Drive to Banos

We had a leisurely breakfast this morning.  It was cloudy and cool after last nights storm, so I decided not to swim.  We packed our bags and sat around chatting while we waited for those in the jungle group who weren't rafting to come back to the hotel.  This was Kim, Trudy, and Nikki.  They got dropped off at about 11.30, along with the bags belonging to the 10 people who were rafting.  We loaded these onto the truck.  

Our instruction was to organise our lunch and be ready to leave by 12.15pm.  So, Mark went to the bakery for rolls to make up some tuna sandwiches.  We left on time and were at the meeting point to pick the others up at 1pm as arranged.  They were due to arrive after a 27km raft down the River Napa.  Unfortunately, they were two hours later than we'd been told!  Then they had to have lunch!  So, we didn’t set off to drive to Banos until 3.30pm.  It felt like a wasted day for us, but it's one of those things.

It rained a lot during our journey, and darkness came quite quickly, so we couldn’t see much of the scenery.  It is probably a good thing, though, because the road is notorious for landslides!

We arrived in Banos at around 7.30pm.  We didn’t venture out again as we had nuts and things to snack on.

Baños, also known as Baños de Agua Santa, is the second largest and most populated city in the Tungurahua Province of Ecuador. It is located on the external flanks of the eastern mountain range of the Andes, between the Pastaza River, the Bascún River, and the slopes of the active Tungurahua Volcano, which last erupted in 2006. Banos sits at an altitude of 1820 meters above sea level and has a tropical rainy climate with an average temperature of 19°C.Leer más