June 27-28 Weekend Excursion to Banos

This past weekend, Carrie (another volunteer from Quito) and I hopped a bus Saturday morning, paid the $3.00 and made the 3.5 hour trek to Banos, which is south of Quito. Banos is home of the volcano, Tungurahua, which has been spitting out ash this past week. We didn't see anything but Sarah got photos last week. It would be sooo cool to see her in action!

As mentioned, it is a very quaint town, very touristy with lots of tiendas (shops), many restaurants, and even more places to book tours (mountain climbing, white water rafting, horseback riding (4 hours for $20!!!), etc). You can also rent go-carts/dunbuggies to cruise around the town in, bicycles, and motorcycles. Anything goes in Ecuador! We met 7 other WorldTeach volunteers there. We walked around in the rain and found what Banos is famous for....pure cane sugar that you suck on and taffy. Both are delicious!! See the picture of the guy "swingin" taffy. Also, the several natural waterfalls (cascades) and thermal baths. Unfortunately, Carrie and I did not get to the baths due to the inclement weather and our inability to get our butts out of bed at 0600 Sunday morning. The others were able to stay over on Sunday because they don't teach until Monday afternoon. Lucky bums!!

Saturday afternoon we grabbed lunch, sat there while it poured and listened to stories from other volunteers. I thought I had it bad with cold water, diesel fumes, jam-packed buses, " theives waiting to pounce on me, etc. Well, let me tell you...it is NOTHING compared to those who are placed in Tena, which is in the jungle. I'll save those stories for later.

There are several spas in the town as well. 5 of us went in search of some much needed relaxation. I had a one hour massage for $19...yes, and it was wonderful!!!

We shopped for some spirits and then had an Italian dinner. Our hostal was very nice, Santa Cruz, and it had an outdoor patio/hut with a fireplace. Sat there and talked for hours. Imagine me and 8 college students. My stories were not far off from theirs. And we played "Never Have I Ever" and yours truly LOST!!

Sunday morning we rented a bus for $40 for the the 9 of us and the dude drove us around for 4.5 hours, showing us the sights along the way. We stopped at an amazing cascade and took a cable car ride from one side of the "gorge" to the other. Actually, it was a basket instead of an enclosed car. See the pictures. Hundreds of feet up, in the lush green mountains...again, probably not a good idea if you're afraid of heights. It cost $1.00 for the ride. Unbelievable!!!

More photos to come!

Our ride took us through Puyo and very close to the jungle. Our destination was a MONKEY REFUGE where they take those that are injured or deformed. I can't even explain how cool this was. Before we got there, we stopped at a little roadside stand to get some sugar cane. Little did I know that this is like "candy" for the monkeys. As we were walking up to the entrance, one monkey was jumping on the cars and then all of a sudden he jumped on Gracie, a volunteer. We had no idea that this would be an opportunity for total interaction with these amazing creatures. There must have been about 15 of them and 4-5 different kinds but all relatively small. The littlest being a squirrel monkey.

More to come...have to get to class!