Weekend In Banos

Arriving at our hotel in Banos

Last weekend we went with 17 students from our school to Banos. It's located approximately 4 hours away from Quito with a landscape of lush green mountains covered in waterfalls. Its definitely a town that survives on tourism with lots of outdoor activities.

Guinea pig anyone?

 

Making taffy

We started our day by walking around town where we saw them making the town's famous melcocha (taffy) and cooking cuy (guinea pig). Then after lunch we had the options of whitewater rafting, canyoning, hiking, horseback riding or the visiting the spa. My brother and I debated between whitewater rafting and canyoning but ended up decided to go rafting with the majority of other students.There were 9 of us, so we got split into two group and lucked out with the young guide whose goal was to get us thrown into the water as much possible.  He even has us standing on the edge of the raft to see who would fall out first.

Enjoying our hot Canelazo

Quad-runner

After rafting we all met back at the hotel where we had a popular Ecuadorian alcoholic drink called Canelazo which tastes like hot cider and is really good. We then got changed and headed for dinner. In town my brother had noticed people driving quad-runner around town so of course he wanted to drive one. So a couple of us rented them for an hour and drove them around town. It was a bit nerve racking because they don't give you any instructions except "gas, brake, no reverse, no hand brake and one-way streets". Just driving in South America is crazy because they don't seem to follow normal road rules and people cross wherever they want with cars honking to warn pedestrians to get out of their way. Of all four of us driving, Trevor was the only one with his full license. Our other two friends were from the UK, so they weren't even use to driving on the right side of the road. So we got some pretty dirty look from people, particularly when driving the wrong way on a one way streets....damn gringos. 

Hot Springs

After our driving adventure we ended up meeting up with the rest of the group at the disco for some drinks and dancing. Most of us didn't end up staying out too late (1:00am)  because the plan for the next morning was to hit the hot springs at 5:30am, before they got too busy.  I have to admit the hot springs weren't quite what I was expecting. It was literally two swimming pools filled with hot yellow water and  tons of people, including little kids. We had some concerns over how clean the water actually was. We preferred the really  hot pool, which had no kids, however the water was so hot you could only stay in it for 15 minutes at a time and came out with your body all red.  The scenery was beautiful  however, with a waterfall behind us on the mountain and the sun rising.


After the hot springs and breakfast, we went walking around town again before picking up our mountain bikes for a day of mountain biking through the valleys.  We biked from approximately 11-3pm with breaks at various scenic or activity centres. At one of the stops they had a superman zip line above a waterfall which Trevor and a couple other students did.  At another stop they had a bridge bungee jump which both my brother and I ended up doing. It was definitely one of the scariest things I have ever done, especially as you climb onto the edge of the bridge and contemplate jumping off.

The weather had been sunny and really great up to this point. However during the last 15-20 minutes of our bike ride it starts pouring rain, so by the time we are done and ready to go home, we are all soaked. But with most of us lacking sleep from the night before we all pretty much passed out on the bus ride back to Quito.

Overall an awesome weekend where we got to make a bunch of new friends and are now looking forward to our trip to Mindo this weekend!