Happy and relieved to be out of the ash filled air of Banos our next stop is Quito the capital of Ecuador. It was a little strange to be using US dollars when not in the US but after 'dollarisation' in 1999 Ecuador had adopted the dollar replacing the sucre. They use the american notes but mint their own versions of the coins which are made from the same materials and are the same size of the US equivalents but they stamp the coins with their own national figur...

After the relatively restful and relaxing time we'd had in Peru the past week were ready for some action. We'd heard really nice things abut Banos. Hot baths, great scenery and walks. We arrive having seen the smoking volcano on our way in. We step off the bus and turn round to see a mushroom cloud rising up over the hillside. Banos is about two or three miles from the volcano but the size of mushroom gave you the impression it was a lot closer than that. The h...