Banos Ecuador Chiva Truck Bus to The Volcano

Posted on by exploramum

Banos Ecuador Chiva Truck Bus

A Chiva Truck Bus is fun – at least for a single-parent family like ours here in Banos that is. Ours had disco music and flashing lights!
Chiva Truck Bus

©Exploramum and Explorason – our brightly painted Chiva Truck Bus

We met a lovely couple from Quito and they speak English – thank goodness as we had no idea what was going on. Our limited Spanish works when people talk slow – rarely does this happen over a microphone.

We purchased the Chiva tickets at one of the many sellers – $4 each, which is a  bargain and we hope to see hope to see the volcano sprouting magma into the night sky, as our friends did just last week.

What is a Chiva Truck Bus?

Chiva Truck Bus

©Exploramum and Explorason – ready to head up the mountain on our Chiva Truck Bus

A Chiva Truck Bus is a painted wooden carrier. Some have protective sides while others don’t. I guard my son against falling out or getting hit by branches as we drive along.

It is actually quite cold!  Many have scarves, beanies and warm jackets on and we are not really prepared.

We finally arrive at our destination in our Chiva Truck Bus and park in a long row of maybe 50 of them. Now there is the awesome aroma of BBQ and we know we are going to have to try some.

We finally meander past about 20 Chiva Truck Buses all lined up the dead-end road. We forget to see which one we were on – oops – we will do a search later as they all look alike!

BBQ

BBQ

©Exploramum and Explorason – BBQ time

We head for the BBQ area – wow so many choices – we have had dinner, but my son wants one. He says it is yummy.

Local Lights and Delights

Banos

©Exploramum and Explorason – the city of Banos by night

The lights of the city of Banos below are amazing.

We get to try the Canelazo (a hot beverage made with water, raw brown sugar, cinnamon, and mine has a little warming alcohol called Aguardiente whilst Explorason’s does not).

It is great and  I like it. My son passes his to me to finish but at least he tries new things when traveling. I know a lot of parents whose kids won’t try anything new.

We are having such a great time we really don’t want to leave, and in fact, Explorason is quite displeased about this. He wishes we had our own transport.  I tell him that one day we will.

Where is our Chivas Bus Truck?

We wander back looking for our Chivas. It takes us two goes of going up and down the road to find the Chivas Bus Truck, but no-one has returned yet.

So we risk it, head back for another look at Banos city below. Clouds roll over fast and there is no way to see the volcano.  I am pretty disappointed about this. In all our travels we never get to see any volcanic activity – yet!

We find our new English speaking friends and they are so nice. We hop back on the Chiva Bus Truck. We both decided this would be a more interesting way to see Ecuador than sitting in a stuffy bus and wish we could have one all to ourselves for a few days exploring.

Back In Banos

As we get back to Banos town, we get a farewell kiss from Quito friends. Such nice people and we are so glad we went. They were just so wonderful, so helpful, and there exactly when we needed them.
Later in our travels, we realize this is the start of many nice people appearing and disappearing on our travels to assist us – almost like angels.
Read on and see when we have this experience again.
The start of exploring Banos has officially begun – and we love it!
Questions and Comments
  • Have you ever toured Banos Ecuador before?
  • How was your experience?
  • Do share with us your experience and comments below.