We left Riobamba (after our train ride, Chimborazo volcano descent, and visit to crazy Guano), and went north to visit Banos, the city of holy water (and big Ecuadorian tourist destination). Here’s what we thought when we left Riobamba:
- Banos is really touristy
- It will be too loud, expensive, and fake for us to stay for a long time
- I will just want to mountain bike down to the waterfalls
- Stef will just want to visit the hot baths
- Therefore, we’ll only stay about two days
We were wrong about everything but the first point (Yes, Banos is really touristy):
- It´s touristy for everyone – Ecuadorians AND foreigners, which makes the foreigners feel a lot less conspicuous…
- We went whitewater rafting our first day there, and loved it. We rafted for half the day, on rapids up to Class IV (out of VI), and even got to rescue everyone in the other raft when their boat capsized!
- We spent four and a half days there
- I didn’t go mountain biking (all the bikes were in poor condition)
- We rented a dune buggy for an afternoon and drove to see all the waterfalls
- We hiked for two days around the mountains outside of town, and only saw three of the 30+ trails that exist
- We spent two mornings at the baths, which weren’t nearly as bad as I anticipated!
- I even had a discussion about President Obama and world politics with an Ecuadorian from Ambato (a nearby city), which culminated in his question: If Ecuador and Colombia went to war, would the US intervene on Ecuador’s side?(A year ago, the Colombian army invaded Ecuador and killed 20 ecuadorians in the process. They haven’t resolved it yet.) I didn’t feel right telling him that most Americans don’t know that there is a country called Ecuador, that it uses the dollar, and that it’s in South America. So instead this was my response:We tried that a few years ago, in a place called Iraq. It didn’t work out so well for us, so I’m not sure if we would do it again.
You have to see the pictures, which include:
- A 50-foot waterfall
- Our dune buggy
- Some amazing sunsets
- The Rhino-train that every tourist in town (besides us) rode around in
- The town from the mountaintops
Check them out below:
Another set from our dune buggy ride to a huge waterfall…
