Thermal baths and canyoning

Trip Start Oct 17, 2006

Trip End Mar 04, 2007

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Flag of Ecuador Banos, Ecuador
Thursday, November 2, 2006

On our drive to Banos we passed Tungurahua Volcano, which erupted back in August and is still rather active. We had a quick stop and saw lots of smoke and ash coming out of the volcano, and also the remains of a village, destroyed by the latest eruption. Due to the eruption there is lots of ash about in Banos so once again we opted out of camping and instead stayed in a hotel! We didn't however get out of camp cooking, which fortunately was much improved on Otavalo (maybe that's because my group didn't cook!).

I spent one day wandering about with Em and we saw the Church, which had lots of paintings on the wall depicting the patron saint rescuing people from fires etc, which was a little odd. We also went to the famous thermal baths, which were right opposite our hotel. They were very nice, not too hot (except for one) and didn't really smell of sulphur. I didn't brave the ice cold shower from the waterfall though!

The next day I went canyoning which involved jumping and abseiling down waterfalls and wading along a river - a very fun day even if I kept slipping off the rocks when abseiling and ended up pulling the guide at the bottom of the rope into the river! In the evening we had vodka jelly and went to Jack's Rock Cafe. I left with Debs and once we got back to the hotel we couldn't work out how to open the gate so had to squeeze through the bars!