The land of taffy (and tourists)
Trip Start
Dec 30, 2007
1
45
50
Trip End
Jun 22, 2008
Banos,
Ecuador
Saturday, June 7, 2008
It is always hard to know whether you are jaded, unreasonable, or a victim of a hoax. Banos is a major tourist pit for locals and gringos. It is supposedly beautiful and comes with hot pools and much-recommended hiking.
It is an ordinary looking town surrounded by green hills; pretty enough, but nothing to get excited over. It has a volcano, but low cloud dissuaded us from taking tours to see it (although every agent we talked to assured us that it would clear up; it never did).
The hiking was a non-event, although I am sure that there must be some good ones. The path we were directed to was a muddy slide that went straight up the hill. It could be climbed by hanging on to clumps of grass and trusting to luck, but after gaining a respectable height we gave it away
This is where some of the taffy went
. There must be better tracks about.The hot pools are loved to death. We went on the Saturday night and left without getting wet. Nancy (sent ahead to inspect) said that the pool was too full for her, and something must be very bad if it discourages her from a hot pool. Absurdly, the pools open at 4am, but we got there the next morning at 6.30. They were still pretty full, but there was room to sit down and breath. I find it hard to understand how the presence of some hot water can turn an unremarkable town into a tourist magnet, especially when you have to go to such lengths to get a space.
On the plus side, the taffy was chewy and tasty, and the ice cream excellent. In fact, watching the taffy being made may be the highlight. Every second shop seems to make it, and I don't know where it all goes - tourists can't eat it all, and there doesn't seem to be any for sale anywhere outside Banos. Each shop has a hook on a column near the entrance and they loop great ropes of taffy over this and stretch it, then loop it again and repeat, and repeat ... It looks like hard work, and it never ends. Leaving the puzzle, where does the Banos taffy go?
