trip to baños

hey to all those who read this,

so i have been here 16 days now. seems longer. really I've barely even begun my experience here. Already i have had some extremely amazing days, as well as some rather not so amazing days.
One of the best days I have had was this passed Saturday. I decided, rather last minute, to go with some other students to Baños. It is a cute little town snuggled in the mountains. You can do so much there that a weekend was not nearly long enough. You can go rafting, mountain biking, rent avts or horses, swim in natural hot springs, or go bungee jumping. It has a fair amount of tourists, but they aren't like the super annoying American tourists. they tourist in these parts are mostly the weathered backpackers and exchange students from both Europe and the states.
anyways...arrived in banos Friday night around 10pm. 5 students had gotten there early that morning so they had already done a few activities and had a few suggestions. The main one was a tour of the waterfalls in a chiva, which is this crazy little painted bus/truck you can sit on top of. Part of this tour included a stop t a 45 meter bridge you could bungee jump off of, which they had earlier that day and highly recommend it. Us late comers decided to follow suit, (cause if all your friends jump off a bridge you should too) and bought tickets for the 10am tour.
The bus ride alone was exciting. crowded, fast, crazy turns, step drop off on one side. all this while sitting on top as the sights fly by. one of the guys that works the tour climbs around the outside to tell people what we are passing while the bus is moving. we made many awesome stops on the 4 hour journey. we hiked don to this huge waterfall that once you got close to it felt like you were on the edge of a hurricane because the water hit with such force it was almost painful to stand in the mist. we also took this basket between two mountains that went really freakin fast, and was made even more fun because it was raining at the time. this best stop of all of these though was that 45 meter bridge. I had woken up scared that morning in anticipation of the jump. When we got off the bus there was a lower bridge from which you could watch people jump. watching people i got really excited about jumping. I was the first in our group to jump. Once i was standing on the ledge of the bridge my excitement turned to pure terror. I was standing up there, i could feel thee weight of the rope pulling me, and i could not move. i could not bring myself to jump. so, instead of jumping forward i turned around so i could not see all the people looking at me or the distance i was about to fall and went off backwards instead. the free fall was a crazy sensation that i am not necessarily eager to duplicate, but after that it just felt like i was on a giant swing. to get down a dude tossed me a rope and i pulled myself to shore. it was all in all an insane experience. i am so happy i actually did it, i can not believe i actually did. but now i can say i bungee jumped in Ecuador. if any of you ever come visit me in the next 9 months we are definitely going to banos! and if you want to bungee jump its only 10 to 15 dollars depending on your bargaining skills.