Trujillo Huanchaco

Currency Soles $1 US = $2.83 Soles
Bus Mancora to Trujillo $30 Soles (10 hours)
Hostel Trujillo $45 Soles
Bus Trujillo to Haunchaco $1.60 Soles (30 minutes)
Hostel Haunchaco $15 Soles
Entrance Fee Chan Chan (covers 3 sites) - $11 Soles
Entrance into Temple of the Moon Site - $11 Soles

As mentioned in my last post I got screwed on my bus trip out of Mancora. On the upside I can cross off my bucket list; peeing on the side of the Panamerican Highway in Peru with a bus load of people waiting, thank god I thought I would never get to do that one, I can die happy now. I got into Trujillo at about 10am.

Trujillo does not have a central bus depot, every company has their own stations which is a pain in the ass when shopping for tickets as they are spread out all over the city. Luckily my station was pretty close to the center of town which is where the hostel I booked was. According to my map the hostel was not far away so I decided to walk it, again luck was on my side. I did not know it at the time but Trujillo is the 3rd largest city in Peru. The center of town is an oval shape with a street that runs all the way around it so it makes navigation pretty easy. My walk took about 20 minutes, would have been shorter if I had not gone in the wrong direction to begin with, figured it out within a couple of blocks so I'm getting better. I do actually like getting lost and do it on purpose a lot, just not when I am lugging around my big pack.

I had found the hostel Residencial Munaywasi on hosteltrail.com and it sounded good, old colonial home, 2 blocks from 1 of the main squares, family owned and operated. I had emailed them requesting a dorm room, I had not heard back so I wasn't sure if I had a reservation or not. Turns out I did but they don't have a dorm just private rooms with a TV that are $45 Soles a night. As I was only staying the 1 night I splurged. I did enjoy watching the Prestige on TV, Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale great movie. The lady that runs the place is very nice, she made me a Pisco Sour; the national Peruvian drink, those things will knock you on your ass. I dropped my stuff and headed out to walk around for a while. That lasted all of 2 hours before I headed back and took a 4 hour siesta. Did I mention no sleep on the bus? Went out again when I woke up, nice place lots of squares, a big street market and tons of shops and restaurants.


The next day I was heading to Huanchaco which is a suburb of Trujillo, it is the beach end of town. My experience up to this point is that beach town never have super markets so while in Trujillo I hit the mega super market. The hostel I was heading to had a full kitchen and I was going to be there a few days so I wanted to have some supplies. The hostel I was at in Trujillo had a kitchen as well so I had a place to store them, worked out pretty well.

The big draw for the area is the pre-Inca ruins of Chan Chan, the largest pre-Colombian city in South America and the larges adobe city in the world (20 square miles), the pre-Inca ruins of the Muche people and the surf breaks off Haunchaco. They are suppose to be some of the best in the world, funny how every place says that, I guess it is a pretty vague statement.

Day 2 I caught the collectivo van out to Trujillo, the highway runs right through the middle of the Chan Chan ruins. A pretty impressive site even if they are very damaged, you can tell they were walls but the elements (rain, wind earthquakes) have taken their toll on them.

I had chosen the Nay Lamp Hostel as my new home. The reviews online were good, it had a kitchen and was across the street from the beach. A bed in a 6 bed dorm was $15 Soles a night. It is a really nice place, there are 2 sections the back has the kitchen, camping area with fire pit and some rooms. The front has rooms, restaurant and reception area. They also have a couple of large turtle mascots who will wander into your room if you leave the door open, they also seem to like the main bathroom of the restaurant. It is a great place, some really nice people who work there and non champagne backpackers. Although I did meet up with a couple who were also at the Loki during my time there.

