A tourist viewing tower in Banos De Agua Santa, a mountain town in Ecuador famous for its waterfalls, thermal baths, and its park of viewing platforms on the high mountain across the river.
The waterfall that drops right into town. At the base is a double line of concrete wash basins where women used to do their laundry.
Each wash basin has a spigot where the water flows into it from the waterfall.
It's a pretty impressive waterfall for such easy viewing. No hiking required.
Church spires against the mountain slope background.
Each vendor selling sugar cane juice had a stack of these cane stalks in a corner of their selling space. They'll manually crank their press to crush the juice out of a stalk to sell you to drink.
The big letters of Banos, with the church along one side of the central square of town.
The church was pretty ornate inside and the wooden carved doors were intricate, but there was a service going on so no photos.
Jason returns after is waterfall bike ride. He rode this rented bike about 16 kms. on a mostly flat or downhill ride past more than a dozen waterfalls. He paid a truck a couple of bucks to bring him and the bike back up to town.
I made him straighten his helmet before he rode the bike back to the shop. He had a good bike for the ride, pleased as he compared his ride to others he talked to.
We went out to dinner and I ordered this grilled mixed platter. Jason got a huge pizza besides, so we took some back to YOLO for meals the next day.
The Police made us move from our parking spot to clear the street for a political campaign rally later in the day. Here, another overlander is getting info from the policeman about where we can move to partk. He said we "weren't allowed to see the event" from our parked vehicles, so he directed us around the corner behind a little wall.
We took a tour up to the high viewing points across the river. Jason in the bus on the way up. The road was a series of about 14 switchbacks barely wide enough for the bus but with two way traffic.
Looking back down, you can see the town on the cliff, with a waterfall spilling over the edge. Banos is a very scenic town.
Jason in a giant bird's nest at the first viewing point.
The giant hand holding a swing makes people look small.
Karen in the Hands of God at the top of the mountain. Tungurahua volcano is in the background.
Jason in a colorful feather swing with the Tungurahua volcano in the background.
Karen in the giant hand swing.
The guy is in an unusual outfit here, apparently left to tend to the family's stuff.
A giant swing lets you swing out over nothingness.
Jason next to the Hands and Feet of God at the top of the mountain, with the volcano in the background.
You can barely see the town below. You could pay extra to walk out onto the clear walkway, with nothing below you.
The Hands of God is a popular tour destination here.
The whole mountaintop is like a huge amusement park of viewing platforms and props. Cartoon characters are popular, with King Kong and dinosaurs, too.
This plane is perched on a tower high in the air. Jason is in the cockpit here.
Jason in front of a heart prop.
We were really high up on the mountainside. At the far left below the waterfall are the thermal baths that this place is also famous for. The waters were greenish to brown so we didn't get in, but they are a popular draw.
We had no idea why this guy was dressed like this.
Traffic in Banos on weekends was described as terrible to impossible, so we left and found this old ice train station of Urbina to park at for the night. It used to bring ice from the glacier to town.
It's over 3600 meters in elevation, almost 12,000 feet. It got cold at night here.
An unusual and pretty plant at the train station.
Our view for the night. Pretty good for free, eh?
These burros were tethered next to the abandoned rails to feed. Such long, thick coats on them.
Fresh snow on the mountaintop in the morning.
The bag of marsmallows blew up like an inflated pillow with the lower pressure at this altitude.
The dusting of snow in the morning came down the mountain slopes.
A typical roadside fruit stand. This one had red bananas, which aren't really that common, though.
Recycled plastic bottles and jugs; no idea what the colored liquids in them are, though.
A giant statue of an indigenous man as we drove through a town.
No comments:
Post a Comment