Banos

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Sunday we headed to Banos, a sleepy mountain town, and the jumping off point to a jungle tour.

Had a bit of a misadventure getting here-the main bus station was closed for repairs, so we had to take two extra buses to get to another one! Were helped by a pint size lady (barely up to my shoulder in 3inch heel), who, when thanked, merely shrugged and said 'but we have to help each other, or where would we be?' Nice old fashioned manners down here.

The final bus took about three hours, complete with wih snack vendours hoppin on and off, a guy tryin to sell a herbal supplement that seemed capable of curing everything from cancer to stress and bladder problems. In-bus entertainment started with music ranging from spanish pop to what can only be described as rousing Ecuadorian folk/sea shanties, and continued on to a very dramatic, inspirational Bollywood movie about an austistic Muslim, dubbed into Spanish, with English subtitles, I kid you not.

Once in Banos, we settled into our hostel (Plantas y Blanchos, meaning plants and White). Comfortable, with good breakfast.

Then we went around to find ourselves a jungle tour. We settled on four days in the Cuyabeno Reserve, which is very remote (we leave tonight on an over ight bus for ten hours) but very beautiful primary forest in the Amazon, with pink river dolphins, among other things) $50 a day, per person, meals and basic accomodation included.)



By that time, it was dinner time, and we ate at Samurai Sushi, owned by one of Mum's expat friends from China. Good food, and where else are you going to get sushi wrapped in thin slices of fried plantains? We chatted until fairly late, then I wanted to head up to the Volcano lookout point (Banos is 10 km away from an active volcano). My cousin was tired, so I went without him. Sadly, there was no lava that night, but had fun anyway. Turns out that, since everything is closed on Sunday nights, all the teenagers go up to the outlook spot to have fun.

The bus was decked out in disco lights, and blaring a combination of of spanish and english pop music. Made a few friends dancing and singing along, and once we got up there and no lava was visible, the karaoke machine was pulled out. I joined in on the choruses, figuring that even if I can't sing well, it might help my pronunciation of the Spanish words? It was fun anyway, and got back pretty late. Met some ladies from Boston, and one of them may join us on our jungle tour.

Today we headed up to the local zoo full of indigenous fauna. Kevin took a detour to ty out the zipline, but I was skeptical of the safety equipment, and went on to the zoo, where he joined me later.

$2 admission, but a surprisingly great zoo, built into the hilltop. All native animals, with good sized exhibits, most of which had greenery, pools, tree branches, swings, etc. depending on the animals. All of them looked pretty healthy. Lots of monkeys... One of the coolest moments came when a wild squirrel monkey came over to visit the captive ones! I shot a few photos, and he tried to grab my camera, then leaped on top of it, before jumping of into the trees. There was also a wild Andean condor circling lazily over the captive condor exhibit, and a very tame tapir wandering the grounds.

The very best moment was when the monkeys in another cage came runni over to say hello, and one of them reached out and grabbed my finger through the wires in a firm grip, holding on tightly before letting go. He repeated this a few times before going back to chasing his friend around the cage. In yet another cage, a spider monkey stuck in prehensile tail out the wires and wrapped it around my wrist. VERY cool. Also saw ocelot, jaguar, puma, an Ecuadorian raccoon, bears, lots of parrots, and one critter that looked like a spotted guinea pig the size of a house cat!

Got to go, it's nearly time to go get on our overnight bus to the rainforest. After ten hours on a bus, it's another two hours by canoe to get into the reserve! We'll get back to Quito late on Friday, so next update probably won't be until saturday... Not much wifi in the Amazon!

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