AMBATO TO BANOS ON THE BUS

These photos were taken on our bus trip from Ambato to Banos. As you can see, it is a very narrow steep valley and the farmers take advantage of every inch. They have greenhouses on very steep slopes and we were told that the farmers actually secure themselves with a ropes to work the really steep fields. Volcan Tungurahua, also called the Black Giant, is one of Ecuador's most active volcanos. If you look close in two of the photos, you can see the most recent lava flow that wiped out the road and several small villages. Unfortunately, it was cloudy everyday we were there so we didn't get any photos of the 3 giant volcanos that surround the area or get to see the smoke and steam from Tungurahua.

When we arrived in Banos we searched out a bakery that had decent coffee and had some breakfast. Then we were off to the hot springs! We spent 2-3 hours soaking in the hot pool with an occasional dip in the "agua frio" to cool off. It was so relaxing to lay back in the hot water and look up at the beautiful waterfall. Even though it was overcast most of the time, we all ended up getting a pretty good sunburn...hard to keep sunscreen on in hot water. Good thing we were wearing sun visors to protect our faces, we forget how close we are to the sun here! Napolean peeled like a snake but since we still have the slight remnants of our Hawaiian tan, we didn't.

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