Another Banos update

Note: Banos is spelled with a tilde on the N. This keyboard is nuts.

I am back in Quito after a tumultuous couple of days. First, to finish the last story about the first place I hit this week, Quilotoa:

The hike back from Quilotoa to Chugchitlan was amazing, but the path was tough to follow. It took about 4.5 hours to get back after getting lost a couple times along the way and asking farmers for directions. A highlight was the cute little girl who scammed me. About an hour into the hike, I happened upon this nice girl on the side of a mountain who suggested that I hire her as a guide. "Tourists get lost in the canyon" she said. She wanted $5 to walk me through the canyon but I wasn't having it. I left. Two minutes later, I hear loud barking right behind me and turn to find two small dogs who were very upset with me. They followed me and were trying to bite my legs. After about 2 minutes of this, out of nowhere the little girl appears holding a stick and quickly calms the dogs down. "I should be your guide" she said. Flustered, I asked her if there were more crazy dogs in the hills. "At least 10" she said. I was sold. The stick she was holding, I would learn, was not magic. They were her dogs. One of them, named Oso, followed us all the way through the next canyon (which truthfully was really hard to navigate) and I shelled out 5 bucks to the little girl. She wins.


Some troubles on the way out of Quilotoa. The only official bus out leaves every morning at 4AM. The hostal owner tipped me off to an alternative...a children's school bus that leaves at 6 AM. I hopped on, and me and the kids were off, bumping down the road. Around 6"45 though, we got a flat tire. I missed my connecting bus in the next town, which is called Sigchos. Quickly I learned that the next bus didn't leave until 2 PM (it was 7"30 at the time). Sigchos was nothing to write home about, a depressed farming town with high unemployment. Around 11"30, though, my luck changed. Down the road came a Lechero, the name given to the milk trucks that go daily back and forth between the small towns. I hopped in the back with another travelling Spaniard and a family of four from Quito. We rode standing up for about an hour and a half, trying not to let any milk backsplash hit our clothes. It was a great ride. There was serious milk on this truck. The pictures and video should explain.


After a very long day of travel I finally arrived in Banos, which is a resort type spot in the southern part of Ecuador, famous for its thermal baths. The town itself shoulders right up to Tumburaghua, an active volcano that ERUPTED LAST SUMMER. The town shut down. Big time destruction and inches of ash everywhere. It's STILL SMOKING. On top of that, the town is flanked by mountains with heavy foliage. During rainstorms, LANDSLIDES are common. But Ecuardorians and stupid tourists like myself still flock to the town for adventure sports and thermal baths from natural hot springs.

The weather was bad. I spent a good amount of time taking Spanish classes, which were cheaper than Quito and pretty good. On my third (and last) day, I rented a bike for $5 with a couple of people I was rooming with and took them down a massive 15 mile hill that eventually leads to a jungle town called Puyo. Along the way, I jumped off a bridge with a bungee cord that was attached to a parallel bridge. It was my first time, it was great and relatively safe, and it cost another $5.

That was yesterday, and afterwards it was time to leave Banos. In fact, it was our only window. Torrential rain caused massive landslides that block the roads. Everyone was essentially stuck in this town. And they were okay with it. With an active smoking volcano looming in the background.

A tour guide operator agreed to take us (a group of 8 travelers) as far as he could up the highway in a van. We got about a mile out of town until we hit a traffic jam. All traffic was halted because the highway BROKE. A landslide took a bite out of the asphalt on the side of the mountain the highway wrapped around. Police, newsreporters, bulldozers, and gawking tourists all made the scene. I hopped out of the van, climbed over the rubble and mud, and hopped into the back of a pickup truck on the other side.

I rode into the next town with THIRTEEN Ecuadorians in the back of this small pickup in the rain, and grabbed another bus to Quito. Everyone was eager to talk it up on the ride so we could forget about the rain and wind. A highlight was that more than a few of the Ecuadorians on board believed the next world war will be fought over WATER, and that transnational corporations like Coca Cola and Pepsi are slowly aligning to privatize and

control the world's capabilities to create, store and transport potable water. Ookay.

I'll be in Quito until tomorrow morning. At noon, I'll be meeting another traveler and our guide at a travel agency, and we'll embark on a 3-day trip to attempt to climb the south face of Cotopaxi. I climbed that mountain I posted about a couple weeks ago again today to re-acclimatize myself.

There will be an overnight stay in a refuge,

climbing on ice, camping on ice, horses, and a push for the summit starting at midnight on Monday. They provide all the equipment and even warm clothes...I only have to bring batteries and chocolate. I stocked up on the latter. We should hit the summit at dawn. If the weather is terrible, we'll bail out and I'll be back than Tuesday. But we'll see...