Mexican Food and DAYS in the Banos...
Trip Start
Sep 15, 2008
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17
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Trip End
Jan 01, 2009
Banos,
Ecuador
Saturday, October 18, 2008
We arrived Thursday into the most touristy city we´ve been to this trip. Even though it is touristy, it is amazingly beautiful. A small Ecuadorian town at the base of a Volcano and squeezed between many other beautiful lush mountains, topped off with a waterfall on the edge of town and a cute church. In 2006 the city was evacuated for months after the Volcano roared to life.
Our first night we stopped by a recomended restaurant for some nachos, trout, and Pad Thai. On the way to dinner we were probably asked 15 times if we were going rafting tommorow - the answer was no. After a week in the jungle acting like monkeys we needed showers, laundry, and an internet connection
Arik at the Waterfall in Banos
.The next day we made it to a post office after almost 3 weeks of unsuccesful attempts at sending coffee and other gifts home. After it was all said and done, sending one box took 2 hours, 3 trips to find packing materials, get photocopies, and grab our passports. While sending the package we had our stinky Amazonian laundry done. There is something very special about clean clothes while traveling - its like Christmas comes early. A nice smelling shirt, clean socks...ahhhh.
Lunch was some more Mexican food. Arik needed a nap in the afternoon, it seems he became used to the buzz of giant bugs in the jungle. Not in the jungle anymore he didn´t sleep very well. After the schnooze we headed over to the towns highlight - one of the many hot springs. We walked over to the springs at the base of the waterfall and for $1 we were in. The hot springs are rumoured to have currative properties, despite the thick brown color...at the bath they post a sign with official measurements of minerals in the water. The sign had about 25 different things on the list, all in spanish. Due to the language difference we think it may have said the water had typhoid and dysentry, but we werent sure and enjoyed the warm water regardless.
Our sometimes right, sometimes wrong Lonely Planet recomended renting a mountain bike and heading east down hill to checkout waterfalls and the mountain scenery. Once at the rental shop we saw mountain bikes...but ....right next to them were these sweet looking dune buggies. Why peddel a bike when you rip in a dune buggy, right? The views were nice and we didn´t crash into any buses.
Besides the hot springs, Banos is famous for taffy. Shop keepers all over town are constatly pulling this stuff on sidewalks from wooden pegs nailed to the wall.
After making dinner in the hostel we took a Chiva tour to view the active Volcano at night.
In the morning we leave for Riobamba and a train ride south down ¨The Devils Nose¨.
Comments
Bikes!
You disappoint me, I was so hoping you rode the bikes, then you could stop giving me a hard time about how dangerous my mountain biking habit is! (at least, if you had fallen off, got lots of cuts and bruises, then we would have been even!)