As I suspected no super market in town, however there is one on the road back to Trujillo about a 20 minute bus ride away. They do have a pretty good markado with fresh vegetables, meats and some groceries. It is a typical tourist beach town, lots of restaurants, surf shops, street vendors and artisan shops. But it has a much better vibe than Mancora, everyone is not out to scam you, more laid back. Like Mancora every restaurant serves Cebichi (seafood cooked in lime juice), all the backpackers eat the stuff by the truckload and they all say it is great. I however do not do adventures in food so I have no first hand opinion. I like my food dead, not looking the way it did when it was alive and well done not "cooked" in lime juice. As close as I get to living on the edge is empanadas which I do really like a lot and they are very cheap. The town also has several fine establishments that serve torte de chocolate (chocolate cake) and apple pie so I was pretty happy with the food selections available.

As well as being a surf town Huanchaco is a fishing town and has been since the days of the Inca. The local fisherman use nets and small reed boats that are too small for them to put their feet in so they dangle them over the sides. You can find the boats on the shore when not in use and the fishermen sitting around mending their nets, all very small village feeling which is very nice, you can tell they are not there for the tourists they are working folks.

Chan Chan is a must see while in this area, it is located between Trujillo & Haunchaco so either place is a good base. It is about a 1km walk to the main ruins, there are taxi's that you can take if you are feeling really lazy and a few people offering to sell maps etc. Don't pay for a guide, only official guides are allowed to take you through the site. The entry fee to get in is 11 Soles (covers entrance to 2 other sites and the museum) the price includes a guide (you can't go through without one), tipping the guide is not included. My guide had worked there since 1963, he worked with the archeologists in helping to uncover the site, then in restoration and now as a guide. He also spoke 3 languages, a pretty amazing guy. Chan Chan has been pretty hard hit by nature, it's amazing that it has lasted as long as it has, I am pretty sure adobe is not meant to last that long. The city covered 20km in it's prime, unfortunately now there is a lot of it that just looks like hills of sand, you can see some brick in it but most of it is lost now.

The city was built by the Chimu around 850AD, they were conquered by the Incas in 1470AD. The entire city had a 50-60 foot wall around it made of bricks with a layer of smooth finish over the top. In the section that tourists can visit the walls have carvings on them, animals, fish etc.. The site runs along the Pacific Ocean which had the tallest walls to protect the town from the winds. It is an incredible place, what they have managed to recover and restore is beautiful and they are still working on the site so there is stuff still to discover. They have found evidence of human sacrifices and the elite of the society were buried with their toys and in some cases their wives and servants. The site was looted by the colonials so may of the artifacts and traces of what the people may have been like, how they lived and how their society operated are lost. There is much speculation by the intellectual types and a variety of theories based on what has been found so far.

As mentioned the ticket for Chan Chan also covers the museum which I did go and see, it is a short 5 minute walk down the road. It was okay but nothing fantastic. One of the other ruins is in a suburb, kind of weird, right behind a park, also okay but very small. I have been running into these Inca dogs while I have been here, no fur and kind of ugly, they come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, some of them have a little tuft of hair on the top of their heads. The guy that ran this place had 4 adult ones and 4 puppies. The puppies are not as ugly as the grownups but still only a face a mother could love. You do have to be very careful about comments, the folks that own them think they are beautiful and they get offended if they hear you call them ugly.. Guilty, had to do some fast back-peddling in bad Spanish. I did not make it to the other site included in the ticket, it is way off the beaten path. I was just being lazy so I have no information to share on that one and none of the other travelers had gone either so might be worth the trip.

I did go to another site, temple of the sun and temple of the moon (Huaca del Sol & Huaca del Luna), these are dated at 100BC - 650AD they preceded the folks that made Chan Chan, these were the Muche. The Huaca del Sol has not been excavated and you cannot go into it, seems there is not enough funding and it was mostly destroyed, the Spanish diverted a river to wash it away to try to get the gold out. At 135 feet above the plain it is the tallest adobe structure in the Americas. The Huaca del Luna has been partially excavated but they don't have plans to do much more, they are afraid that they may weaken the supports and damage the ruins. Both temples were looted long ago, the Spanish got there first and then modern day robbers have taken over.

