October 18, 2010 3

Around town in Baños, Ecuador

By Libby in Baños, Ecuador, South America

Over the weekend, some friends and I headed to Baños, Ecuador. The town sits at the base of Tungurahua (meaning “Throat of Fire”), an active volcano that last erupted in May. Baños is a little over three hours by bus from Quito, so on the weekends it is full of both national and international tourists.

People gathering on a lookout point near one of the waterfalls in Baños.

My friends take in the view at another lookout point.

This is what you see: two bridges. There are two guys at the middle of the top bridge pestering people to go bungee jumping. They basically just tie a climbing rope to you and have a platform for you to jump off. Eek!

The town is also famous for making taffy. Here is the raw sugar cane, where it all begins!

Men pulling taffy. I was a little shy about taking this picture. I kinda love how the guy on the left is watching soccer.

Then women aggressively sell the sweets to everyone who walks by.

We happened to arrive during the annual Nuestra Señora de Agua Santa festival. This meant not only a series of processions, but bands playing the entire time we were there and fireworks going off in the streets from metal structures somebody’s dad probably rigged-up. Everyone was standing dangerously close to the fireworks, but we were all prepared to duck in case of emergency.

Religious paraphernalia was being sold in stalls outside the church. On the bottom right is Garfield, patron saint of lasagna.

We went out to get drinks and a man was throwing flames inside the bar. Again, I had my escape route planned just in case the building went up in flames.