Things To Do In Banos
When I was in Ecuador I had heard that a fun thing to do in Banos was to go to the hot springs. Going to Los Banos seemed like a great way to spend the day. I was with my twin (we call ourselves twins, I’ll explain that later) and since neither of us wanted to drive the three hours one way to Los Banos from Quito we arranged for a taxi to take us. It was more expensive than renting a car but all we had to do was ride in the backseat and let the driver do all the work so for the both of us it was money well spent.
We were both really excited and had on our bathing suits are were looking forward to basking in the heat of the hot springs. The springs are in lovely surroundings as you can see from the waterfall in the picture below.
This is the entrance area and there are changing rooms and restrooms.
Kristine and I were so happy, we were at the springs! But then our happiness turned to, “What the what?!?” when we saw all the people in the brown, murky water. We both stood by the side of the pool and I was trying to figure out how I was going to tell my friend that after hiring a taxi driver for the day and driving three hours to get here I no longer had any interest in getting in that water. It just looked nasty and I couldn’t even think about getting in it. And there were so many kids! I just thought the water was urine infested because I knew all those kids weren’t getting out to use the bathroom. But before I could go any further Kristine said, “Um, Roni…I don’t mean to be a bitch but I’m NOT going in that.” Hallelujah! I was feeling the exact same way. The water didn’t look appealing AT ALL and when I went over to touch it, the water wasn’t hot. It was barely lukewarm. When Kristine said that I started laughing and said, “Dude, I’m so not mad at you. I feel the same way.”
Please don’t misunderstand me. Our not getting in had nothing to do with the people in the water. They could have all been White, Black, Asian or whatever…it was the amount of people combined with the water. I know hot springs aren’t clear but something about seeing a jam-packed pool and the water which looked like it was dirty even though I knew it wasn’t, just turned us both off. When you travel you have to be flexible because sometimes things don’t work out the way you planned and when they don’t, you move on to the next thing. No need to get upset or angry, things happen and you just have to roll with it.
I wanted something to eat so we stopped at this place that was right next to the hot springs. I took this picture so you could see the fly swatter right on the counter. That is something I wouldn’t normally see in the US and if you travel to different countries, you may see sights that may shock you. Please don’t be shocked, just roll with it.
This was the second hot springs we went to. We thought that maybe this one would be less crowded but as you can see, it wasn’t so we didn’t get in and we gave up the idea of getting into a hot spring.
So me and my twin found a place to have massages. Can’t go wrong with someone rubbing your feet now can you? Now you may be wondering why we call ourselves twins when clearly we don’t look alike. Kristine actually is a twin, she has a fraternal twin sister. One day several years ago (Kristine and I have been friends since high school) I was at Kristine’s house and we were talking to some guy on the phone who neither of us had ever met. We told him that Kristine had a twin then I said, “And I’m her twin and I’m Black.” He was shocked and we told him that our dad was Chinese (her dad is) and our mom was Black and she got the Chinese genes and I got the Black ones. He totally believed us and we kept the joke going for the whole conversation and ever since then we have referred to each other as each others twin.
