Banos & Salinas

We've just spent the last few days in the towns of Banos and Salinas in the centre of Ecuador.

We spent 2 nights in Banos famous for its hot springs, hence the name! We stayed in hostel Chimenea which had amazing views of an impressive waterfall on the edge of the town, from its rooftop terrace. The town itself is nice to walk around but as we were there on a weekend it was very busy with Ecuadorian tourists! We went to the Aguas Calientes ( hot springs) but didn't stay very long as they were ridiculously packed!! There was a really good atmosphere around the town though and the main plaza was great with lots going on.

We then decided to go to a little and unknown village called Salinas, for a few nights. There's a tiny paragraph in the lonely planet about this place and in it, it says the village consists of loads of little cooperatives whose produce includes chocolate, salami and cheese...so we decided we'd have to check it out, if we could get there!

After getting a bus from Banos to a place called Ambato and then another bus to Guaranda and then a colectivo through the various mountainside villages we finally arrived to Salinas, a small village of 1000 people high up in the mountains. We checked into the town's Refugio where we seemed to be the only guests and then quickly discovered that we were the only gringos in village!! It's a really nice quiet little place but it doesn't have a huge amount to do. We popped into the chocolate factory and of course tried some samples and that night went for dinner in the only restaurant that seemed to be open, a pizzeria.

The next day we went down to the tourist office to see if someone could bring us around the cooperatives and after a few phone calls it transpired that the usual guide wasn't awake so instead a local farmer called Victor was going to bring us! Victor was about 80 but we were running to keep up with him as he traversed the various hills en route to the different co-ops. He explained that up until the 70s Salinas had been very poor farming village with mostly dairy. However, then an Italian priest came over and started an initiative to build cooperatives within the community so they could sell or export their produce themselves.

First stop was the cheese factory where we saw the different stages of cheese production. We saw how local farmers brought the milk to the cheese factory in barrels strapped to llamas and donkeys. Next we visited the two chocolate factories where we saw them making chocolate and stocked up on our own chocolate supplies! The next few co-ops we went to included a salami factory, a mushroom factory and a wool factory. We visited a tiny co-op that made plastic footballs and we also went to a textile factory and saw people knitting and weaving using alpaca, llama and sheep wool. We both bought gloves as it is absolutely freezing here at night! We also got some salami and cheese and went back to the hostel and had a feast!!

It was great to get off the beaten track for a few days but this morning we're getting right back on it and the next stops are Puerto Lopez and Montanita!!