I took the bus here with a Swiss hostel mate, a longer journey than I had thought it would be. Despite reminding our bus wrangler (the guy that yells at you to get on and off the bus and takes your money) he forgot to let us know when our stop for the connecting bus was so we went by it and had to backtrack. On the upside he felt really bad and gave us our money back. So back we went and then had to wait for a collectivo up to the site. Funny how you can ask 4 different people what van to catch and you get 4 different answers. Sucks because they don't really stop the wrangler just yells their destination as it is going by so you have to be quick and understand really garbled Spanish. Finally got it, $1.90 Soles and a 1/2 hour ride and we are there.

The entrance fee is $11 Soles and once again the guide is included, you can't go without one. You get to watch a 20 minute DVD on the excavation of the site, it is done by a company called Backus they also own the beer company and a bottled water company, kind of like a town in a Dean Koontz novel, makes you wonder what else they own.

This is a much smaller site than Chan Chan but I liked it better. The Muche liked color, most of their paintings are in color and it has held up over the years. The Luna Temple was the religious and sacrificial temple. Seems the Moche would organize fights between men and the loser got sacrificed by being strangled. There's a match you hope you win. The valley between the temples is were the folks lived and worked, some of it is still visible but not much. None of the artwork that has been uncovered in Luna has been restored, what you see is how they found it and it is amazing, definitely go and see this if you are in the area it is well worth the trip and like Chan Chan a portion of your entrance fee goes towards funding the excavation and preservation.

Back to the hostel for my last night, fire in the pit, some beers and some really cool people. Brit girl and Swiss guy who I did some of the tours with. NY rasta surfer dude, Bellingham surfer dude, Brando from Boston and the 5 traveling girls, Brit guys and Danish couple and Ecuador climbing guy. Was a pleasure sharing time with you. Happy travels.

On that note another plug for the website, www.losttrekkers.com a free people search. If you are looking for people you met on your travels place a free ad to find them.

Cuenca Ecuador Mancora Peru

Cuenca: Currency US $
Bus Banos to Cuenca - $10.00 - 8+hours - 1 transfer
Hostel Cuenca: $12.00
Bus Cuenca to Machala - $4.50 - 4 hours
Having to watch yet another Claude Van Damme movie in Spanish - Priceless
Bus Direct Machala - Ecuador to Tombes - Peru $4.00

Peru: Currency Sole - $1 US = $2.83 Soles
Collectivo Tombes to Mancora - $6 Soles - 2 hours
Hostel in Mancora: $32 Soles
Surf Board Rental: $10 Soles
Bus Mancora to Trujillo $35 Soles - 10 hours

I left Banos on the 11am bus, you know you ask if it's direct and they always smile and say yes. A nation full of professional poker players in the making. Surprise, not direct and our driver got lost twice, the locals had to tell him were to go. My pet peeve about Ecuador buses is not the crazy driving, the getting lost or the constant stops.. No it is that they love Claude Van Damme movies, Patrick Swayze bad ones are also a favorite. The one that he plays the trucker in and of course Road House. I guess it is partly because there is not a lot of dubbing or acting talent needed. But really, did Knock Off really need to be seen by a wider audience?

The bus change went rather smoothly, myself and a British Couple who have been on the road for a year were in it together. Our next bus arrived in 10 minutes and off we went, again really nice scenery while it was daylight, it gets dark pretty early in the Andes, 5:30ish, we got into Cuenco at around 7pm. I decided not to do the night bus and try to get to Mancora early in the morning. I had heard that Cuenca was a nice place so I decided to spend a night and check it out, the center of the city is a UNESCO world heritage site. I did check for tickets out to the border before I left the bus depot and there were several going out in the morning, good I had choices.

I read in the Planet about a hostel called El Monastario that was right in the town square block, it was cheap and convenient, the taxi from the bus depot was $2.00 and took about 25 minutes. The taxi dropped me at the door which was in an alley, the door was a gate with a buzzer, the hostel is located on the 6th floor. Yea an elevator! Haven't see one of those in a long time. I dropped my stuff off and I went for a walk went around the corner and to my horror discovered that the hostel was part of the church, you would think I would have figured it out with the name and all but I can be a little slow sometimes, I had nightmares about nuns all night.

