Baños

Tuesday 8th March 2011
Still feeling slightly wobbly after 8 days on a boat, we left early to get a bus to Banos, pretty much in the centre of Ecuador. It was another ridiculously cheap journey, $3.50 each for 3.5 hours. It was pretty uneventful apart from the bucket of water thrown through the open door, soaking a poor kid sitting on the floor. It seemed a bit strange but all became clear when we hit Banos.

This was the last day of carnival. In Banos that means you have free reign to throw water over whoever you please. Emma was not amused as she has somehow picked up a cold and therefore a sense of humour bypass. James was amused and avoided getting wet. One old man on a roof looked particularly sinister while throwing water bombs at us.

Baños from the Virgen.

Our hosts at our hostel (hostel Princesa Maria) were lovely and provided a comprehensive tourist information service on arrival, which we immediately acted on. To ease our way into a longer walk the next day, we set off on an hour walk up 600+ steps to the viewing point at the statue of the Virgin. The actual statue is pretty depressing up close, with lots of graffiti, but the views are wonderful. For context, Banos is a small town in the shadow of the extremely active volcano Tungurahua and the river Pastaza. It's at 1800m and is surrounded on all sides by mountains.

Feeling pretty leggy after our ascent, we took advantage of one of the hot baths after which the town is named. Basically you get to boil yourself in volcanically heated water and then quickly move along to the cold bath. Pretty bracing stuff at both ends. We got some appreciation of what sportspeople go through when they take an ice bath. The baths are definitely something that would be good to have close to home.
Refreshed and a little lightheaded from the heat and altitude, we grabbed some dinner and settled in for an early night.

Wednesday 9th March 2011
With our trek in Patagonia looming, we decided to get some practice in by walking up to the volcano mirador, a 5 hour round trip and an ascent of around 600m. Luckily for us, it was a cloudy day but doing this walk at altitude and after a week on a boat was tough. The signs didn't help us. Often we had to guess the direction and certainly the distance markers just lied. We eventually got to the top and rewarded ourselves with a drink at a local cafe. If anything the descent was more treacherous, with slips possible at any moment on the dusty path. This was not an easy walk.  There seems to be a project to improve some of the paths and this is much needed in our view. Hopefully we'll be able to get further training walks in around Cuenca. We need them!

Back in town we treated ourselves to a fresh juice in the market and headed to the shop to buy dinner. We've been cooking when we can, partly to save cash and partly to be healthier. Our standard meal is pasta in tomato sauce, with tuna and random veg. This was our best yet and we suspect the addition of a chilli hunted out at the market may have helped.

Thursday 10th March 2011

Babaco.

Over breakfast we discovered a new exotic fruit from Ecuador, babaco. It's an ideal breakfast juice, very refreshing with a hint of lemon. We're told by our hosts it's even nicer as jam. Not sure we'll get it in the UK.
If we're honest, we decided to have a pretty lazy day but we tried to be productive at the same time. Many cycle the 20km to the local waterfalls, but we decided to bus it. The bus experience was like an old friend. It seems that if you are only taking a local fare, it's ok to take you off the bus and make you wait for the next one.

Which one is the 8th Wonder?

We quickly got to a small town 'Rio Verde', where the self proclaimed 8th wonder of the world resides. This is 'El Pailon del Diablo' or the Devils Cauldron. We're not sure it's a wonder, but it is still very impressive. This is not a waterfall you jump down. Death would be the only outcome. Take note all those film stars that seem to survive waterfall jumps.



Another vertigo test for Emma.

The afternoon was mainly taken up with planning and admin. If there are specific things you want to do (e.g. the W trek in Patagonia) they need planning and you can't just turn up (sorry Al). What we realised whilst planning is that the processes and procedures to confirm everything are far from straightforward, often needing a telephone call to confirm (Emma's language skills have proved priceless, James listens and tries to understand). After a couple of hours we have a plan for the next two weeks and the vital accommodation booked. We can now get back to enjoying the trip, starting with the Devils Nose Train on Saturday. Interesting fact: due to the number of volcanic eruptions, every street has an arrow telling you which in direction to run in a disaster. We hope we won't have to use them.

Note:  A couple of you have been concerned for our wellbeing following the evacuation of some costal areas in South America. Thanks for your messages. We were blissfully unaware of any problems, especially as we're in land, 2500m up.  Our biggest threat are the Volcanos that surround us. Thankfully they all seem to be sleeping right now.