Thursday, April 29, 2010

Hiking to Cafe del Cielo

Today we found a nice place to eat breakfast. At around 10:30 we went on the hike "Sendero de Bella Vista" which we had started the day before. It was much higher than we thought. At Bella Vista there is a huge cross that is lit up at night and you can see it from the town below. We continued on up the mountain on a paved road for another couple of km and we ended up at a place called Cafe del Cielo. It is a spa and restaurant with the most spectacular view. Altogether we walked 2 hours uphill, what a workout! We had a cerveza at the restaurant and then headed back down a different path. It was a very steep descent and our legs felt like rubber when we got down.


Sendero de Bella Vista


Hiking up, up, up.


View of Banos from Bella Vista.


Where is this freakishly smooth road leading to?


Cafe del Cielo, a spa and restaurant overlooking the city.


View of Banos from inside the restaurant.

In the afternoon walked through town a bit more and found a very nice artisan shop and we bought a tapestry for the wall. Love it! After supper we went to the Banos hot baths but it was quite crowded. The hottest pool was too hot for me so we spent most of the time in the 38 degree pool. Just what we needed for our aching legs and feet. Should sleep well tonight.


Walking around the town of Banos.


There are lots of places to stay in Banos. We decided not to stay at this "hotel palace", ha ha ha.


Our tapestry. It is a hummingbird or picaflor in spanish. The artist is a 3rd generation weaver. It takes 5 days to make one this size which is about 4' x 2.5'.

1 comment:

Lisa Morton said...

Hola Guys, The pics are awesome as always. So interesting. Rick said he is sure you are glad you chose Ecuador over DR. Look forward to hearing more in person. You can go next year, and be our tour guides.:)