Banos

Not really managing to do more than doze on the exceptionally bouncy, noisy, hot bus we arrived at Banos at 4 in the morning quite exhausted from our 3 nights on buses without proper sleep. Luckily waiting by the bus station was a man who had a reasonably priced hostel who we followed through the deserted streets in the gentle rain that had started to fall. We reached the hostel and collapsed into our bed, not stirring again until nearly 11am when we got up and took a much needed shower, which thankfully wasn't cold! Feeling quite pleased as we had essentially got 3 nights at the hostel for the price of 2 (most wont let you check in until after 12) and refreshed after some proper sleep in a real bed, we even had a private room and so didnt have other people waking us up, we decided to go out and explore the town. Our first job was to buy some toiletries from the supermarket as during our recent travels the shampoo had burst, covering everything in our washbag and not wanting to brush our teeth with soap we decided to replace them as well as get a new shampoo (hopefully with a sturdier bottle!). Once we'd finished shopping and had managed to pay with a card which took forever and a lot of faff on the part of the staff, we dropped the bits back at the hostel and decided it was time for a coffee. Opposite our hostel is a Swiss Bistro restaurant so after our recent good experiences with such we headed over seeing that they had wifi was a bonus. We ordered our coffees and after managing to knock the first one all over myself got a replacement and sat drinking them whilst attempting to connect to the internet. It refused to work however so after paying we went to a nearby internet cafe and paid a huge $0.25 for 15 minutes, finding that we had a few responses to emails we'd sent recently but not to a couple of important ones which was really annoying! Leaving here and feeling rather hungry as it was now 3pm we walked around the pretty town looking for somewhere cheap to eat. After going through the park which has a lovely fountain in the centre, lots of beautiful big trees and a 'bridge of love' which gives you a vantage point from which to look around, we eventually found a cheap little cafe away from the main tourist streets and went in for lunch at $2.50 each, comprising of a big bowl of vegetable soup with a kind of meatloaf thing in it, very tasty followed by a plate of rice, seemingly cooked dried beef and a portion of very buttery sweetcorn, delicious, as well as a glass of pineapple juice which we used to take our malaria pills which we have recently had to start as we are heading into Malaria territory. After paying and waiting 15 mins for the lady to run around trying to find $5 change for us, we left and headed towards one end of the town where there was a lovely waterfall that fed the local thermal pools and seemed to be a favourite spot as many people went to and fro taking pictures or filling water bottles as it seems it is drinkable, although we decided not to risk it. We took quite a few photos as not only was it very pretty but it was also a good vantage point to look out over the town, we could see the big cross and Virgen up on the hills as well as the lovely church that stands in front of another park which I particularly liked as it has the most beautifully carved, giant wooden doors at the entrance. Leaving the waterfall and the view behind we wandered around the streets admiring the backdrop of rich green hills and the gorgeous flowers that were in peoples gardens which made even the most lowly place look like a paradise. There had been cloud and a bit of mist in the hills all day so you could smell the greenness all around which was very pleasant compared to the city smells we'd been used to over the previous couple of weeks. We eventually found ourselves at the bus terminal and after concluding that as there was a bus to Quito pretty much every half an hour for most of the day, we did not need to book one in advance so walked across the road to where some stalls were selling 'melcocha' which is a local sweet like toffee/taffy (we had bought some earlier in the day and watched it being 'pulled' from a hook in the doorway) big bundles of sugarcane and nets of mandarins and oranges. Not having had nearly enough fruit lately we bought some mandarins and went on to see the bridge that leads out of town just round the corner. Below the bridge the river Pastaza churns along a deep gorge over which it is possible to cross by zipline if you are feeling adventurous (and have spare money of course!) or one of the several different bridges, some large, some precarious looking foot bridges. We decided to bear this in mind for future reference but as it was getting dark thought it best left for tomorrow and just took some pictures instead. With a brief stop in the park to eat a mandarin we headed back to the hostel to work out our budget and catch up on blogging before going out to see what the night life was like as we had read there might be somewhere that plays salsa, fingers crossed! After walking round the bars a few times we soon realised that apart from the odd song played every now and then, we weren't going to get to dance tonight and so headed back to the hostel after stopping to take a picture of the illuminated church which looked quite ghostly due to the ice blue lights used. Once settled in for the night we put the A team on for the 3rd time (really need some new dvd's!) and afterwards played games on the computer/ipod before going to sleep.