Baños

In America, Ecuador 2001 On  21/05/2001  One comment

Baños, a small town south of Quito, attracted me as I got off the bus and could see the mountains surrounded it. With a population of less than 20.000 inhabitants, the city is located in the botton of the Tungurahua volcano. It is active and has probabilities of erupting any time. In 1999 the city was evacuated for being considered dangerous. As the volcano didn’t erupted, the inhabitants came back even though the it is still active. The population complain that their things were stolen when they were away. They even distrust the police that made them leave.

In the weekends the city is croweded with people from the nearby villages. They all come to the mess, to here the band play in the square or to eat marmalades. It gave me the feeling of traveling back in time. Reminded me the stories my dad used to tell when I was a child, they had band, squares, marmalades… A nostalgia… Not only the local people, but also the foreigner make the city to be full of cafes, restaurants, bars and travel agencies.

One of the attractions of the town besides the volcano is to go down to Puyo or Rio Verde by bike. There are lots of waterfalls on the way there. The way back can be done by bus, the bike goes on the roof. Whitewater rafting is popular with the tourists, there is about 10 agencies selling day tours.

As it is a small place, after 3 days it is easy to know almost all the tourists. I end up meeting people that I had met in before in Quito or Galapagos. I also met people that I set up to meet later on in my trip. I stayed a week here, a great place for someone who live in a asphyxiated city as São Paulo.