I check in, get a private room, with bathroom and TV, kitchen and with free WIFI and coffee at a cost of $12.00 US. I drop my stuff and off I go to check out the town, found a coffee shop deli place right on the town square so settled in for a Latte and fruit crepes with chocolate, em em good. I then went for a wander around the 5 block radius about the town square, I was also searching for non itch stuff, on my hikes in Banos I forgot to use the insect repellent and I got a few bites that were driving me crazy. Forgot to look up the word for itchy before I went out and left my dictionary in the room so had to pantomime the whole thing out for the folks at the pharmacy, unlike ours everything is behind the counter and you have to ask for it.. Look out Academy, but got what I needed in the end and it worked so what is a little humiliation? Cuanca is an old colonial town, got to say they are nice but I have pretty much hit my limit on colonial towns. They are in a rivalry with Quito old town, as Cuenca is smaller I think it has the edge, more of a village kind of feel to it, some really great buildings. That was pretty much the extent of my time in Cuenca, the impression I got was clean, safe and interesting.

6:30am my alarm goes off, a coffee and I'm off to the bus depot to catch the 7:45 bus which should get me into Mancora at 6ish. I have to make a transfer in Machala for the direct bus into Peru to Tombes. This time a double feature the Patrick Swayze classic were he is the long haul trucker & the Claude Van Damme futuristic one were he is up against the big weird eyed guy, what a treat. This bus driver is suicidal, steep cliffs, sharp corners and he is playing to win. The locals were terrified and yelling at him, calling him loco, I actually watched both movies in order to avoid watching the road. If it's your time to go may as well go out watching bad B movies.

Made it to Machala and had to kill 2 hours before the direct bus over the border. There are other buses that just go to the Ecuador border but I had heard it was a pain in the ass and 3.5 km between it and the Peru border that you need to get a mototaxi for so I figured I would save myself the hassle. The bus stops at the Ecuador border, you get off it waits, you get back on it goes to the Peru border, it waits and off you go to Tombes. I have to say it was one of the largest market borders I have seen, the Ecuador side was just tons of street stalls and so many people selling stuff they were blocking the road to the border. If only I had a bigger pack sigh...

I did have a bit of a problem, a couple of guys on the Peruvian side tried to tell me there was a $20 charge to enter Peru. They station themselves in the actual immigration building and dress up in "official" outfits, but they are not officials they are scam artists. There is no charge to enter Peru, it is FREE which I knew, they dropped the price to $2.00, I declined their assistance. Then there are the money changers who are also located in the immigration building but they are not official. I had checked online and knew the Sole was at $2.83 soles to $1 US dollar so I figured I would change $5.00 over so I would have cab fare and to pay the collectivo to Mancora. The guy offered me 10 soles, totally unreasonable and I tire of people thinking I'm an idiot so I didn't even try to negotiate, told him I knew what the exchange was and walked away while he was yelling out his new rate. So I had no Soles and they don't take US $'s in small towns in Peru. The bus company has it's own depot (CIFA) and that is were the bus drops you. I caught a mototaxi and had him take me to the ATM then to where the collectivo's are that go to Manocra, I was in luck one was leaving for Mancora right away and was it ever packed. 14 of us in there for the 2 hour ride. The driver knew where my hostel was so he dropped me off right in front of Loki.

I had found Loki Hostel in Mancora online, it is new and looked good, a bit of a party place but I didn't really care, it had WIFI was on the beach and free coffee, I am such a whore for the gratis caffeine. Little did I know what I was getting myself into, champagne backpackers. The kind that have suite cases with wheels and they have truck loads of makeup, blow dryers and they dress up for dinner, a new outfit every night the smell of Axe wafting through the halls. Totally not my kind of place and the average age was about 23, but the people watching was great. Unfortunately by the time I figured it out it was too late, I had committed to 5 nights, lesson learned. It was clean, there was a pool and the staff and the guys that run the place were very nice. It is like a Club Med or Sandals for backpackers, lots of organized fun, again not my thing but the kids seemed to like it. That being said I need to mock.. A different bikini every day, really? At a beach town but never leave the side of the pool? Huge suite cases with wheels, and some of them were guys. These people wouldn't know a chicken bus if it ran them over. Okay I feel superior now. If you are not the type of person described above then the Loki is not for you. There are 2 other hostels on either side that are 1/2 the price both looked very nice.

