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

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South America » Ecuador » Centre » Baños June 25th 2014

During my first few years back in Ecuador I spent 3-4 months a year at my cabana on the coast, but once I decided to sell that property I boxed up all my possessions. Each year when I go back to the states I bring down another suitcase full of stuff, and most everyone who has come to visit has also brought a bag. I left a few pre-packed carry-ons in an Atlanta friend's attic and one by one those have arrived. So, as my belongings accumulated I stored them in a big closet in Shana's guest house where I always stayed when I came to Banos. Last year I moved them down into a basement storeroom, and vowed that the next time I touched those boxes it would be to move them into my own ... read more
Bedroom Window
Big, Bright Kitchen
My Office!

South America » Ecuador » Centre » Baños May 26th 2014

The first stop on our road trip south was Banos - about 4 hours south of Quito. The bus would pass down the "Avenue of the Volcanoes" and maybe even afford a tantalising glimpse of Cotopaxi. However, in the event, even this was denied to us - the weather closed in, bringing rain and minimal visibility. The journey itself - my first on a bus for some considerable time - was uneventful and we arrived in Banos in the late afternoon. Our focus had been all Galapagos and judging by the apparent emptiness of Mariscal (Saturday night excepted) we'd decided that to we should be able to sort out accommodation on arrival in Banos. And so it proved. We ignored the scrum of touts that met the bus and walked along to the top rated hostel ... read more
Banos - About to hit the trail on our bikes
Banos - one of several means of transport across the valley
Banos - The Devil's Cauldron

South America » Ecuador » Centre » Baños April 30th 2014

Hola from the lovely little town of Banos! I have been here a couple of days and wish I had a little more time to chill out here. The streets are colourful and all around you can see lucious green hills. It took me while to find my hostel, asking different people where I needed to go and after a while of looking very lost I finally made it! I dropped my stuff off and took a walk up to GeoTours. I had heard that this was a really good company to do white water rafting with and I wanted to make sure I was going to be in safe hands! I then had a little qalk around a knew I was going to love it here. There are lots of graffiti murials over walls and ... read more
Swinging over the hills!
Macarena...a brilliant girl!
Beautiful views

South America » Ecuador » Centre » Baños March 30th 2014

Thursday 27th March (Odyssey Day 139) Leaving the Galapagos Islands was simple enough to do in theory, though we were all reluctant to end our little holiday. We had had such a great time and now it would be back to the real world. Okay, so that’s a bit of an exaggeration, the fact we are still travelling and will soon be back in Peru is certainly enough incentive to return to Quito without complaint. As we could not check in for our flight until 1130, we relaxed in the terminal to wait. I read a book for a while and when we eventually checked our luggage in, I took the opportunity to browse through the souvenir shops at the airport. Certainly the most expensive place we have visited so far, but also some of the ... read more
Quito
Quito
Travel Day

South America » Ecuador » Centre » Baños March 21st 2014

Day 32 Today most of the group set out on a 3 hour one-way walk along a number of trails up Mt. Tungurahua to reach a viewpoint of the volcano from the side about 2/3rd of the way up which is the closest point that tourists are allowed. Surprisingly the volcano has been quite active since 1998 and ash was spewing out as recently as early Feb this year. The trail was very steep rising 850 mtrs over a few km's. The weather was cool to start with with some mist around the peak but we had high hopes the mist would clear through the morning but instead the mist intensified so that when we reached our peak Tungurahua was a complete white-out. However, everyone enjoyed the workout & saw it as good prep for our ... read more
Tree House at the end of walk

South America » Ecuador » Centre » Baños March 20th 2014

Today has been a fantastic day. Bit of a sleep-in with a 9 am start for various activities. Nearly all of us opted for a 16 km one-way bike ride down the hill initially following the same road in on arrival yesterday. While the road passes through 6 tunnels up to 1 km long we only had to negotiate 1 as external bike paths have been built around the others. We paid for better bikes although they were pretty average & mine had a flat front tyre but still had good fun and dressed in our wet weather gear for the inevitable intermittent rain. The ride follows the Rio Verde (Green River) valley with photo stops at 6 spectacular waterfalls along the way. Each waterfall had some variation of zip line, bridge free fall or gondola ... read more
Devils  Cauldron
Devils  Cauldron
Devils  Cauldron

South America » Ecuador » Centre » Baños March 19th 2014

The jungle experience was great but it was time to find some dryer weather & get a hot shower & laundry done. We reversed our arrival movements with a canoe back to the port on the other side of the Napo River, loaded our luggage onto 4wd's back to Tena to the bus station for a 3 hr local bus ride to Banos after a brief tour of the local market. The bus ride ride was a climb back into the central highlands but not to any significant height but unfortunately not away from intermittent rain. The latter part of the ride was into some very lush mountainside with numerous waterfalls into massive gullies. Arrived early afternoon & lunched at a very arty/spiritual/vegetarian cafe (with a very Byron bay vibe) & then wandered around to get ... read more
Colourful dress of Indigenous Women
Shy Locals

South America » Ecuador » Centre » Baños October 27th 2013

Our next destination, Baños, was supposed to be one of the most beautiful towns in Ecuador. It is also on the slope of Tungurahua, an active volcano, which currently is having small eruptions several times a day. As we had never visited a volcano we googled for hours on volcano safety, on how the current eruption cycle was progressing and generally on whether or not we would put ourselves in danger by going to Baños. Our hosts in Guayaquil thought we were overreacting, "The volcano has been erupting for 14 years and the town is still there", and as everything we found on the net told the same story we decided to take our chances with the wrath of Tungurahua. When we got to Baños it was like arriving to another country after our days in ... read more
Baños - town view
Baños - Puppies guarding
Baños - A more friendly guard

South America » Ecuador » Centre » Baños August 26th 2013

We arrived into Quito, our first stop in Ecuador. The capital city has the perfect balance of the beautiful old town; with its narrow cobbled streets and imposing churches and the modern and efficient new town; with its city bicycle scheme and grand Hilton hotel. Not to mention a huge park inbetween the two areas thats possibly the best free playground Ive ever seen. We spent three nights in Quito, wandering around the town enjoying the sunny but cool climate and the luxury hostel that $25 can buy. Although they use the US dollar, Ecuador is still extremely affordable with cheap food and cheap petrol, meaning cheap buses (You pay around $7 for a 7 hour night bus). We also took the opportunity to embrace the Latin American spirit and put our English rhythm to the ... read more
cycling in the rain
Banos
Banos

South America » Ecuador » Centre » Baños July 1st 2013

A la quête d'une autre auberge, nous passons à côté de 3 locaux en train de fermer leur resto. C'est alors qu'ils nous font monter à l'arrière de leur pick up et nous emmènent à un hotel encore ouvert. Le lendemain matin, nous regagnons avec tout notre équipement l'auberge réservée, située en haut d'une bonne montée. A Baños , ça grimpe sec ! 1er repas local au Mercado, sorte de marché couvert, ouvert tous les jours. Pour se remettre de toutes les galères de la veille, direction les eaux thermales où nous passons l'aprem : 3 bains au milieu d'un cadre sublime, entre les montagnes, au pied d'une cascade. Le soir, c'est avec déception que nous constatons l'ambiance "trop calme" des bars de Baños. Au réveil, nous partons dans la matinée pour une randonnée de 5-6h. ... read more
Dans les rues de Baños
Dans les rues de Baños
Parc de Baños




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