No bath in Baños

Baños was the next place after Cotopaxi, a good place to bring Helena back to shape after a very intense flu that is never welcome while travelling.

One of the techniques we mostly used was rest, and to finalize the treatment we offered ourselves a relaxing massage followed by a great dinner, the best part was the apple crumble and ice-cream.

With Helena back on route we were privileged with the views of Tungurahua, an active volcano that just one month before was spreading ashes all over the skies and obliged some areas to be evacuated, we were much luckier with clear skies and a few fumes coming out of the cone, although we would have liked to see a bit more action.

We also visited a special reserve for endangered monkeys in the city of Puyo. Helena as usual, got attached to some cute baby monkeys (or to be more precise, the monkies got attached to her, fist the leg, than the lap, an later the head).

I got two clown monkeys using my body as playground, and also as a jumping platform.

It was a great place to visit, where we learned about the problems that arise from keeping wild animals in captive. For example if you keep baby monkies inside, they dont get enough vitamin D from the sun, and their scheleton wont develop correctly. At the reserve there wwere 3 baby monkeys with twisted hands making them unfit to ever survive in the wild.

(most tour operators offer visits to a mirador where if lucky on can see  lava. They sell it like: "Volcano eruptions from 9 PM")

(Church of Banos de Agua Santa, covered with gold)

(Tasty pig skin with corn and onion)

On our last day, Helena felt good enough to do some sport activity, so we rented a couple of bikes and went on a downhill trip to the 'Ruta de las cascadas', a path along the canyon with many waterfalls.

It was a nice and fairly easy ride, and for once we got good bikes.
We stoped at several beautiful waterfalls and went across the valley inside a metal cage on a zip line over a twin waterfall.

After half a day of biking spoting some amazing views of the valley and waterfalls we finished or tour at Rio Verde, where there is a major waterfall called garganta del diablo (devils throat), where the river falls abruptly about 50 meters inside a cavern of volcanic rock.

Before taking a ride on the back of a small truck back to the city, we treated ourselves to the best on the spot home made empanadas ever, and I finallu tried a juice of tomate de arbole (tree tomato). By chance we met two Austrian guys that we had gotten to know in Cotopaxi, and enjoued stories of their climb of the volcano during lunch.

Then it was time to leave Baños to Riobamba, which is famous for the Devils nose train ride that is regretfully not working until March because of consolidation works on the line. We hence decided to move on the next morning, but not without having a nice cheap dinner of of chuleta and morocho ( a sweet traditional Ecuadorian drink made of white corn and milk) on a street stand.