We have been looking up to the Statue of the Virgin ever since we arrived the other day. We thought that we would hike up there today. When we got up the the clouds were covering the viewpoint. Doesn’t seem worth it if we can see anything from up there. I guess that’s out for today.

We go down for for breakfast and meet Greg and Leslie to find another plan for they day. We are almost finished breakfast when the sun begins to shine. As we leave breakfast we can see the top. We have no excuse now, I guess the hike is back on! 😉

We make our way into town where the starting point is and begin the climb.

We are still at 1800 meters, so still a substantial elevation. It isn’t long before Greg and Stu disappear from Leslie and my view. We have no illusions of keeping up with Greg’s long strides. That is now Stu’s problem. 🙂 Leslie and keep a steady pace, setting small goals for ourselves, like 2 sections of railing, or to the next landing.

A couple younger Ecuadorian men catch up to us. The younger one is struggling with the hike. The older one has very good English and tells us that his friend is not happy with him for bringing him here. We can certainly see that in his body language. Hahaha. As we are resting the older guy hops up on top of the railing and walks up for a while that way. Another time he just starts running up the steps 2 at a time. His friend just gave up and it wasn’t long until Leslie and I left him behind us. We meet his friend who is now on his way back down. We ask if he saw 2 gringos up there. He says he didn’t, but they might be in the bar. Really there is a little bar at the top, If all of these steps wasn’t enough you could climb another 50 meters almost straight up a dirt path to the bar.

We make it!!! It took us an hour, but we made it!!

There is an election in Ecuador this month. After we arrive at the Virgin we see a work crew who is painting and clearing brush, getting the site cleaned up for Holy Week which is coming soon. The workers are all supporters of one of the political candidates running for office here in Banos.

We decide the guys have already gone down the alternate path. We had made plans to meet Stu and Greg at noon in the main square.
It is raining quite a bit now, so we also head down the other path.

We see this beauty on the side of the trail.

This is a dirt path for a while but then changes to a wider road with loose gravel. It is quite slippery and we need to watch our steps carefully as it is quite steep in parts. I did slip on some loose stones and end up on my butt. Not harm, got up, Leslie helped me brush off the mud and we were on our way again.

Now back at the road where we started the day, we make our way to the square to find Stu and Greg in a little coffee shop called Honey’s. Time for a treat 🙂 The phrase on the wall says “Life begins with coffee” Look closely at the little beans. Clever.

Wandering about we decide to find the little cafe that a Danish woman owns. She approached us in the street yesterday telling us how great her food was, how great her chai was. So we opt for her place for lunch.

BiIG MISTAKE! When we arrived there were a couple young men in the cafe. It looked like the left without ordering. The woman brings us menus while telling us how great everything is, how busy they were last weekend. She convinced us that we should try her homemade Danish bread for our sandwiches ($1 more), convinced us that we should have the ham and cheese sandwich ($1 more). We were fortunate to share the sandwiches, which turned out to be 2 large buns with our selected fillings.

Before she started working on our order she yakked and yakked about how great Scandinavia was, how busy and tired they were for Carnival weekend, how her daughter is struggling in school and might go back to Denmark to school, how her son is too bright for school in Ecuador and is basically bored. All while inserting “you know what I’m saying” every 3 or 4 words. Stu just started looking at the photos on his camera, the rest of us didn’t want to make eye contact in case she started talking again. Food was just OK, but really overpriced. We paid more for lunch than some of our diners that included wine.

Banos is very busy today. One of the churches has multiple celebrations happening. At least one wedding and lots of people in fancy dress. Notice the KFC sign. They are very popular here in Ecuador.

We have seen cuy or guinea pigs being served in Peru and here in Ecuador. We have talked about maybe trying it. That is until we pass this stall here. There is a stick of sorts at the back of this barbecue that has 3 prongs. Each prong has a Cuy and are turned manually by ladies in the shop until they are done and then put at the front of the grill. Can’t do it!!

From our hike to great heights we could see what we think is court for a similar game that we saw in Quito in the park. It is on our way back to our hostel so we stop in for a peak. They welcome us and we sit in their viewing stands and watch the boys play for a while. It is a little different than the version in Quito.

Last night we ate at a great little place called Casa Hood. Tonight we are dining in Cafe Hood. Great atmosphere, great food. Cheaper than lunch!! 🙂