Baños (Debs home away from home)

---

Having a great time here in Baños, Ecuador continues to amaze us. We arrived in Baños with a very different scene before us. As we headed east after heading south through the Andes we began to see the landscape change, it went from dusty and dry to green and tropical as the altitude dropped down to 1800m and continues to drop further if you pass Baños before arriving at the Amazon. The number of Eucalyptus trees and pine trees we have seen is crazy. I think the Eucalypts were introduced 150 years ago or so, but they have really taken hold and the scene outside the bus window often reminded me of being back home in Australia. I even noticed a few bottle-brush trees in the streets of Quito now that remember it.
We are really noticing how short the Ecuadorians really seem, much shorter than the Colombians and Baños is the first place we have noticed the cuy (guinea pig) roasting in the street. With their little paws and buck teeth pointing at you. It doesn´t really make my mouth water and I haven´t been able to try any yet. Besides the food in Baños has been so good that I don´t want to waste a meal!
Baños is a touristy town, for both nationals and international tourists and it has a bit of nightlife also for a small town. Its streets are grid like and pleasant and is surrounded by lush green mountains and above these is the Volcan Tungurahua (5018m) which is still active and last erupted in 2006 and also 1999 and had to be evacuated. It´s a bit of an adventure town, offering canyoning, white-water rafting, jungle trips etc etc. People in the shops make Melcocha, which is like a toffee which to make they pull from wooden pegs in the doorways of their shops. It takes nice but does leave a funny aftertaste.
We had a rare night out the first night but were frustrated by the DJ´s inability to allow a track to play longer than 30seconds before mixing something else in. The following day I walked up behind town to Mirador de La Virgen del Agua Santa up behind the town (Deb made it as far as the steps before deciding her hangover couldn´t manage it). I got some nice views of the town and headed up above the first mountains, I couldn´t see the top of the volcano because of the clouds, but ther weather was pleasant enough and I enjoyed the walk through the greenery, plenty of greenhouses around for vegetables and finished the walk at Bellavista (a white cross above the town). Collecting Deb we went for a look at the Basilica and saw some different paintings inside. They depict people being saved by the Virgen of Holy Water who is sacred in Baños and really were something different to the norm.
Our second day we hired a little buggy to take in the 18km road out of town which passes a number of waterfalls around Baños (there is plenty), the best of which was the Pailon del Diablo, which had a huge amount of water coming over (the most we have seen since Sapo falls) The buggy trip was a little scary, they were only small, not very sturdy and it wasn´t until I was in the tunnel (you only take the first one!) I was made aware that the headlights weren´t working. I couldn´t see the road only the light at the end of the tunnel a hundred metres or so ahead. Praying that a bus wasn´t going to come up behind me and thankful that it was a one way tunnel (and that I was going the right way through it!). We made it safely through, but I couldn´t get it out of my head that I knew we had to return through another tunnel on the way back. On the way back we weren´t sure if we were at the last tunnel, but a buggy ahead of us went through (I was on his tail as I saw him as my guiding light), as I couldn´t see the light at the end of the tunnel this time, to say I was nervous was an understatement. My visit to the Basilica must have alerted the Holy Virgen as miraculously the buggys lights offered a vague offering to the road only just ahead of us. Only thing that nearly went wrong was when I asked Deb to press the button for the horn and she started to push the button to cut the engine!
We also spent a lazy afternoon wandering around a small zoo outside Baños which was nice and relaxing with a good mix of animals and birds.
That night we went out with a few friends that had also been at the Secret Garden in Cotopaxi and enjoyed a good meal at Casa Hood (the Hindu Curry is delicious) and a few drinks in some bars. Deb managed to break out in to dance just as I was taking a swig of my beer and now I have a small chip on my front tooth! Needles to say the following day meant a day in bed, watching a bit of the premierleague and another visit to Casa Hood as Deb was having serious Hindu Curry issues (she didn´t have it the night earlier). The food as I said has been great, we had been to Caña Mandur other days where I had lovely Covina (sea bass) and also chicken with mushroom sauce! And the avocado here has been delicious and they´re not afraid to give you a generous helping of it in the salads.
We really are enjoying Baños and a funny little story to finish it off! Deb and I were taking a stroll and this old guy with a walking stick was heading our way to the right of me. With Deb on my left. He kind of went behind we and I heard Deb let out a yelp. It had turned out the guy had given here a whack with his cane and then pretended that nothing had happened. Then Deb told me that he had done the same thing the day before, only that time he had feigned to be asleep!! I found it highly amusing, I think Deb was a little bemused. But we always had to keep an eye out for the stealthy old man with the cane for the rest of our time in Baños. We have decided to skip Riobamba, the train that goes down the Devils nose, last time I heard, now won´t allow people on the roof. So it´s on to Cuenca as we continue down the Andes!

---