Baños

Yesterday afternoon my family took me to Baños! Baños is a town about an hour from Ambato at the foot of the Tungarhua volcano. It's big attraction was originally the hot geothermal springs, which is a trade off seeing as it's under constant threat from the volcano and everyone has to be evacuated during eruptions. It's a tourist town, a hangout for foreign backpackers (wow do Americans stick out) and a vacation spot for Ecuadorians.

Disclaimer: I didn't take this.

On Saturday night the place was super busy in a good way. There were street performers and people selling all kinds of souvenirs and kids playing everywhere. At 9 we took a chiva, which is a kind of open-air party bus, up to a stop that overlooked the city. Up there there was more carnivalesque fun, made even better by the fact that I had no idea what was going on or what we were doing. We spent the night in a hotel.

This morning, we got breakfast and went to a gorgeous waterfall. You could zipline across the canyon, which sadly I'm almost sure I'm not allowed to do, and I'm not going to push the rules one week in. We took a cable car across.

They don't call me Steven Spielberg for nothing.

After the waterfall we drove up a mountain to some spots where you can get a good view of the volcano. Unfortunately it was cloudy, but I didn't really care because we got to go to this treehouse.

Hundred Acre Wood architecture.

Naturally there was plenty of good food and sweets, and I got to try sugar cane for the first time. The town is built around fun and some day I'd like to return with friends to take full advantage of the party.