03/07 Got up and was on the road at 7:30am just like I’d planned. Unfortunately I didn’t realize that it was only 15 miles to Banos and it was almost all down hill. By 9am I was riding around looking for a home for the night. Surprisingly the 4th hotel I tried actually had a room. It’s much nicer than the place last night and for $15 it wasn’t horribly expensive.
Banos sits in a valley with towering green hills on both sides. There’s even a waterfall that cascades down from somewhere high above. None of the buildings in town are that old since the volcano wiped just about everything out (in 1948?). There are couple nice churches, a quaint little park and some hot springs. A popular treat here is taffy made from sugar cane. Good stuff.
I’m not sure exactly what Carnaval is all about but there really doesn’t seem like there’s much going on here other than people spraying each other with foam or throwing water balloons at each other. I’m sure things will be crazy out on the streets tonight with drinking and what not but if it weren’t for the million people walking around you wouldn’t think there was a major event happening. Maybe there’ll be a parade or something tomorrow. I was kind of expecting banners, balloons, signs… anything. It’s kind of disappointing. Watching the tourists in the rented mini dune buggies get coated with foam is pretty funny though. I haven’t been sprayed too many times. One little kid got me doing a driveby and I got shot in the back by a watergun. It’s a good idea to look up a lot because people on the rooftops love to throw buckets of water on the people passing below.
I booked the room for 2 nights but I kind of wish I was only staying for the one. Banos is not a huge town and I walked just about everywhere this afternoon so there’s not much left to see. The volcano isn’t even visible from town so the only view I had was the very limited glimpse I had riding here this morning.
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