Baños! At last!

Brendon´s Perspective:

We woke up early to leave Guayaquil.  Everyone wanted us to stay just a few more days but we really didn´t have the time.  Before we left though we met with Mary, her Husband, her baby, and Junior.  They live pretty far away now though and it took two hours to get to where we were.  We met for only a little bit and had to say goodbye, our bus was waiting already.  We left Guayaquil and started on our 7 hour bus ride to Banos, not knowing what to expect.

Upon arriving at Banos a little kid directed us to a Hostal with empty rooms, we decided to stay there for $15 / night.  We then walked around Banos and got something to eat.  We decided on a pizza place and were served by a very nice Chilean girl, she has been touring around all of Latin America recently and stops everyonce and a while to work and save.  We had a great conversation but during the conversation I brought up how Ecuadorian men are very sexist and demean woman.  An Ecuadorian man overheard our conversation though, and understood English, and decided to throw a fit about it.  He started to yell and get mad at the Chilean server and demand to call her boss and get her fired.

Obviously Christina and I aren´t ones to back down and let this happen so we started to protect her.  After he talked with her manager I then stood up and explained what a great server she was and how much she had helped us.  I then couldn´t help but be a sarcastic pain in the butt to the rich old man.  It was fun and hopefully she didn´t get fired.  We left her a big tip and spent a half hour talking with her and the other servers.


Christina´s Perspective:

So on this magnificent day, my allergies decided to kick in. It was glorious, walking around with toilet paper and having to shove it up my nose. We met with a family that Brendon knows and visited with them for a little bit before heading to the bus terminal.

At the bus terminal, I was in a very grumpy mood, having my nose almost bleeding from blowing it so much. I passed out in the cab on the way there and was in this drunken sleep stupor when these men decided it was the best idea to yell at me to go to Baños on their bus. I was so pissed. I don't like that, and I hate being yelled at. I wanted to punch them too. I'm very angsty.

So, the bus ride to Baños took 7 1/2 hours, not soooo bad, and thankfully I didn't have to use the restroom during it. :/ Like usual, we were rushed off the bus before getting to Baños and were yelled at that we needed to get onto this other bus super fast. So we ran to the other bus, which was a nicer one.

When we got to Baños, it was night and we didn't have a place to stay, and there was this little 10 year old kid yelling at us saying we needed to stay in his hostal. Brendon jumped at the opportunity, which was alright with me I guess. I didn't wanna be stranded and it seemed pretty legit, a 10 year old leading us in this foreign city, in this semi-foreign country, down a hardly lit path to this dark buildling that was apparently a hostal.
Well, the kid robbed us blind. He had his brother waiting there, and they let us keep our packs but took our money....just kidding.
It was indeed a hostal. Only costed 15 a night for the two of us, which I liked, but the place was the worst hostal we had stayed in thus far, and after a night full of construction work beginning at midnight and going until the late hours of the morning, we decided we'd look for another one.

That first night, we were famished and wanted food. I WANTED PIZZA. I NEEDED IT. So, we asked around and walked to this pizza place. It wasn't the cheapest but we decided to eat there. And we needed the LARGE for some ridiculous reason, and realized later we should have not stuffed our faces so much. During our dinner, we talked to the wonderful waitress Belen and she explained that she had been living in Baños for 3 weeks, traveling and saving money for the next place she wanted to go to. She also studied Speech Pathology (awesome!) and decided to be real with us and tell us that she didn't really like how she had been treated by Ecuadorian people, especially Ecuadorian men. Which was understandable. I've heard stories and Brendon tells me some things that make me uneasy about them. The ones I have met though have been wonderful men, but yeah. Moving on, this conversation we had with her was all in English.
Shortly after our conversation ended, there was a man in the back corner, sipping some wine and enjoying his night. I hardly noticed he was there.
He argued with Belen and was angry because he understood everything she said and said that she was a bad person, threatened to call the police because she didn't have papers to be there, and called her manager and told her how offended he was. THAT REALLY ANGERED ME. What a rude man, thinking he's in the right, deciding to try and get her fired because she voiced her opinion to OTHER people.

He proved her point.
We talked to her and her co-workers. Brendon reassured her boss over the phone that she was a great waitress, and we left her a big tip. I hope she didn't get fired. I hate people like that.
Waitressing is a hard job. :(

After that, we walked back to the hostel and tried to sleep through the loud racket going on outside.