Josh and I arrived in Baños this past Sunday, March 13th, driving separately, and it’s been a pretty great visit.
The Drive from Tena
The drive from Tena, though, was absolutely miserable. It was raining, and in spite of my reluctance to ride in the rain and risk getting sick again, I did it anyway because I was tired of Tena. It rained practically the entire way. I only had short bits of respite from the rain, and at times it was pretty heavy. Fortunately, Elizabeth had loaned me a waterproof jacket liner she had, and it made a huge difference. My pants were thoroughly soaked by the time I arrived in Baños, but my shirt was only slightly damp.
After arriving in Baños, I made my way to the hostel, which was at the top of a hill. GPS told me to turn right to get there, but when I stopped at the intersection my bike leaned a little too far to the right, and I lost my balance. The bike fell over, and trapped my right leg underneath it. On the way down, I knew that the bike was about to fall, and got most of my leg out of the way. Unfortunately for me, my foot didn’t make it all the way out and got stuck.
There I was, half on the sidewalk, unable to move. Fortunately another driver got out of his truck and helped me get back on my bike. Even though my foot was completely trapped, my heavy motorcycle boot protected it from any damage. The skin on my knee got a bit bruised, but overall I was fine.
I was starting to shiver, so when I arrived at the hostel the first thing I did was take a hot mostly warm shower. After the shower, I dried off and changed into dry sort of damp clothes. In spite of the dampness, I felt a million times better. I spent a couple of hours in my room, warming up and hoping that I didn’t make my cold worse.
Josh arrived later that day, and we spent some time walking around the city while we tried to find a place to have dinner.
What I’ve Done
For me, the point of spending a week in Baños was to be productive. Overall I’d say I succeeded.
- On Tuesday I launched a blog aimed at young adults to give advice on how to be an adult.
- The rest of the week, I’ve been working on a long-running coding project
- Last night I finished a screenplay called Observer. It’s 20 pages, and my intent is to make it a short film sometime later this year.
Josh and I also jumped off a bridge.
The Food
Fortunately, Baños has its share of fantastic food.
This may not look like much, but it was incredibly tasty.
Red tuna, brown rice with peppers, and an avocado salad. Absolutely delicious.
Filet Mignon, assorted (cold) vegetables, and french fries
Not just a cold
After putting up with a cough for several days, I decided to go see a doctor about the persistent wheezing. She listened to my lungs with a stethoscope and told me that I had bacterial bronchitis. I have no idea how she determined that just by listening to my lungs, but that’s medicine for you.
She prescribed some Amoxycillin and a few other things to help relieve symptoms. She told me to take it easy and not do anything physically strenuous. This was on Tuesday. On Saturday morning I went back. The antibiotics she prescribed were helping, but not very much. I was still wheezing, and still got winded easily.
She wanted to prescribe a different type of antibiotic, but first I needed an X-Ray to make sure that this hadn’t turned into pneumonia. The only problem was that the city of Baños didn’t have any x-ray machines. I had to go to the nearby town of Pelileo for that, and Pelileo was 30 minutes away. I didn’t want to risk getting ripped off by a local taxi driver, so I asked the staff at the clinic to call a taxi for me. After about 15 minutes, this guy in a truck shows up; this was my ride.
We drove to Pelileo, and traffic was backed up almost the entire way. After finally arriving, my driver couldn’t find the radiology clinic. He had to stop and ask for directions.
The waiting room was in what felt like a basement.
The waiting room. It was cold.
After about ten minuted, they called me to the back and took an x-ray. Another ten minutes passed, and I paid for the x-ray ($20) and left. The driver who brought me up there waited for me, and he drove me back to Baños.
It took more than an hour for all of this to happen. Once back in Baños, I settled with the driver (another $20, which feels like a rip-off) and went back to the clinic to show the doctor my x-ray. She was satisfied with what she saw, and gave me a prescription for a different type of antibiotic.
Now that I had a new prescription, all that was left was to rest and recover, right? Wrong. More on that next time.