Cotopaxi to Banos

After our night in the brothel in Machachi we cycled to Cotopaxi National Park, named after Volcan Cotopaxi, an active volcano sitting at 5897m. The route was along the Panamerican Highway – the main highway through South America. The Panamerican Highway was sadly smelly, hot, hilly, dirty and tiring! The majority of the traffic was buses and lorries. They must use some dirty fuel here, because all the exhausts were spewing out black fumes all over us. And it was Chris’s birthday...happy birthday!

Road up to Cotopaxi National Park

We took one of the first opportunities to get off the main road, and followed a small track up towards Cotopaxi National Park. It was so nice to be away from the traffic! We ended up camping for two nights in the national park in a nice spot with a great view of Cotopaxi. It looked beautiful in the evening, shrouded mysteriously by golden clouds. While in the national park we went for a few walks, and at 3500m we could definitely feel the effects of the altitude! This perhaps wasn’t helped by the food we were eating...as our decision to camp had been entirely made on the spot we weren’t very prepared and all our meals for two days consisted of some combination of rice, mango and nuts. Cold and congealed mango flavoured rice for breakfast...gourmet!

Helen with Cotopaxi in the distance

By the time we decided to leave Cotopaxi it was clear that Chris’s leg was causing him a few problems. He has had a recurring groin injury for about 4 months now. We had hoped that a few days off in Quito would help to reduce the problem, by the uphill day on the Panamerican made sure that this wouldn’t be the case. So we decided to cycle back to the Panamerican and get a bus to Banos, a small city a few hours south. But first we had to find our way back to the road...this proved to be very difficult! The guy who we had paid for camping told us that the route to the camp spot was circular, so we decided to leave the way we hadn’t come. This was a bit of a mistake, the road was a dirt track (as it had been on the way up, but the way down turned out to be much worse). For about thirty minutes we fought our way down the worsening track, which led us through ditches, across fields, to dead ends and passed dogs determined to chase us and yap at our heels as we peddled frantically past. Eventually we saw a hopeful looking road. Chris went ahead to investigate, and as I was struggling up one of the hills I saw him coming back towards me. He reported, not very calmly, that at the end of that road there was a 'big f*****g gate that was f*****g locked!' Armed with rocks and big sticks, we faced the dogs again to ask at a nearby farm how to get back to the main road. The friendly farmer told us we should simply lift our laden bikes over the 12 foot gate. So...back again past the dogs, weapons at the ready (unused thankfully) and to the gate, which now was miraculously open! Eventually the road did lead back to the Panamerican, where we managed to flag down a bus. The bad luck wasn’t over yet though...

View from our hike

On the bus journey of woe, Chris’s expensive camera was stolen. Luckily, only the night before we had uploaded photos to the laptop, so at least not many photos were lost. But after a birthday cycling along the Panamerican, two days of eating rice and mango, an injured leg and a frustrating morning of dead ends and furious dogs this news obviously didn’t go down well. We stopped at a restaurant and ate more rice while we contemplated our options and worked out which dirty scoundrel had been the thief. After an hour or so of this we decided to continue on to Banos.

Banos turned out to be a lovely little town, and restored our good spirits. The town is situated right at the bottom of a valley with huge hills all around it. Just above the town is the active volcano Tungurarhua (meaning ‘throat of fire’), it is an impressive sight. Banos is so named because of the natural therapeutic mineral baths there. We visited them a number of times, hoping they would help Chris’s leg to heal. Even if they didn’t, it was fun and refreshing to alternate between the hot, warm and freezing pools. We found a great food market in Banos – the central market, where lunch was always less than $4 for both of us. Guinea pigs were a local delicacy, and although we didn’t try any as they were quite expensive, we saw them being cooked whole on big stakes over fires. They actually smelled quite nice! After a few days in Banos we felt refreshed from our traumatic few days and ready to face the rest of Ecuador. Next stop...Cuenca.