There are lots of street stands for artisans, I bought a few things from the artisans and the prices were reasonable, I didn't even try to bargain for a better price.

I did meet some artisanos and hung out with them, more my kind of people, got to love anyone who juggles fire. Mancora is a nice town , they are doing some major renovations on the waterfront so at the moment it is not looking so good but give it a few months and it will probably be beautiful. They do have an issue with trash, as in they just toss it where ever they want so the beach would be much better if they stopped doing that. The locals at the stores, artisano stands and restaurants are great, very nice people.

The town does attract some bad people, lots of the folks on the beach are looking for anyway to scam the tourists. I got nailed, a local surf instructor that I had talked to in passing for a few days sat down at my table on the beach, I was having a beer. He helped himself to it, there wasn't much left in the bottle so I didn't really care. He left and came back with a couple of more bottles and told me he bought them. Turns out he didn't he put them on my tab so surprise when I went to pay and he was gone. Live and learn. Next up the mototaxi dudes, they quote you a price that is double what the locals pay which I am okay with. I don't expect to pay the same as they do, why should the fact that they have tourists drive up their cost of living? Most of them don't make much money so for me $.50 doesn't make much difference. But when they go to drop you off they want to charge more money. I had heard about this from other tourists so I made sure I had exact change if I need to take a mototaxi. I only took 2 my whole time there and both times they tried it. I handed them the amount we agreed on when I got in and just got out and walked away. It is really not worth arguing with them, you would be there for hours. This only works if you have exact change, if you need change from them you are screwed.

I rented a surf board from the Loki surf shop, the reception folks told me it was $10 Soles for 1/2 a day, they charged me $10 Soles for 2 hours and I am pretty sure he just pocketed the money, I didn't fill in any paperwork. Mancora is know for it's surfing not that it would make any difference in my world, I am not good enough to know the difference but I did notice there is only the 1 break and it is very crowded. I've since talked to a few real surfers and they said unless you are out there at 5am not much point in going as it gets too crowded and you can't catch many waves.

The other bad experience was my bus out of town. I got a ticket from an agency the day before I was leaving for a night bus that left at 9:30pm. At 8pm (an hour 1/2 before my bus was to leave), I stopped by the bus depot to drop off my large backpack so I could go to the store and get some bus munchie food. There were 2 women there, neither of which sold me the ticket, they get all confused and check my ticket (which is actually a receipt) and then one runs out and comes back 15 minutes later. Turns out they forgot to buy my ticket from the bus company, but they assured me that everything was fine. The ticket that I paid for was for a semi-cama (reclining seat), this is not what I got, I got the back of the bus where the seats do not recline but by the time I got to my seat the bus was already on its way. So I got 9 hours of sitting up totally straight with the person in front of me's seat in my lap, oh and no bathroom. Screw ups happen but these evil people sat and smiled and joked with me the whole time they knew they were screwing me over. Not an offer of this is the only seat do you want it or would you like to take another bus? No offer of any kind of refund.. So don't buy bus tickets from the agency across the street from the church in the green & white building, they are bad bad people.

The bus I thought I was getting. Not to be

All in all I did not like Mancora, the scummy element was too much for me. I don't want to treat locals like they are going to rip me off and I don't want to be mean to people. Basically I don't want to be the kind of person you have to be to not get ripped off in that town, it's like you have a target on your back and everyone has an ulterior motive for talking to you. If you want a beach town I am in Huanchaco and although touristy there does not seem to be the same scammer feel to it.

