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Just before landing in Quito airport there's one thing that's guaranteed to cross your mind the catastrophic consequence an airline crash will have near the airport. The Quiport like the rest of Quito lies in a valley but unlike any other airport we've been to it's strangely surrounded by buildings. Inside the architecture is modern and I must admit that I awaited much worse. At 8am everything was working as it should and we passed through immigration with no hassles or incredulous looks at the passport, although I doubt it came out of familiarity with our country. After collecting our luggage we took a taxi to the bus station 'Terminale Terrestre'.
Ecuador Travelogue - Friday 9th September A Banos, A Banos!!!
Mike Krupel2006-06-28 20:32:04
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Just before landing in Quito airport there's one thing that's guaranteed to cross your mind the catastrophic consequence an airline crash will have near the airport. The Quiport like the rest of Quito lies in a valley but unlike any other airport we've been to it's strangely surrounded by buildings. Inside the architecture is modern and I must admit that I awaited much worse. At 8am everything was working as it should and we passed through immigration with no hassles or incredulous looks at the passport, although I doubt it came out of familiarity with our country. After collecting our luggage we took a taxi to the bus station 'Terminale Terrestre'.
The taxi driver dropped us in front of a stairs leading to a square where we should have found the ticket offices but instead we somehow ended up in a telephone cabin office instead. After putting some of last month's Spanish lessons to use we managed to find the ticket office and the bus to Banos. The trip promised to be culturally rich from the start my Madam pointed at a policeman pissing on the front of a bus. The bus to Banos, probably free of piss, was relatively modern but the people inside gave just the perfect retro touch to remind us that we were in Ecuador.
Flute player on busThe characters on this bus became imprinted in memory and will probably remain there for a long time, at least until I continue hearing 'A Banos', 'A Banos' reverberating in my mind. This was the call the bus attendant or as I preferred referring to him, the bus sales man, was calling out at each stop. No matter were we stopped, be it to let people off or to wait in the traffic, the attendant called out at the top of his voice to load more passengers. His tactics were fruitful because the bus kept replenishing itself with people. Then there was the bus driver who must have been under an accumulated adrenaline rush out of watching Fast and Furious, because we were close to
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Ecuador Gallery
