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The journey to relaxation took me 4 hours and two bus rides, but at around noon on Friday I finally arrived in Banos. As the city´s name suggests it is known for its thermal baths, which is the main reason I came here. The city is pretty much as touristy as they come, but sometimes it´s nice to have travel made easy.
When I got in to Banos I dropped my things off and went to lunch, where I ate a burrito, and met some American girls who were volunteering/travelling through Ecuador. After this I was off to the baths, which are essentially cold/warm pools that comes from hydrothermal springs in the area. The experience was relaxing except for the fact that I met an Ecuadorean, who had done an exchange in Quebec, who was intent on asking me questions about everything and anything. I must admit I was quite content to end my day reading my book and unwinding at a cafe while having a nice Spaghetti supper and a cold beer.
On Saturday, I left Banos in the morning and took a 6 hour bus ride to Cuenca, Ecuador´s 3rd largest city. Although, bus journeys can be
annoying, the scenery of Ecuador makes it well worth it, as there are so many shades of green amongst the mountains, it feels like you can stare at them forever. When I finally arrived in Cuenca I ended up meeting a girl who was from Quito, who was also going into centertown, so we taxied in together. It turns out she was working at the Cafecito, a popular hostel, so I decided to stay there. They only had one room left, so we shared it and decided that we would go out and explore the nightlife of the city as it was Saturday night. We ended up going to a Salsa bar, which was lots of fun; I think I am less ashamed of my poor salsa skills in foreign countries😊. After leaving this bar, we went to another one that was playing Regaetton, and I got to try a local drink called Canelazo – a brew of cinnamon and naranjilla, served hot, with a shot of aguardiente poured into it. It was a fun night out, but getting up the next day to take the bus to Ingapirca was really hard!
The journey to Ingapirca (The largest known
Incan archeological site in Ecuador) took about 2 hours, but flew by, as I met another girl from Quito on the way. We ended up having a great conversation about Ecuador´s politics and development, as well as Socialism and much more. Unfortunately, when we arrived at Ingapirca, it was raining. However, the guided tour of the site was really educational. The site was first inhabited by the Cañari indigenous people, before they were conquered by the Incas, so there are visable differences on site between the two civilizations. For instance the Inca´s worked the stone more in their buildings and worshipped the sun, while the Cañari worshipped the moon. There were also interesting rock calenders on site and ruins that illustrated how the Incas knew when it was the solstice and equinox. Apart from learning about history, I was lucky that Sunday was the day that the harvest was being celebrated, so groups had come from around Ecuador to perform folk dances. I was happy to look on at the colourful and well choreographed dances before getting on the bus back to Cuenca.
When I got back to Cuenca I also realized that it was Corpus Christi, so there
were also celebrations in Cuenca for this event, such as food in the streets and fireworks at night. However, after eating some street meat, I was really tired so I headed to bed. I figured I was going to need as much energy as possible for my next four leg-19 hour journey the following day....
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