Blogs from Baños, Centre, Ecuador, South America - page 6

We hope you are all well. Don't hesitate to send us a message through this site as we can pick the messages up on our email on our phone. We are in Peru for the next 20 days where the mobile service is excellent. Tuesday 29 March 2011 It was goodbye to the Upper Amazon, after a wonderful time. We will see the Napo River again, but from the Brazil side, but not until June. We caught the local bus back to Tena before catching a touring bus where Tom and I sat up the back. It was a full bus and some of our group had to stand up until the locals started to get off. We had a 5 hour trip, again seeing amazing scenery. This time we were winding our way back up ... read more

For the past several months I've been mostly in Banos, a natural paradise located 3 hrs southeast of Quito. Banos attracts many tourists, especial young adventurous types. A town of about 20,000, it's set in a valley surrounded by lush green hillsides which are dotted with waterfalls. While I was housesitting for Shana, and for a month after she returned, I stayed at her place up on a hilly road above the town itself. Now, during March I've been living in town, just a block and a half off the main church plaza. I find I do a lot more walking and really take the time to explore the town's nooks and crannies. I overhear conversations, and enjoy watching the children. Yesterday I watched three kids make a see-saw from a wood plank balanced on a ... read more

So there I am on the fringe of the great Amazon, riding in a beat up Toyota Hilux, my bloody wound wrapped in a baby's diaper, held together by a rafting strap, speeding towards the local hospital. Let's back up first. Let me tell you of the days of high adventure. (Yes, I'm listening to the Conan the Barbarian soundtrack.) Day trips to Cajas and Ingapirca and the start of Carnival had fed my desire to get out of Cuenca and adventure around the country a bit. So, after confirming a spot on a rafting trip up in Tena (which is on the edge of the Amazon and known for its quality rafting), I made the decision to figure out the long distance buses and head up to Banos and Tena for the week. Early Monday ... read more

Just outside of Banos, halfway to Pelileo lies a lush valley village called Patate. Here, Jose Lara keeps his bees, beside a lovely citrus grove and under an enormous avocado tree. Every few months he goes to check the hives and this particular Saturday he invited me along. I've always been fascinated by apiculture -- the whole concept of buzzing insects creating a sweet, edible treat seems amazing to me. This excursion was an awesome, hands-on learning experience! It seems I'm always in a hurry to get to Banos and this was the first time I'd taken the time to turn off the main highway, taking a narrow stone road dropping down to Patate. We continued on through the town and up into the hills beyond. Jose's mother-in-law farms some fields above, but the friendly woman ... read more

Somehow, in the two-minute wait for a cab outside of our hostel in Quito to head to the bus station, Chris got a nice, solid streak of diarrhea on her backpack. Presumably it was from a bird, but let us tell you, it had to be one hell of a bird. Maybe a vulture or a pterodactyl. Anyway, that's supposed to be good luck, so we rolled with it. As we made our way to Cuenca, we decided to stay in the spa town of Banos for a couple of nights of relaxation. The stories of the town's beauty have not been overstated. It's nestled in a valley, with walls of mountains rising all around. A sometimes active volcano looms in the distance, but it recently has been plugged with cooled lava, so we didn't bother ... read more

After a week on The Quilatoa Loop in the high country we have dropped down about 6000 ft. to the warmth of Banos. We spent four nights with a Quichua family in a hostal that included breakfast & dinner for everyone in a commons area. We were in a small village called Quilatoa that is famous for the Lago de Quilatoa, a collapsed volcano that the locals call bottomless, but geologist say is 250 meters deep. It is a beautiful blue green in color with steep hills around it and at an elevation of about 12,800 ft. One day we hiked all the way around the crater, and huffed and puffed our way up the steep hills. It was about a 5 1/2 hour hike that Lonely Planet said a fit person could make in 6 ... read more