Baños

ihana.com - big trip - diary - ecuador - july 2003

Tuesday 8 - Wednesday 9 July

Baños is the premier gringo heaven in Ecuador with lots of tourist activities on offer; rafting, hiking, bike trips, volcano climbing and other mountain and jungle related japes are displayed in the plethora of travel shops, interspersed by the ubiquitous hippy ming, internet shops and artesanias. One cool thing done here is the making of toffee, shopkeepers can de seen repeatedly whacking the pliable mess onto a hook in the wall and stretching it into a long string. For some reason they seem to do this all day long every day, could take off as a new, edible, form of exercise.

There's a nice waterfall five minutes walk from the main square with thermal baths at the base for tourists and waterfall-fed clothes washing sinks for the locals. The baths had just been emptied and cleaned when we got there, so cold showers were on the agenda instead. We got some laundry done but didn't really have much enthusiasm for wandering about the mountainsides or going rafting again. Even the street full of bars didn't hold our attention for long, too many guidebooks being read and new hiking boots on display.

Baños is situated in a picturesque valley and we enjoyed the view from the vantage point of the landy cab on the way to the capital Quito. The guidebook (we take the mickey but we still read it occasionally!) sings the praises of 'the circuit', a 200km off the beaten path jaunt to visit a few sites of natural beauty, so we bought some supplies of bread and fruit and set off towards Quilotoa.

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