Banos

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It’s 5 am and still dark. As usual I have managed to procrastinate sufficiently on writing this blog that it’s the day before we leave Quito and its got to be now or never. Never mind, as work colleagues will attest, dawn has always been a good time for me to be creative and /or productive dahlings, ever since getting up at this time to write overdue English essays on what I did over the summer or copy pictures from the Encyclopaedia Britannica for geography projects due at 9am that day. So here goes…

Leaving Vilcabamba was tough and we had several crap days afterward struggling with travelling, buses, crummy hotels, bad weather and not enough people to talk to. But we withstood the storm (literally) and got to Baños - a quaint little town who’s claim to fame is that Volcan Tungurahua hangs over it, and is erupting. Now. The whole town is on yellow alert and there are designated evacuation routes signposted all over. A few years back the whole town was evacuated and everyone had to find somewhere else to live for about two years!

So the gringos come here to walk around the area, sample the volcanic waters in spas, and live dangerously under the shadow of the eruption. Or so we thought. Unfortunately the volcano is mainly ‘erupting’ smoke, nothing more dangerous. But it makes a good tale and a great view.

Ecuador has caught onto the traveller/tourist (there is a distinction you know - and we are the former!), and on arriving at our pre-booked hostal we are shown to a room with two floors and no less than five beds of various sizes. This may have seemed okay - plenty of room, but we then appeared to be charged for the use of all five beds (typically Ecuadorean I might add). I would probably have stayed anyway for a peaceful life but Claire, good as ever, turned us around and across the road to a brand new place which has clearly never graced the pages of the Lonely Planet (which for Ecuador is completely out of date) and so therefore no-one goes to and is consequently cheap as chips and not overrun with gringos.

After a while settling in we realise some action is needed - too much quiet life drives us mad. Walking around the town we had been almost run over several hundred times (I never exaggerate)by ´Quads´- those motorcycles with four wheels favoured by farmers in the UK (usually with a sheepdog hanging off the back) but used here to transport tourists of all sizes and abilities around the town and local environs.

Now, given that; one of the ´things´ to do in Baños is to climb the trails to the viewpoint to see Tungurahua actually erupting; and the fact that we are sometimes a tad lazy about climbing hills - being intelligent souls we put two and two together and got quad! (groan). So we teamed up with a new friend Karen to hire out some machines for the morning and off we went.

Karen we had met in a bar the night before. A Londoner who has lived in San Francisco for 13 (?) years, she came out with this barmy tale of having just finished a Shamanic Healing Ritual in the Amazon jungle in which you had to drink boiled vine juice and then vomit a lot before chanting all night while seeing weird visions that would tell you how to sort all your life’s problems to date out quite nicely…O…K…clearly this one has been in San Fran toooo long.

Despite this Karen seemed like a nice girl - and was a Londoner after all so instantly acceptable as a travelling companion.

Claire didn’t want to drive and two on a quad seemed a painful proposition, so we went for a go-kart like thing instead. Karen had never ridden anything like this but got a practice ride around the block to see if the could dodge the pedestrians ok before committing, while I finalised the deal with the proprietor. We find that in situations of intense negotiation with the Latin Americans, inserting the phrase ´eso es el precio para los gringos´ with an indignant face and a wry smile (not an easy combination to achieve I might add) helps the process enormously. They can obviously tell that I am a traveller not a tourist (and therefore potentially broke) which coupled with advanced linguistic skills, means I deserve a lower price - sorted!

Of course getting to the off road trails for which the quads are designed involves getting out of town first, and while the local blithely wave us off in the direction of the mountains, we had to negotiate some major roads to get there. We edged around the back streets toi the main road then timidly out onto it, instantly almost flattened by speeding trucks and buses passing so close I could smell the bus conductors armpits as they hang out the door touting for passengers. I never thought that my first experience of driving in S.Am. would be in the metaphorical equivalent of a pedal car whilst being hunted down by lunatic bus drivers enormous coaches!

Once off the main road it got more fun, and couple of hours later we reached the viewpoint, having had to negotiate rough terrain, deep mud, mad farm dogs, and waiting while Karen caught up (the kart was a better bet that a quad on certain sections, and I think she may have occasionally forgotten where the accelerator was). And our reward for this effort? - clouds, covering the entire erupting volcano. No view. Hmppff. Worth it for the fun of the bikes though.

A days rest to recover from the bikes and soothe our aching bodies, and we decided to soend the day on the buses going to see volcan Chimborazo. This involved backtracking a bit, but by getting five different buses over the course of a long day, we could make our way right around the mountain. Going back up to altitude meant more Altiplano-like weather - i.e. clear blue skies, and the views of the volcano were fantastic.

Karen elected not to come with us (clearly overwrought with excitement still from the quads), but was still in Baños so we hooked up for dinner, beers etc. I don’t know what it was (well I suppose it could have been the wine, beer and rum), but the more we tlked about her shamanic experiences in the jungle the more ´we´ (royal version) became interested. Ummm…

Our erstwhile Londoner left for the Galapagos the next day, and we moped around town before deciding to go for a walk to the hot spring baths (which are cold and we didn’t go into) and the zoo (which is a hideous abuse of animal rights and we did go into).

Everywhere you go in the Andes they talk about their endangered species and particularly the Spectacled Bear - all the wildlife trips promote the chance of seeing one. We have never seen one on any of our trips and its no bloody wonder…they have not one but three couped up in an enclosure the size of half a football pitch. All three are completely mad, wandering back and forth over the same spot again and again, twitching or shaking their heads. There was also a jaguar, another very rare animal, this one in a cage no bigger than a squash court. Tragic, and left us with a bitter taste.

Next morning we decided to take a vapour bath, something Claire had spotted while walking around town and again ´seemed like a good idea´, the list of alledged benefits being longer than my arm. Turned out this actually consisted of being put into a small wooden box with only your head sticking out, and being steamed like a vegetable for five minutes, then throwing very cold (but full on healthy minerals) water over you. This was repeated several times before the next stage of the treatment, putting you bum in a basin of the same very cold water and massaging your intestines for five minutes, an interesting experience but not recommended for those with a dicky tummy from too much foreign food! Back for a few more steam/cold cycles, and lastly you are hosed down with a high pressure jet, supposedly to massage the rest of your body but really so the guy can get a kick out of watching you squirm with pain from the needle jet. But I have to say I felt refreshed afterward and ready for the day - and proved it by going straight to the bar!

That was our time in Baños up, as we prepared to leave for ythe coast and a bout of whale watching we bumped into Robert, an American guy we had met in Vilcabamba who now teaches in Trindad - blimey and I though I had it easy! Hold on, I have an idea…

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Photos

Overview of Banos
...and a rubbish bin ?!

Rough riders!
Us with Karen

Volcano Tungurahua
The smoke is steam from the erupting volcano. This place is on constant òrange´ from the threat of the volcano.

The mighty Chimborazo
6300m, pretty tall for a volcano, but more impressive as its on its own out there.

New friend
Claire forgets her glasses before meeting up with Simon for a photo-shoot