We arrived safely in the town of Banos after 8 hours on the road, including a 45 minute stop for food to take with us at one of the largest and most upscale shopping malls most of us have ever seen in the capital city Quito. Banos is to the south of Otavalo and Quito and we crossed the equator along the way. It was another gloomy day of clouds and rain so we couldn't see the peaks of any of the 14,000 ft. plus volcanos along the way. A relatively small volcano had erupted just outside of Banos only four months ago and the landscape was a barren lava field for a stretch on the way into town.

There is an impressive river (Rio Pastanzas) that forms the northern boundary of the town. Over the ages it has cut a deep and jagged canyon with just enough of a valley for a town like Banos to reside. With all the rain the country has recently experienced, including today's rains, it is quite dirty and rushing along in a fury. The photo below has difficulty conveying all of the grandeur of this river--for example the roar of the water as you get close--but there it is nevertheless. We crossed the main bridge (from l to r) and then returned by way of a trail that took us across the foot bridge you can see in the bottom half of the photo.

Here I am on the foot bridge. You can see a small waterfall on the left bank to my right. There are waterfalls or cascades all around this area. A visit to one of the more prominent ones is on tomorrow's itinerary.

The photo below is of Ron hamming it up next to one of the "scary" clown trash receptacles that seem to be everywhere in Ecuador. There is apparently a serious campaign to keep litter off the streets. To me this is quite refreshing after all of my travels to Guatemala where one has to look awfully hard to find a trash can, and where trash is spread everywhere.

I'll close with a photo of some of the beautiful orange flowers that lined portions of the river hiking trail.