Day 79 - Banos, Ecuador

Time to move on from Quito for a few days and head south to a lovely place in the mountains called Banos.  We have a four hour bus journey today with the bus leaving from the southern bus terminal at 9.40am. Before we set off for breakfast we see the Ecuadorian news with the reporting standing in front of an erupting volcano with Banos scrolling across the bottom. A little concerning as this is where we are heading. Apparently on Saturday (two days ago) there was a huge explosion as the Tungurahua volcano started to erupt. We were thinking it might just be one of those small things where they let off a bit of smoke and all is well again but this is actually a proper eruption, similar in size to the last major one in 1999 when quite a few people died. The plume of smoke and ash reached 40k ft, caused parts of the town (not Banos) to be evacuated, flights suspended (not another damn ash cloud!!!) and spurted lava down the side towards the river. We decide to head there anyway - I am sure they'd turn us away or close the road if there were any issues. 

Anyway, we finally get to the bus station. It takes over an hour to get a relatively short distance due to Monday morning traffic but we are soon on the road and settling down to the film Columbiana in Spanish which is surprisingly easy to follow.  Whilst waiting for the bus we saw this lady who holds the secret to a trim waist for all you ladies out there - if you want it bad enough just use a bit of cheese wire for a belt and pull really hard. Preferably with two men to really really get it tight. 

On the way we yet again have a ridiculous amount of really annoying people jumping on the bus to flog rubbish. It's like a theatre performance of only fools and horses. 

As we reach Banos we can see the huge plume in the sky. It looks amazing. The volcano has been rumbling away and having bursts of eruption since Saturday now. 

Their equivalent of the Hollywood sign. 

We arrive in town and get a taxi to our hotel. What a find this place is. It is a series of gorgeous wooden huts in the middle of nowhere in the mountains. We have a whole little house to ourselves as our room. It's called Chamanapamba which is a hell of a mouthful. 

http://www.chamanapamba.com

 

Gorgeous balcony oveooking the valley, river and a big waterfall. 

Exploring upstairs where there are two beds for children. If you were a kid (or a 33 year old man) you would love this place. Wonder if Nat will let me sleep up there tonight? ;-)

There is a lovely restaurant here named after the lovely and very helpful German owner Regine. We spend the next few hours having a few beers in the sunshine on the balcony overlooking the valley. Sheer bliss. 

We are fascinated and mesmerised by the volcano. It is so active. It sounds like there is a huge thunder storm as rumbles and roars in the background and eruptions continue with new bits of ash and smoke being kicked out into the air.  From this exact view on Saturday Regine said they could see fire and molten lava spurring out into the air and they show us some awesome pictures of it taken by one of their guests who is a professional photographer. I got the link to the pics she took (phototravel online) and have added them below to show what an amazing view they got from this exact spot. 

My pic...

The view from the same place on Saturday. 

What phenomenal pics. It is so exciting. Never thought we'd experience this. They reckon it is getting worse as well so we might get to see some real lava and fire action! I really hope we do. 

A beautiful pink sunset tonight due to all the ash particles in the air. 

That evening we go and book our canyoning adventure for tomorrow and I manage to persuade Nat that a morning of white water rafting will also be great too. Once tomorrow is sorted we go for dinner in a place called Casa Hood. Great place for getting your fajita juice dropped in your lap by the waitress. After that excitement and lots of tables getting instruments out and singing traditional Ecuadorian songs (must be a thing they do here) we head back to the sticks to bed. 

Day 78 - Quito, Ecuador

The plan for today is to head to Termas de Papallacta, which is home to Ecuador's most luxurious and scenic thermal baths. In total there are over 25 blue lagoons each with varying degrees of temperature. 

Our first challenge is getting there on public transport as it is 70km from Quito, high up in the mountains. After a fair amount of research and misdirection from various people trying to be helpful we manage to get there (for reference we got a taxi for $9 to Cumbaya super maxi bus stop then got on a bus headed for Tena from there). It was a fair amount of waiting around for the bus as they are not that frequent. The people are really helpful though and we had an army of locals run to point out the right bus when it finally arrived. 

The buses are lovely in Ecuador. All good quality, cheap and comfortable and have their usual share of salesmen jumping on and off along the way. We even get treated to White Fang 1 and 2 on the TV! ;-) The route to Papallacta is really beautiful. Such lush greenery with great views of the mountains. 

We arrive at the spa after getting the $3 yute up the 3km hill to the baths. We pay $7 each to get into the baths. As it is the weekend it is absolutely heaving and full of kids. It is not quite as relaxing as we thought although the baths themselves are lovely and surrounded by some epic scenery set in a little valley in between the mountains. 

This pool was ridiculously hot. It was like sitting in a bath. Nat obviously loved it as she is constantly cold! 

This was a ice cold plunge pool. It's like a sheep dip to enable you to run in and out it is so cold. Very funny watching people take their breath away taking a dip.  

After a while we realise we don't think we are in he right place as there is a nicer spa one around the corner. We head around the corner and find a gorgeous more exclusive one and have a bite to eat there before we plan to head in. 

