Banos Adventures

We arrived in Banos late Sunday night after 8 hours of riding on the least comfortable bus yet.  We searched the dark streets for our friend Jamie’s hostel recommendation Plantas y Blanco.  After checking in we walked up to the roof top terrace and took in the amazing view of the small town at night and the surrounding hills, which were littered with illuminated crosses and statues.  Our view also contained a waterfall just on the outskirts of town.  The waterfall fell into a small collection of “natural” hot springs, although they appeared to be man made.  Maybe we were skeptical because of the obvious concrete constructed infrastructure around the small pools, or maybe it was the margarita bar.  At any rate we passed, probably due to the abundance of Speedo clad Ecuadorian men.  Anyways…  Exhausted from our travels we climbed down from the roof top terrace, played a few computer games (minesweeper), and went to bed.

We awoke the next day to the sounds of the bustling little town.  Obviously unable to sleep in we went back up to the terrace / restaurant and had a delicious breakfast of eggs REAL coffee, fresh squeezed Pina juice, and more homemade bread than either of us could finish.  After briefly discussing the possible activities Banos had to offer with a fellow backpacker we decided to hit the streets and price some day trips.  We finally settled on a waterfall tour via buggy (a motorized go-cart thing). Which was the most gutless OHV Trevor had ever driven, although most of our drive was done on a sketchy freeway. After a very brief lesson on how to operate the thing we set off into the confusing maze of one way streets towards the Palon de Diablo waterfall. We set off onto the freeway, as we were instructed to do, and followed the signs to the waterfalls. Some of the drive was spent being passed by huge busses or semi-trucks going way over the speed limit. At any rate we made it to our destination, parked the buggy, and made the short hike down to the waterfall. We took some pictures on a really scary bridge that warned it could only hold 5 people at a time, and then hiked up to the waterfall where we took a few more pictures and enjoyed being sprayed by the cool mist of the waterfall. To reach a better view of the waterfall we had to crawl on our hands and knees through a small tunnel under the rock, Trev barely fit. After that we discovered that the “better view” of the waterfall meant standing very close to it and getting drenched by the freezing water. We quickly crab crawled back the way we came and took more pictures. The waterfall was definitely worth the life threatening buggy ride.

After our stressful day of sight seeing we went for a snack (large plate of chorizo, avocado, Spanish tortilla, and a small salad) at the local market and then found a small pizza place and had a nice conversation with the Italian/Ecuadorian owner, who spoke very good English. He told us about his time spent in Lima and Miami and assured us that Colombia and Peru had much better food than Ecuador. Which, we aren’t convinced of. He also pointed out a hallucinogenic flower that was growing across the street that could make us talk to our dead loved ones. He was a nice and interesting guy. We then hung out at the hostel and facebooked until dinner time. We went to a decent Mexican place and shared a plate of fajitas. Then we went back to the hostel, had a few beers, and went to bed.

The next morning we woke up for the hostel’s famous steam baths. We kind of signed up on a whim and did not really know what we had gotten ourselves into. What we envisioned to be a calming sauna experience turned into a very intense physically demanding 50 minutes. Let me paint you a picture… We walked into the dark concrete room with a few other people from the hostel and waited in a small waiting room. To our surprise we did not walk in to a steamy communal room, but a row of individual guillotines which we sat in as our steam bath therapist shut a door and lowered a roof over us with just a small hole for our heads to fit through. We basically looked like we were sitting in a wooden box. Inside the box however, was a very intense steam coming from the bottom. We sat there for 5 very hot minutes until we were released from our steamy chamber. We thought the experience was over, but we were very wrong. We were then led over to a wall with individual spickets that poured very cold water into a large bowl with towels soaking in them. We then were led through a series of motions in which we dragged the towel over our bodies. After becoming sufficiently freezing we returned to our steam box and sat for another five minutes. This was repeated about three more times. After the fourth time we sat in a bath of really cold water while we were supposed to massage our stomachs to increase intestinal activity. As we did this our torturer splashed cold water on us for about a minute. We were then sent back to the chamber for another 5 minutes of scorching steam. Once again we incorrectly assumed this was the last stage of our “spa experience.” It finally ended with us standing against a wall while this guy sprayed us with a very powerful and very cold hose all over our bodies. All the while we were given directions in Spanish about which way to turn or what arm to raise. We then exited the room and sat down for breakfast feeling surprisingly relaxed and awake. However tortuous and strange the experience was, we both agree that it was well worth the $2.75. A very interesting way to start our morning. We then packed our bags and headed to Quito.