Let´s get thermal..

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After a stinky, long and sweaty bus journey we made it to Banos in South Ecuador, a town built at the foot of two volcanoes (active ones too!) but the pretty thermal town was just what was needed after roughing it in the amazon.
Saturday was possibly one of the best days of my trip yet, white water rafting down rio Pastaza! At first I was a bit dubious, having heard all of the scare stories from fellow travellers about capsizing boats and inadequate life-savers, also it didnt help that our coach only gave us a quick run through of what to do before literally throwing us in at the deep end... We started in grade 1 rapids though (7 is highest) so had plenty of time to get accustomed to the boat. I got to sit on the front of the raft as we went through a waterfall which was pretty awesome too. after a while we started harder and harder rapids until we were at grade 4 which were so fast. I can so see why that sport is addicitve, it´s such a rush and not it feels much safer than i expected. Thankfully i didnt go overboard, only to swim for a bit down one of the rapids. I would recommend white water to anyone, even the most nervous people were obsessed at the end of the day! I´m going to look out for it in Aregentina too, I think Jack would love it.
Spent the afternoon chilling in the town, saw my first roasting guinea pigs..they do look pretty gross, all claws and teeth extended. I still want to try some though, apparently they taste similar to rabbit. yum.
The locals were having some kind of religious celebration so i stopped to watch the police bands and about a hundred effigies of the Virgin Mary go past. Ecuador is an incredibly religious country, roman catholic symbolism everywhere, if you ignore the grotesque depictions of the crucifiction that they seem to adore so much most of it is actually quite attractive. Funny looking at it from a western perspective though as it all seems so kitsch. I also found a great latin American artist called Guayasamin, they call him the Picasso of south America, he is very good.
The evening was filled with a trip to the hot springs..and hot they certainly were, i was expecting warm mud baths like the ones in Rotorua, New Zealand, but not at all. The water is taken straight from the volcano and basically scalding hot. We looked like such gringos squealing whilst thelocals calmly boiled themselves. the cold baths contained water straight from the top of the volcano, from a waterfall which was freezing but a welcome relief afetr cooking like a lobster.
In the evening we went out for drinks and I bumped into Jules and my friends from Quito which was really nice, have made plans to meet up with them again in Peru.
Once again apologies for the lack of photographs, i realise without them this might all seem a bit boring!

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Comments

[Robyn Press]

Glad to hear your stories
Its a shame about the photos, but it all sounds fantastic. Jack will be there in a few days, it will be nice to have a travel companion so have fun. xxx Mum