Blogs from Baños, Centre, Ecuador, South America - page 8

We took a bus from Mancora in Peru to Cuenca which turned out to be a lot longer than we were told. The bus was over an hour late which meant that we were late crossing the border into Ecuador and missed the connecting bus. The border crossing turned into a bit of a farce. We got stamped out of Peru no problem and then got taken by bus over the border into Ecuador where we were to change to connect with a bus going to Cuenca. Before being literally kicked off the bus with our bags dumped at our feet we both realised that although we were now in Ecuador, we hadn't gone through immigration and so had not been stamped into the country. This was also noted by the woman at the bus stop ... read more

Moc se nam v Banos libi a tak se rozhodujeme zustat jeste 2 dny a na dnesek mame naplanovany vylet na kolech - jo, zadek bude bolet, vzdyt jsme na kolech jiste 3 roky nesedeli. Vydavame se cestou do Puya, ale ani nedoufame, ze dojedeme az tam. A taky, ze ano. Okolni priroda a scenerie jsou uchvatne a my zastavujeme temer kazdych 5 minut. Po ceste se to jen hemzi kaskadami a vodopady i tunely, kde je nutne davat bacha, stejne jako na silnicich - nekdy tu jezdi jako blazni a dodrzovani rychlosti nepatri k prednostem ekvadorskych ridicu. Vrcholem dnesniho dne pro mne - a i pro Kacku - muj heroicky vykon pri sjezdu na kovovem lane asi 800 metru kanonem reky stylem a la Superman :- Kaccinym top momentem byl nejvetsi z mistnich vodopadu El ... read more

We are loving Banos. We woke the other day to the sound of water. I thought it was rain, Dom thought it was the spa below, we were both wrong, it turned out to be the waterfall behind our hostel. Banos is famous for its warm mineral baths, so we decided to give them a go. The nearest and most famous baths are just below the waterfall behind our hotel. It is basically like an outdoor swimming pool except the waters are heated from the nearby volcano and contain assorted minerals which are alleged to have special healing properties. There were 3 baths at the place we visited, one was heated at 44 degrees celcius....and was too hot for us. The middle pool which was the largest was heated at 37 degrees celcius and was clearly ... read more

Banos nas uchvatilo svoji pohodovou atmosferou. je tu skvele pocasi, bezpecno - nebojite se po 8 vecer jit ven a vsichni maji spoustu casu. Zatim zdaleko nejpohodovejsi mesto v Ekvadoru - tleskame Banos!!! Dneska jsme s rozhodli prochodit okolni kopce a cesty. Ve srovnani s predchozimi vylety to bylo pohodove a snadne. Ta nadmorska vyska dela fakt hodne. Videli jsme zdejsi aktivni sopku Tungurahua, tedy moc aktivni neni, zatim jen drima. Dal mramorovou obri sochu Panny Marie s jeziskem, kterou si mistni postavili vysoko nad mestem jako ochranu pred sopkou. Vubec je tu silny kult Panny Marie a vira v jeji moc, ktery byla jiz nekolikrat potvrzena v nekolika mistnich zazracich, ktere jsou zobrazeny ve zdejsim kostele. Zastavili jsme se i na mistnim hrbitove - ja vim, muze se to zdat morbdnim, ale my zkratka nemohli ... read more

The house has taken on a different vibe. When I arrived we were 10: a handful of British kids, one other American and an older Australian couple. At the house now there are only 5 of us (all Americans...we are infiltrating!)...but before everyone left, we took one little trip to nearby Baños where we also met the other teaching coordinator, Rachel. Baños was a nice break with good food, an active nightlife, hot volcanic baths and hiking. Only a few of us went to the thermal baths, where you soak in jacuzzi temperature pools and then switch to icy cold waters for an exhilerating feeling. Jeremy and I taught an Ecuadorian family the joys of chicken fighting and we dominated the game, naturally. The father was pretty hysterical and continually would count to 3 in English ... read more

Sunday, August 13....This morning we left the peace and quiet of the Ecuadorian rainforest and travelled about 150 km south-west to Banos. The bus ride took more than three hours as we twisted and turned through the Andes. The scenery is incredible! We have now arrived in what appears to be the party capital of Ecuador. Our hotel room is above a night club and there is a fire juggler in the street lighting up our room - may not get much sleep tonight. This weekend is an Ecuadorian holiday so the streets are filled with both locals and tourists and the hotels all have “no vacancy” signs posted. Thankfully our wonderful host at the lodge booked us a room in advance, though the place looked nicer on the internet. The weather is cold and ... read more