After our recent crop of tedious bus journeys we were pleased to finally be on a short three hour ride from Baños to Quito. The bus gods had a further test for me however, when merely 30 minutes into the journey a rather weak-stomached passenger puked all over my shoulder whilst they got off the bus. This greatly amused the conductor till he realised the extent of the carnage he’d have to clean up off the seats and floor. I meanwhile was forced to have an impromptu baby-wipe dry bath, lucky to have a replacement top to change into. When we rolled into Quito we were so pre-occupied with trying to find a same day laundry service we put aside our concerns about its extremely dodgy reputation for crime and our guide book’s stern warnings. Despite all the hype we had no problems there even on the packed, allegedly pickpocket riddled metro buses and had a great time enjoying the amazing architecture of the old quarter and more delicious Ecuadorian food.
With the mystical cloud forest a few hours away we didn’t want to spend too much time lingering in the city, so after stowing our luggage at the hotel for a couple of days we snuck off for a quick visit to Mindo before our flight to Colombia. The tropical forest was almost as dense as the Peruvian jungle but much cooler due to the higher altitude. Amazingly it actually had more biting insects than the jungle and they took full advantage of my lower legs after wading up to a waterfall washed off the DEET I’d smothered on.
The forest walks and waterfalls were accessed via a 500m crossing of forest valley in a vary ropey looking ‘tarabita’ cable car. Hanging precariously above the forest must be addictive because straight after we spent an amazing hour whizzing around the canopy along zip lines. Some of the valley crossings were huge and especially exhilarating when crossed hanging upside down, ‘mariposa’ style.
After 12 hours on a variety of buses we crossed from Punta Sal to Cuenca in Ecuador. Due to a very recent armed robbery of a night bus on the same route we chose the much safer day option, soon discovering that South America’s luxury road travel hadn’t yet reached Ecuador. Thankfully Cuenca’s beautiful colonial streets were the perfect places to re-stretch our legs . As a main commercial centre for straw ‘Panama’ hats we tried to sniff out a bargain at a few workshops where these Ecuadorian creations are made. After trying on most of the hats in Cuenca and even a few $500 Monticristi superfinos we finally picked one that is currently flying back to England ready for some summertime posing.
Back on the buses for a measly 9 hours we reached Baños. Known to be heaving at the weekends, when we arrived on Sunday we couldn’t help feeling it was a bit like Blackpool, with loads of shops selling sweets, inflatable toys and crappy souvenirs. This version however is set in lush forests on the side of a towering and still very active volcano. In the week things went a bit quieter and we rented some bikes for a great 25km downhill ride. We realised our driving skills could be getting a bit rusty after we rode through an enormous one-way, pitch black tunnel. The place was momentarily illuminated with each on-coming juggernaut only to leave us blinded by the light after it left. After a lot of very cautious pedalling we finally got to the other end only to see the exit of another adjacent tunnel for our correct lane of traffic. The route actually goes on for 60km all the way to the edge of the Amazon jungle but our arses gave up after we reached some nice waterfalls and were offered a lift back to Baños in the back of a truck.
All the volcanic activity around Baños gives it plenty of natural hot springs and we spent the evening soaking in them along with half of the town. The sequence was laid out in the beginning; a burning hot bath to start, follow with an icy plunge pool and complete in a high pressure freezing cold shower to massage your muscles. When sufficiently frozen you can repeat the process. After a few goes we decided a few of the colder steps could probably be left out and after storing up as much heat as we were able we legged it back to the hotel.
