We decided to cut several days of buses up the Peruvian coast, and instead we flew from Cusco to Guayaquil in Ecuador. We landed in Guayaquil and in the queue for immigration everybody was wearing sunhats and flip-flops. It was good to be down at sea level again, even if it was to be only briefly. We hopped straight into a shared jeep (where we quickly learned how the Ecuadorians drive) which took us about 4hours to the small city of Cuenca, up in the mountains again but not so high (just 2500m) and it was still nice and warm despite the altitude.
Cuenca was a nice laidback city, and seemed to have a fair amount of Americans around the place. It had a few churches like most colonial cities, and plenty of restaurants too. We were asked by a group of students if they could interview us in English for their coursework assignment. We were videoed and Dave was asked if he planned to marry any Ecuadorian girls!The traditional meal in Ecuador (and also in Peru) is Cuy (Guinea Pig). They call it ‘Cuy’ because this is the noise it makes. We gave it a go that evening and although it tasted nice, there's not much meat on a Guinea Pig, just plenty of skin to chew on... we're not sure it will be something we try at home. We hopped on a bus the next morning for a long journey north.
The more we saw of the Ecuador countryside, it looked uncannily English. Rolling hills covered in a patchwork quilt of farmer's fields and green, green grass with cows dotted around. Here we are, almost on the equator, and it’s hard to believe the land looks like some parts of England. The altitude of around 3500m keeps the air cool, and being on the equator means much more rain than the dry Altiplano of the Andes further south.
Then, suddenly we saw the towering Volcan Chimborazo. Rising up to 6,800m, if you were to stand on this behemoth you would be further away from the earth's core than anywhere else on the planet... even the top of Everest. The top was shrouded in cloud, but the steepness of its sides hinted at just how big this thing was.
Our bus continued on past to Ambato, where we changed to the lively bus that took us to Banos before nightfall. The combination of a footy match on the radio and several teens getting ready for Saturday night gave the bus an atmosphere of its own.
Banos literally means "Baths". We think they should call it "Showers" as it rained a lot on our first day there. It’s usually the place for adventure sports, like rafting, biking and hiking, but on our arrival the town was full of kids riding around the streets on off-road buggies trying to kill each other (and any pedestrians that might get on their way). The town itself wasn't so pretty, despite being cited at the bottom of a volcano (which you can't see from the town). We attempted to walk up to the Mirador of the Virgen, which we did but it was too cloudy and rainy to enjoy the view (we're not sure it would be much better in blistering sunshine). So we trudged back down the hill thoroughly soaked hoping for some sun the next day.
Luckily, the forecast was completely wrong and the sun was shining, so we hired some bikes and took off down ‘La Ruta de las Cascadas’. The road was a nice route through tunnels, around the side of mountains and passing several waterfalls, most of which had zip-lines set up for people to throw themselves head-first over the abyss. We opted for the slightly more hair-raising open-top (and open-sided) cable car, which went across the ravine to a waterfall, stopped there a few moments, before accelerating back to where it began. It doesn't sound that scary, but if you saw the quality of the engineering involved, you might gulp too.
At the end of the 20km route, we were pretty warm and down in the jungle again. We walked down to a waterfall for a swim but the current was too strong and all the spray made us cold before we even got in the water. Then we caught a lift back in a guy’s with a truck, all the way back up the hill to Banos.
Well, we couldn't leave without trying out the hot baths that Banos is famous for. We went for a dip in Virgin Springs, which were lovely and warm, and very popular with the locals. We grabbed a Pizza Kono, (which has the shape of a cornet ice cream filled with pizza topping), and jumped on a bus to Latacunga, a couple of hours to the north.
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