the town to pick up different things and I could tell the guide was disorganized. It took us 3 hours to get there instead of 1.5 and he only spoke in Spanish so I couldn't completely understand him. I could tell this was going to be an off-day because the people weren't that great on the tour as well. There was this Belgian couple who were the only ones I wanted to talk to other than these two Peruvean women in there late 30s. A family from Coloradoo (son, parents and wife) got on the bus halfway there and started talking to the dad and he told me he does some water projects in Ecuador for the school they all teach at so this is their fun time after the projects. They were very old school Americans and couldn't believe I had been drinking the tap water (also seemed a bit clueless about certain things, but not judging). We hiked to a waterfall but had to stop and wait for everyone at times which was very frustrating for me. I tried enjoying the nature of the Amazon forest and started to separate myself from the group. Got to eat lunch around 2pm and then went to this swing up high and swung which was one of the highlights of the day. Then we went to this indigenous village and it was literally a tourist trap. These locals do this show with their costumes and had animals such as monkeys, boa snake, parrot, etc. and jewelry and a game to play. They also painted our faces with this orange/red from this fruit looking thing called Ochre. It was fun for a little but just too touristy for me. Then we went on a canoe and went down Rio Verder for about 20 minutes which was actually really cool being in a wooden boat down these rapids. I was a bit scared at first because the water was so high but it was fine. I also was able to wrap a freaking boa constrictor around my neck! I was really intimidating at first, because I don't speak very good Spanish and we weren't anywhere near a hospital if something were to happen. The highlight was definitely swinging and boa constrictor. I was getting nervous because I needed to take a bus that night and wasn't sure when we were going to be back since it was already almost 6pm. We got back at 8pm and I changed quickly, got my bus ticket, and dinner and got on my first night bus (which actually wasn't too bad). I started watching a comedy show and there were movies being played pretty loud so didn't go to sleep until 1am. I was in and out of sleep - had the two chairs to myself halway through and then someone came the other half. I felt pretty claustrophobic but tried to sleep and then got woken up around 7:45am. Arrived at Santa Elena and then caught another bus quickly to Montanita. When I was putting my big backpack on the bus to Montanita, I noticed one of my Chacos was missing so I freaked out and tried to go see if the other bus was still there and I didn't see it so I asked around. I saw that my bus was trying to leave so I said f*** it and got on the bus. But then as we were pulling away, I saw the bus I was on and asked the guy if I could go look for my zappos! It was in there!!!!!! I couldn't have been more happy, I'm so happy I made the bus stop and I got my Chacos! I slept for another hour and arrived in Montanita around 9am.