A lot less crowded than the other one and a lot more relaxing as they have places to sit and loungers etc. 

Unfortunately we have got here a little too late and they are full (they don't like it to get crowded at all). So unfortunately all out efforts to get here are for about an hour in he public baths being splashed by kids. It turns out to work in our favour though as getting back proves to be quite difficult as the buses are so infrequent and every time one goes past it is full. After waiting for about an hour and a half we manage to find the last two seats on one bus and head back to Quito settling down to watch FaceOff in Spanish this time. 

We opt to stay on to the Quitembe bus station as that is where we need to get the bus from to Banos tomorrow. It takes ages to get there and then to get back due to the horrendous traffic and it being pretty far south. But at least we got our tickets for tomorrow. Good job too as they were selling out fast. 

We get back to a very dead Foch Plaza. It is like a ghost town tonight. We head across the square to the BBQ place for food and find out that in the whole of Ecuador they are not allowed to serve any alcohol after 4pm on a Sunday! Crazy rule and not quite sure the reason behind it. At least it forces us to have our first dry day of the year!

Day 77 - Quito, Ecuador

Does anyone remember that 90s dance tune called Ecuador that goes "ECUADOR... Do do do do do do do do do". Well that is firmly in our heads and I hope it is yours too now! ;-)

Anyway my blogging nightmare week is over and we can resume full service today. Firstly there was terrible wifi in the jungle which we expected and was fine. It just meant we had to wait until Quito to upload. However upon getting to Quito I kept getting error messages uploading photos and after hours trawling the web for fixes was told it's just a google security thing that has blocked me out of my own blog and I need I wait and see if it resolves itself! Not good. I mean do they know how many people read this blog??? Ha ha!! Anyway in my attempts to fix it I manage to clear a weeks worth of updates from the amazon. So annoying! It was a very late night rewriting them all. Good news is that the problem seems to have been resolved now. 

Today the plan is to journey to the middle of the world to Mitad del Mundo (which means exactly that). This is the sight where Charles-Marie de la Condamine made the measurements back in 1736 to prove that this was indeed the equator. To get there we need to get two local buses that are surprisingly efficient and easy as it is 22km north of Quito. The irony is that as technology improved over the years it showed that this isn't actually the exact spot. True 0 degrees latitude lies about 300m north. But hey, once you have built a monument you are committed! Still not a bad measure for the time though. 

Our first sight upon arriving is a little surprising. Three whole guinea pigs being spit roasted out the back of a restaurant!

The place is like a mini town with bars and restaurants set around a central plaza and the monument in the background. 

Cool clouds gathering on the mountains in the distance. 

The monument that marks the spot of the measurement. 

Me hanging a testicle in each hemisphere! Not many people can say they have done that! 

Not quite getting our angles right to make it look like Nat is holding the ball on top. 

Not the best attire for a day of sight seeing. 

A map showing all the places that the equator runs though. Surprisingly not that many. Don't know why but the equator line in Asia surprises is that it is so far south. 

The Northern and Southern Hemispheres either side of the line. 

Fantastic view of mountains and clouds from here. 

The main man himself. 

After a good explore we can't find anything that resembles an explanation or bit of history about how it was done. Inside the monument is a four storey enthnography museum which is pretty random and utterly rubbish.  We are just about to leave and find a little place tucked away by the exit with some info, explanation and history about how it was measured and measurement in general. It is pretty mind blowing and hard to get your head around how these guys measured such amazing things like the equator, the diameter and circumference of the earh etc. Very clever. 

I was a little disappointed to not see any demonstration of water running the opposite directions around plug holes and the like. I have to create my own experiment in the toilet. I first try the urinal but the results are inconclusive. Although it does seem to flow anticlockwise on my second experiment in the sink. 

We then head back into town which takes about an hour and a half. It's been lovely seeing the city by bus. After some face time we decide to head into the Old Town tonight for dinner. We head out early to catch it in the light as once again we are heavily advised to not walk around anywhere at night by everyone we seem to meet. 

The taxi driver we get is lovely and proceeds to try to take us to all the sights on the way to the grande plaza with a quick stop at each for a pic. 

View down from the cathedral into the old town. 

Another quick stop for a picture. We don't even want them but he is so insistent.  He also manages to get his cab smack bang in the middle of every pic too. 

The grande plaza which for a Saturday night is surprisingly dead. So strange as the place is so lovely and we have seen no sign of trouble anywhere but I think the place lives on fear (no doubt for good reason). Such a shame though as we would love to wander around and explore.

We go for dinner in a roof top restaurant with 360 degree panoramic views of the city called Vista Hermosa (which means beautiful view and it is just that). It is the perfect way to see everything in a safe haven. It has a random gas pump in the foyer though. 

Great views over the city. 

They also have a cool little footie memorabilia room for some reason as it doesn't really go with the theme of the restaurant at all. Lots of great old World Cup memorabilia and a lot of paying homage to Antonia Valencia. 

Another church with a nicely lit up square out the front. 

After dinner we grab a cab back to the hotel. We can't get over how dead it is around here for a Saturday night but I guess that's because everyone in the city is outside our hotel window getting drunk.