Buenos tardes...amigos. I am now in the town of Baños, a small tourist town of about 12,000 (I should cite the lonely planet here) south east of Quito. It´s a lovely little town, with an extraordinarily different vibe than Quito. In the tourist district of Quito it was common to see fellow gringos, but less common in other parts of the city. In comparison Baños is gringolandia. According to some locals it has been for...ever. It´s easy to see why. It´s tucked between mountains, a river runs through the northern part of the city (I can´t remember the name now), it´s [View Full Entry]

---

---

banos is an amazing town!! there are so many adventure sports guides, and we are with possibly the craziest- Jose and his two dogs!! yesterday first thing we went for a bridge swing, which involved a full body harness, three ropes, diving off a bridge to swing back and forth below it!! it was brilliant, and incredibly scary free-falling waiting for the rope to kick in!!! only five of us did it and my insides were like jelly but it was a great feeling after- adrenaline high!! then we went canyoning which was just fantastic. We swam in cool clear waters, [View Full Entry]

---

---

hey all!!! don´t have a lot of time to recount my adventures so here is a brief overview.... travelled to Misahualli in jungle sunday, hiked through jungle monday but it wasnt near as humid as in peru!! our guide made us eat lots of different plants and inspect every spider on way past. we stayed in jungle lodge with lots of hammocks, went to visit Indian family who showed us how they hunt for food, rained all night deterring the insects from invading our room. Monday we went for another hike eating more plants and visiting the local school where we [View Full Entry]

---

---

Banos - where taffy and karaoke don´t mixWe experienced a mini bus crash on the way to the little town of Banos, and proceeded to watch the bus driver and the butch female ute driver battle it out to determine who was at fault. Whilst it may have been perceived as a traumatising experience for some, the local passengers on the bus, opportunistic as always, saw it as a chance to take a pee break and local hawks bombarded the bus to try and flog us bread rolls for lunch. as per usual, jean slept through the entire thing. Banos is [View Full Entry]

---

---

What a gorgous place Baños is - so pretty here and lots of outdoor activites to get stuck into. Baños gets it name as its next to Volcan Tungurahua (5016m elevation) which results in some lovely hot springs around. The volano is pretty active still, with a significant eruption in Feb 08, however nothing major to report when we were here. We stayed in a wooden cabin type place, cozy with an open fireplace in our room. Managing to avoid a lot of serious bugs so far except for a MASSIVE locust in our room which Magnus bravely defeated. Baños (elevation [View Full Entry]

---

---

Bunny, Rachel´s mom got here this week so for the weekend we took a trip south to the small adventure town of Baños. The town is known for its hot springs and adventure activities. It took about four hours to get there and we didn´t arrive until after it was dark so the first night we pretty much just checked into our hotel and went out for dinner at a cute local restaurant and then explored the town a bit. While we were walking a dog started humping Bun Bun´s leg and wouldn´t leave her alone, and some of the locals [View Full Entry]

---

---

This past week has been a whirlwind of activities. My mom arrived on Tuesday night and we had a blast going out in Quito all week. This week at the day care center we did a number of fun-filled activities, including pasta necklace making and play dough making. On Thursday afternoon we left for our weekend getaway to Banos. This weekend´s activities in Banos rivaled the day I jumped out of a plane. We arrived on Thursday evening and checked into our hostel, ¨Verdes y Blancos¨ and went out to dinner at a restaurant that epitomizes what we have been calling [View Full Entry]

---

---

The Rough guide rated Banos highly and although I wanted to spend a good few days there a day trip from Quito worked out really well and we had a great time in the town and seeing all the waterfalls. Baños lies four hours from the capital city of Quito; it is a peaceful little city on the slopes of Tungurahua Volcano at 1,820 meters above sea level. This Andean village is surrounded by snowcapped volcanoes and has wonderful thermal springs. The impressive snowcapped volcanic peaks that surround Baños are four in number: TUNGURAHUA (5,061m), CHIMBORAZO (6,310m), ALTAR (5,320m) and CARIHUAI [View Full Entry]

---

---

Buenos dias! Na ons Machu Picchu avontuur weer een nieuwe update! Vanuit Cusco hebben we de nachtbus naar Arequipa genomen. De busmaatschappij had ons daarbij nog eens redelijk opgelicht, dus ons vehikel zag er enigszins teleurstellend uit voor de prijs.. Een Peruaanse student wist het goed te maken door te vertellen dat hij de helft van onze prijs had betaald.. Ach, we waren toch al niet zo enthousiast over die Peruanen. Mooi land hoor, maar niet het vriendelijkste volkje. Je wordt constant belaagd en opgelicht waar je bij staat. Maar goed de chauffeur zette er flink de vaart in, en dat [View Full Entry]

---

---

Day 38: Wednesday 6th August - Bathing in Banos Still feeling tired after the exertions of Cotopaxi the day before so its going to be an easy day for me. Start by returning to the hot baths at the end of the street for another soak to ease my weary bones. Banos is in a beautiful setting, in a valley surrounded by hills and there are numerous adventure sports on offer......cycling to the jungle, quad-biking, white water rafting, horse riding etc. There wil be time for all of these at some point on my travels but at the moment none appeal.....I [View Full Entry]

---

---