Banos Ecuador

Currency - US $'s
Bus Quito to Banos - $3.50
Hostel Banos - $8.50 per night

The South bus terminal (Quitombe) in Quito is very nice. The Trolebus drops you right off at the terminal (it is the last stop on the line), you walk over to the building, up the ramp to the 2nd floor where all the tickets are sold. The ticket offices are grouped together so all the companies that sell tickets to Banos are in one area and they all yell out their destinations so it is hard to miss. Unlike Colombia the bus companies in Ecuador post their routes and the times, a much better system. There are tons of companies that go to Banos, a bus leaves pretty much every hour and they are all about the same price so just check and see which one is leaving 1st an buy a ticket. I caught the 4pm bus, but I would recommend catching an earlier one if you can (I couldn't as I had a Spanish lesson that day), the ride takes about 4 hours you don't have to change buses but they do stop alot to pick up people.

The bus routes take you through the avenue of volcanoes, I have never seen anything like it, truly a spectacular sight. I have no pictures as I have found that trying to take pictures from a bus doing 90km around corners rarely turn out so I didn't even try, just sat back and enjoyed the view, Ecuador has a lot of volcanoes. I did miss out on some of the scenery as it gets dark at 6pm, not a problem I got to see it when I left Banos and the night version was pretty nice, volcanoes and stars a pretty good show.


Banos is a very small town nestled in a valley between volcanoes, very pretty and cozy, however one of the volcanoes is very active, Tungurahua Volcano erupted in 1999, 2006 and in 2008. There are signs all over town pointing to evacuation routes should it go again. The signs gave me a giggle and I used one on my facebook profile during my time there, very well done and they are clear and get the point across but kind of funny. After the 1999 eruption the residence of Banos were evacuated and only 1/2 of the them chose to return. From what I could see the town was packed with locals and the smaller villages on the side of the volcano have people living in them so some of them must have changed their minds. Banos is named for the thermal baths that are located there, they are heated by the volcano Tugurahua and the mineral water comes from the river running down it, so not such a bad thing having a live volcano in the hood. In the 4 days that I was there I only got a clear view of it once when I hiked up the mountain across from it, you can see it in the top picture of this post, it is the one in the back behind the town

I had found Hostal Chimenea on hosteltrail.com and had directions to it so I decided to walk rather than take a cab, it was about a 5 minute walk. The hostel like most in smaller towns in Ecuador is more like a hotel. For $8.50 a night I got my own room with a bathroom and free WIFI. There is a kitchen upstairs that you can use anytime after 11am as it is used as a restaurant and they serve breakfast. The top deck has a great view of the town waterfall La Virgin and I could hear it from in my room. It was a very soothing sound to go to sleep to although I think I made 2 extra bathroom trips during the night because of it.

Banos is a town that is defiantly geared for tourists, tons of shops, markets, and restaurants most of which seem to serve Italian food, pizza, lasagna etc. There are tons of cheap burger and chicken places as well. A local dish in Ecuador is Guinea pig, up until I hit Banos I had not seen any but right by the artisan market just up from the church there are 2 food stalls that serve it. Not something I would ever try, I don't like my food looking at me while I eat it, I can't even do fish if it still has the head on it but I was curious about the preparation. It seems there is very little, take the fur off an roast they look like crispy bald guinea pigs. Feel free to use the pictures to traumatize your children into taking care of their pet guinea pig. Some of the backpackers were giving it a go, much braver folks than I. They also make a kind of toffee there called melcochas, it is made of sugar cane and they pull it off of the door stops of their shops. There is a wooden hook kind of like a coat hook that they wrap it on and pull. I did buy some but haven't tried it yet if I open the package I don't think it will last and there is a lot of it, so guess what everyone I go camping with this summer is going to get to try until it is all gone? No not the guinea pig, the toffee.

I did indulge in the local thermal baths, for about $2.00 (I forgot how much it was but it wasn't over 2) you can soak in any or all of the 3 baths that very in temperature from luke warm to really hot. I gave them all a go and liked the medium one best, it was a cloudy rainy day when I went so a good time to just soak, if I was going to get wet anyway I was going to be warm doing it.

