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Banos (yes a town named after the Spanish word for toilet!) is a beautiful place just 7km from an active and continually erupting volcano. In fact after we arrived we discovered that the Irish government states that you shouldn't travel there because of the danger. Oops!! In 1999 the volcano Tungurhua started erupting and the entire town was evacuated for 3 months before all of the locals returned and slowly so did the tourists. Now 9 years later its still erupting but so far nothing has come of it. We did go on a hilarious volcano watching tour, where we could see absolutely nothing except clouds and our guide gave us a civil safety talk about how to evacuate from Banos if the volcano really starts going off and then lit a fire with lots and lots of petrol and played terribly on the guitar (the guitar was much better than his attempts at banter though). Hilarious!
We also hired a quad bike and set off around the hills of Banos to see if we could see the volcano during the day. Gareth was right at home on the quad, just like back on the farm, but unfortunately the quad didn´t have much power (only 125cc) and struggled a lot going up the hills. We got beautiful views over the valley in which Banos is set but again no sight of the volcano because of the clouds. We did befriend a local on our travels and were invited into his little farmhouse for some cedron tea (which he made with leaves picked from a tree in his yard) and snacks, the real South America.
There are lots of beautiful waterfalls near Banos and we hired bikes one of the days to do the "Ruta de las Cascadas". We cycled for 25km and passed lots of really gorgeous scenery. Unfortunately for the last 7km we were drowned by torrential rain and eventually had to stop cycling when we were truly soaked to the skin. Of course we found ourselves in a tiny little town with very amused locals looking at the state of us as they walked along with massive leaves from trees over their heads for shelter! Eventually we managed to hitch a lift with a local and threw the bikes and ourselves in the back of his pickup truck and rode all the way back in Banos with the rain still raining down on us but plenty of fresh air and beautiful views.
Banos with the volcano so close is also famous for the many thermal baths in the area and we decided to pay one a visit. The Banos Thermale de la Virgen are right on the edge of the valley and right in front of a natural waterfall falling beautifully down the mountain and acting as cooling water when you get out of the hot thermal water. The thermal water was absolutely roasting, making our skin tingle and forcing us to get out and cool down in the freezing cold water beside every 5 minutes. We found out that the water in the hot pool was about 42 degrees! Great therapy though. We went in the evening after the sun went down and there were lots of locals there as this seems to be a major part of their social life and very nice it is as well. Our hostel also offered an unusual steam bath type treatment which we tried two mornings in a row. It involved us being placed in a box with just out head poking out and having steam pumped into the box, then dousing ourselves with cold water and repeating the process and finally having the assistant spray us with a very powerful (and somewhat painful) hose before we were finally all finished and ready to face the day.
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