The photos are:
1. An Andean bear
2. A capybara
3. The valley in which Banos sits
4. The volcano smoking away
So my next destination in Ecuador after leaving Mindo was Banos, a town known for its hot springs. As I boarded the bus in the morning in Mindo, there was an unfamiliar rumble in my stomach. Also on board the bus was the family from South Carolina I had met at the swimming hole. I spoke with them quite a bit during the journey, happy to take a break from Spanish. The daughter was working at a flower farm near Banos and the parents were down for a visit. So they were headed the same place I was, but we all had to change buses (a different station altogether) in Quito.
In Quito, I parted ways with the three of them, went to lunch, then made my way across town to the main bus terminal. It was a little bit of a scary, confusing place, but I found the right bus and settled in for the 3-4 hour journey south. The chicken in my belly was not settling in however, and I was going to be surprised if I made it to Banos with out an emergency. The bus pulled out of the station, and as we were on the road out the family from SC (along with some locals) flagged down the bus and hoped on. We all smiled at seeing each other again, but weren't really surprised, travel is like that. I sat next to the father this time, and we spoke most of the trip. Then in Banos, being a small town, we crossed paths a lot.
Luckily I made it to Banos without an incident, but things were not getting better in the bowel region, and I felt a fever coming on. I found a very nice hotel, and just in time I might add, as I had some bathroom time booked. I planned to stay in Banos (very appropriate name) for one night and then head south, but I spent three nights there. Not because it was so nice (which it was) but because I could not stray very far from the toilets. I certainly couldn't take many hours on a bus.
The fever added to the stomach issues had me worried so I went to a doctor. She was a Russian, but we conversed in Spanish as my Spanish was better than her English. That makes about 10 countries I have been to the doctor in. Maybe I'm a hypochondriac or maybe its just that in most other countries besides the US, it is fairly cheap to just walk into a doctor. So better safe than sorry. In fact in Mexico I paid 2 dollars for a consultation once. After some blood, urine and feces work she determined that it was nothing major, but prescribed a few things, a simple diet and some rest. That and my toilet dependency is why I stayed two more nights in Banos. Funny side story, I emailed Eva that they had done a test on my feces. Her English is pretty good, but not perfect. She emailed back and said "I don't know what feces is, but it doesn't sound good." How right she was especially if you consider how I had to get the stuff into the little cup.
While I was there I did a few things, short things. I went to the banos for a while and soaked in the hot pools. I am proud to say I did not have an accident in the pool. I wasn't so lucky once in my hotel room. To much information probably. At the pools I met an English couple, Adi and Lucy who were on a long trip around the world. We talked a bit, and then bid farewell when I had to leave to visit the other banos again. I also went to the zoo. I wanted to see some animals that I had never seen before like the world's largest rodent, the capybara. That is one big rat. Also some south America cats, lots of monkeys and something I didn't know existed, the Andean Bear. Some of the zoo keepers even let me go in some of the cages while they were cleaning them. They (the zookeepers) were a little weird though and I had to retreat as the visions of being locked in the cages for who knows what creeped into my head.
I also had several walks around town, and at one point got a good view of the Volcano Tungurahua which most recently erupted in August of 2006 and smokes all the time.
Check this out on Wikinews:
Banos is in a beautiful valley that can be seen from the bridge heading out of town.
So after three nights there, my stomach was more or less on the mend. It was time to hit the road, south again, with a stepped up pace because I lost a few days. Cuenca was where I was headed.
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