Road to Baños

From Quito we took a private bus to Baños, where we planned to stay the weekend as tourists. The bus was tiny and when loaded with all the passengers and our baggage barely crawled along on the hills. At one point we were pulled over by the Policia becasue we were driving so slow and our driver had to pay off the officer so that we could continue. As we left Quito the countryside became poorer and poorer, many building half constructed or stopped once a roof was put up, but were not completely covered or painted. Common on the roadsides accross Ecuador are little shacks where you can purchase local fruits, candies, basic little snack foods.

The countryside here is beautiful and the domesticated animals seem to rome anywhere although at one point I saw an old couple protecting their cow from being hit by passing trucks on the freeway--That´s right, a cow on the highway! Other than that there wasn't much else to see. Gas here is pretty cheap as they take it from the Amazon in Ecuador and refine it hear, a serious problem that is destroying native habitats.