on the road to Banos!

After two months in Quito, we said good bye to our home! (2 Bedroom Condo) Although it was a little cold in the apartment, the warmth of the people and the good food made up for it! Saying goodbye to our host, Lilya,



http://quitorental.blogspot.com/

Marco promised her to give her a review on the stay in her apartment! He is on holiday now, hmmm, as always, and I would have to bribe him to sit infront of the computer to physically write something!

We left with only our back packs, and we stored the rest of our luggage with Lilya! We took the bus to the terminal in the south, and soon we were in another bus on our way to Banos! Banos, means bathroom, and we knew this little town surrounded by three volcanos have plenty of water! Remember the volcano Marco wrote about on his blog, about a month ago? Tungarapua, is the volcano which erupted, and we were on our way to it.

On our bus, we were enetertained by a fellow with his guitar, and all the way people jump onto the bus selling fruit, ice cream, even plates of food(secos). Some will get onto the bus, giving their Spanish speach, and then try and sell you their tubes of wonder creams, or teas!  In Ecuador, it is against the law to beg, and even little children or blind people will sell you some sweets, or sing a song for a couple of cents.

The drive to Banos is beautiful with the mountains and rivers. But after we met with Jeff, sitting next to Marco, the road suddenly shortened.

Jeff is involved in an orphanage, with his family from America, and we decided to see whether we can meet up with them in Shell.

Banos was wet and cloudy when we arrived, and we went off searching for a place to sleep that night. There are lots of hotels and hostels, and we booked into the first one we saw. It was green again, with clean rooms and a hot shower. When the shower didn`t turn out to be so hot, a very hot me, went looking for the guy in the lobby! He saw to it immediately, and I had my hot shower! I don`t know whether he turned down all the other rooms` gas, but I was a happy clean girl! It was the first hostel we were in, which gave us clean linen every day! Not even the hotels, did that!

We hit the streets, and enjoyed the town with all its restaurants, hotels and discoteques. Everything is so colorful and funfilled. It was defnitely a town for tourists, with the buggies, and quad bikes and bicycles lined up for fun! We saw a zipline from the steeple of the church, ending at the tree.

A waterfall at the edge of the town, introduced us to many of them the next day!

 Isabel, our friend in Quito told me about Hotel Luna Runtun, half way up the volcano, and I could only look at the bill boards with their rose petal bed, and their hot bubbly jacuzzi in the room.... We were on a permanent holiday, and budget is king! The better we can budget, the longer it can last! We were paying 20US$ now for a room for the three of us, and the 285US$ at Luna Runtun......need I say anymore?

We walked back to our hostal, with the town starting to go home, and three dogs looking forward to meet their boss, after a long day at work!