I also went for a couple of hikes, 1 up the mountain across from town and 1 up the ravine leading up to the volcano, both were free. At the start of the trail to the volcano there is a monument made of lava rock. I also hiked up to La Virgen Mirador, after the ravine, there was a trail that said it was 20 minutes up, you can also take the million stairs route up. I was disappointed, all that effort and all that was up there was a statue, if you are really ambitious you can continue hiking another 2.5km to La Virgin waterfall. I wasn't, I had already done about 8km that day. I rented a bicycle one day as well $5,00 for the day and you get a map of the area, lock, air pump and helmet. There is a bike ride you can do that will take you around to all of the waterfalls in the area. The entire route is 60km but I did the 20km one. Most of the route is down hill and the scenery is beautiful, I saw 5 waterfalls. There is some car, truck, bus traffic on the roads and there are tunnels, you only have to go through 1 of them the rest have bike paths to the right of them that you use instead. In most cases if you want to get close up the the falls you will need to do a little hiking, there is also the option at a couple of them of doing the bucket across the ravine, okay not really a bucket more of baskets. As far as I know no one bikes back to Banos, Once you have had enough you find a bus stop on the other side of the road and take the bus back, they put the bike on the roof. I got picked up by a tourist bus, it was going by saw me and stopped, they put my bike on the roof and off we went back to Banos at a cost of $2.00. A lovely trip with a bunch of Ecuadorian tourists who thought it was pretty funny that anyone would want to bike when there is a perfectly good bus to take. Gringo's we are a stupid bunch.

I paid a visit to the local church, Basilica de Nuestra Señora de Agua Santa it is right by the hotel I stayed at and has a museum attached. They have some weird pictures there, disasters, car wrecks, horse and buggy accidents etc. All of the people in the events were saved (miracles) by The Virgin of the water, all of the pictures have the story printed under them. From what I could figure out they think the Virgin Mary is the guardian of the waterfall and the town.

I did make it out to a couple of bars while I was there, 1 in particular was different, it is called the Leprechaun, 2 floors and an open air back yard that they have 2 bars and a bonfire in. Very nice slurping girlie blender drinks in front of a fire. If you are there you can't miss it, most of the bars are on 1 street and there is road signage on the street with a little cocktail glass and an arrow pointing the way.

On the way down from my hike down from La Virgin statue I got a view of the town cemetery and I noticed that it looked like a little town. There were streets and the crypts all looked like buildings, there was the nice ones and then there was the apartment building ghetto section. I have never seen a cemetery like it, not that I hang out in them much except on full moons when a sacrifice needs to be made :-)

I met some more nice folks while I was here, a couple of Brit's and a few Germans, one of which owns a hostel in a beach town on the Pacific Coast, I think he is in Manglaralto, Peter if you see this feel free to post info in the comments section. He and his friend Alvin were pretty darned amusing, German humor :-)

At the bus depot on my way out of town I was asked to do a survey on my time in Banos, what I liked, how was my hotel, the people etc.. I totally enjoyed my time in Banos, the people were great, even the tourist agency folks they told me the cheapest and best way to see the sites. They have rafting, bungy etc as well which I passed on but the bike trip was because of the tourist guy, he said not to take the bus tour and bike it instead it was a better trip. One of the cheaper stops I have made on this trip. My one comment to the guy doing the survey was not to sell out to the tourists, I don't think he understood what I meant and my Spanish is not good enough that I could explain it. The town is already pretty touristy, I don't think they need to do anything more to cater to us. Nothing will wreck a perfectly good place like a bunch of tourists.

I have been writing a little more descriptions lately in my blogs as well as putting links to more info. My Aunt and Uncle who are the nicest people I know are printing these off for my Grandfather to read so he does not have access to the links for more info. He is 95 years old and legally blind so it takes him a long time to read these. In the 1930's he rode the rails during the depression and I grew up listening to his stories. Just before I left Panama for Colombia his wife died (my Step Grandmother), they had been together for over 30 years. Rest in peace Roseanne. I hope these stories of my adventures are keeping you entertained Pops, I am not 1/2 as good at story telling as you are. Love You!