BANOS, ECUADOR

* Racing South now to get to Lima in Peru and catch a flight into Cuzco, Machu Pichu. Havde decided to make a few stops along the way.

• First stop Banos. Small town nestled in a valley and surrounded by an active Volcano.
• The Volcano is that active that only a few weeks ago - most people took off because it was spewing hot ash into the town.
• The towns peopl are pissed with the Govt for not giving them enought monitoring equip and compensation - so when I was there they decided to protest in the streets and blockade the roads in and out of Banos. This posed a little bit of a problem to me - because I needed to keep moving South to get ino Peru. I stayed a couple of days and then got up early one mornign along with 5 other travellers and we crossed the blockade, walked then paid a few US dollars to get in the back of a ute and drive us out of the town - money well spent.
• Did some canyoning / rappelling down a few waterfalls when I was there - good fun - one waterfall was 44m high and was an overhang - so it meant you couldnt put your feet on any thing you just sort of free fall.