After Cotopaxi, we spent about 5 days in Banos, which appears to be our average. The town is fairly small, but renouned as a tourist destination for its relaxing baths, scenic topography, and extreme sports.
On a whim, on our first day in Banos we rented a dune buggy (pronounced ¨boogie¨), and drove down La Ruta de las Cascadas, which was a small road along a river gorge, skirting startling drops and ducking through tunnels every few minutes. By far the most incredible part of it was when Scott jumped into the buggy at a run while I drove it past him at full speed. Just kidding. The coolest part was stopping at Pailon del Diablo. We didn´t know what it was until we wandered down a jungly trail, up some wet rocks, and were asked to pay $1.50. We grumbled a bit, then paid and worked our way up the trail. The next thing we knew, we were on a precipice above the most incredible waterfall I have ever seen. Below the terrace upon which we were standing was a second terrace, then a third, even further down. I descended, only to realize that the lowest balcony could aptly be called The Splash Zone - it was located directly in the waves of spray shooting out from below. From there, we climbed through a cave grotto, bent double and crawling, and emerged immediately behind the thundering falls. Breath-taking.
On the way back from the falls, we paused, drenched, only to notice a familiar face behind us....it was one of the employees from our first hostel in Quito, his fiancee, and two people from the hostel we´d seen at the TeleferiQo! Though this was our first run-in with the so-called Gringo Trail and the strange phenomenon of running into complete strangers more than once, and in different locales, it was certainly not the last (we ran into the same people the next day in one of the MANY bars in Banos)...
Another lovely phenomenon we encountered in Banos for the first (and, unfortunately, not the last), was the awkward situation of being given a matromonio - or a room with one medium sized bed. Everyone here assumes we are married, or a couple, which can be used to our advantage (when trying to avoid unwanted attention), but is mostly sort of awkward and funny.
During our time in Banos, we were generally to be found either at the local supermercado - buying $0.90, 24-oz beers (Pilsener is the Ecuadorian national brand, a pretty bland beer that comes in giant bottles at cheap prices), or Scott purchasing Pony Maltas, $0.30 to $0.60 bottles of a malted beverage that really tastes like Raisin Bran cereal - or at the local pizza shop, watching Glee in Spanish (sometim
es you need a break from rice and stew!, also the songs are in English with Spanish subtitles). Once, in the supermercado, a girl popped out from behind a shelf while Scott and I were considering a naranja flavored pound cake, and began chatting with us about the necessity of being positive. Doris was from Toronto, and we would see her irrepressible smile at least once a day for our entire stay in Banos. She never chatted with us for long, though, because the old Russian man who followed her from a distance and who she claimed was her father was inevitably hungry, so she had to go feed him. (Speaking of food, we forgot to try cuy - guinea pig - in Banos. Got a picture, though. We did try jugo de cana, or sugar cane juice, which was quite delicious. People often chew a small, fibrous piece of it and suck on the juice. Not pictured.)
The same night we met Doris, we went out to the bars in town with two Americans we met at our hostel. Aaron and Elizabeth had been traveling about as long as we had, but were moving North, rather than South. We immediately befriended two more Americans, and then I spotted some Ecuadorians Scott and I had played pool with the night before. Leaving the boys to fend for themselves, Elizabeth and I took off to corner
one of the Ecuadorians, and take him with us for the evening. Of course, when we returned to where we´d left the American boys, they were nowhere to be found. The three of us spent the entire night visiting every bar in Banos (at some point we realized we could just approach the bouncers and ask them if there 
were any gringos inside - the answer was usually no). I mention this night mostly to underline the fact that Scott and I are traveling together, which also means that no one else is traveling with us...and while I love my brother, anyone who knows me knows I need extra stimulation in the form of interactions with ¨strangers¨. But as the old adage goes: There are no strangers, just friends I haven´t met yet. So nights like this are important because they give me a chance to annoy some new people, and get to tell them stories and hear theirs, which is really all I want to do anyway.
Banos boasts lots of extreme sports, and the one we interacted with most intimately was called Puenting (puente means bridge, -ing is the English gerund form). Basically, the activity consists of being strapped into a harness, climbing over the edge of a bridge spanning a 300-foot gorge,
counting to 3, then jumping off. You fall 150 feet, then you swing (an alternate name is swing jumping). After
much consideration, a blessing from one of the ¨witches¨(see
#2, below), and a serenade from a crazy man in the street to the tune of ¨Ï Wanna Hold Your Hand,¨ featuring the original lyrics, ¨I wanna have to youuuuu,¨ Scott took the plunge. A group of about 20 Ecuadorian tourists gathered to watch, and when it was all over, many of them shook his hand reverently, asking about his thoughts in the moments just before, and calling him ¨valiente.¨ It was truly heroic.
General Notes on Ecuador
So now that we´ve been here for a few weeks, we feel qualified to make some extremely scientific notations on the country (which we absolutely love, by the way). The results from this exhaustive study follow.
1) Ecuadorians love playing American music - on buses, in taxis, in parks - but there´s a catch: they never play any music produced after 1989. Love Shack, Take On Me, and pretty much anything by Sting are staples.
2) In the Andes, any women over about 50 are dressed in a particular costume, and look like witches. It consists of a wide-brimmed hat, a long, velvety skirt, woven shawl, and heavy boots. It´s often augmented with a baby slung in a loose cloth over the shoulder, or dragged by the hand. Their faces are worn, lined, and striking. And they most defnitely have magical powers. Several times we´ve been taken by the hand by one of these women, and we´re definitely either blessed or cursed...
3) People think we´re extremely wealthy, simply because we´re white. One woman recommended a restaurant, saying it was too expensive for her, but we might like it. Everyone seems shocked when we ask for ´el mas barato´
4) The cheapest, most delicious thing you can get at any restaurant is the almuerzo (fixed lunch menu) or merienda (fixed dinner menu, usually the same as lunch), which usually costs around $1.00 to $2.50. The thing is, you never know what you´re going to get, although you´ll always receive soup, juice, and a dish with rice, meat, and vegetables or beans (or pasta...). Desayuno, or breakfast, on the other hand, is the largest meal of the day, and can include pizza, ice cream, or hamburgers.
5) Everyone here is incredibly kind. Random people will smile at you, help you, and not look mad when you choose not to patronize their restaurant, bar, whatever.
6) It rains everyday for at least an hour.
7) It is ok for people to stare at you just because you´re white.
7a) When people say ¨hello-how-are-you¨ they are not looking for a response. They are
simply acknowledging that you´re a gringo.
7b) In Guayaquil, however, it is acceptable for people to point and laugh at you simply
because you are white.
8) The entertainment on bus rides is bizarre. We´ve seen Direct Contact, Street Fighter III: Redemption, Blood and Bone, Valkyrie, an Ecuadorian actor´s reel, listened to incredibly loud 80s or Ecuadorian music, as well as a radio talk show where an announcer reads ladies´love stories. Also, buses tend to be crowded, noisy, hot or cold, and equipped with drivers who like to pass other buses at 60 mph on blind hairpin mountain turns.
9) There is a 60% chance that you will run into any given group of tourists again, in another city. There is a 100% chance that you´ll run into a group from a previous city again, in another city.
10) Our Lonely Planet guide is wrong. Without fail. Always. We showed up at Los Frailes National Park to camp, expecting a $20 entry fee. It was $2 to enter. Camping was not allowed. And the park apparently closed whenever they felt like it, which was when we arrived.
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