Bus to Banos from Quito Ecuador – Easter
What does it mean?
‘Banos’ – means ‘bath’ in Spanish. So this town will have several natural thermal baths we can enjoy, we hope.
Bus to Banos
Leaving Quito once more, we manage to get front seats on the bus to Banos (which we always try to do for Explorason gets badly travel sick).
Slow Traffic
While on the road, we pass some fabulous countryside structures and vegetation. The tickets on a bus in Ecuador are $1 per hour – it is meant to be 3.5 hours – so $7 for the 2 of us is not bad on a bus to Banos!
Banos Hotel
Exploring Banos town
We only have two days here in Banos, so after we settle in, we wander around in town. My son’s favorite place is this platform – only stairs one side – so not a bridge.
Underneath the locals congregate and sit around the park chatting. It has a nice feeling.
Guinea Pigs
We pass guinea pigs getting cooked in the street. One hour later they are all gone – except a few legs.
Sugar Cane
Sugar cane is grown widely in this area, so sugar cane juice, sticks, and candies are sold in the street stalls. There are way more stalls than customers, we notice.
Banos Toffee
Homemade toffee is also a favorite and can be bought everywhere. Free samples of this and sugarcane sticks are passed out as we walk along. We try some and learn a little about the process – this is world schooling.
Thermal Baths and Hygiene
We head back to the hotel and grab our swimming clothes and walk to the thermal baths. Everything seems in walking distance here. We are armed with nearly all we need. I, however, had not brought sunscreen or a hat as previously all thermal baths were indoors.
Unfortunately, we didn’t last long due to some massive hygiene issues.
- I watched a guy soap up all over. Face, hair, bum, and privates! Then dive in.
- I watched a kid with a bloody dripping nose hop in and out the pool.
- Mould grew freely on the water-slide.
- I spotted dog poo next to me on the seat.
That was it when I saw the bloody nose – I called Explorason and we changed back to our normal attire and left feeling rather deflated.
There are four thermal pools in town, so might try another one another time – hopefully, it is cleaner.
Feedback and Comments by Readers
- Have you ever been anywhere where hygiene was an issue?
- What happened?
- What did you do?
- Tell us in the comments below, as we’d love to know.