4 DAYS IN A RENTAL CAR ~ DAY 2

We had made it to Riobamba, found a great comfy hotel within our budgets, and woken up to a beautiful day. The only thing we could think of was breakfast!

Luckily the nite before we had scouted our neighborhood and saw a place that looked like a good spot. They were full of the locals and they served breakfast.

I decided since I was on vacation I should have a Amaretto Cappaccino

With our stomachs full and our spirits high we were off to find Guano. This town is known for its Rug makers. Old style looms that we had been told go up 3 stories..

Our handy GPS and a few roadsigns later we were off the beaten track and into some gorgeous farm country. We found Guano, but we were so early that most of the stores were not even open yet. We meandered around and found the central plaza for the requsite photo op.

We never did find the 3 story rug maker, and to be honest we couldnt buy one anyway. I did take a video of a lady making a rug.

Randy bought that brown hat he is wearing. All handmade wool.. $13. He did not bargain. We also saw a rug we liked that was more of a toursity rug, but we bargained and got that one too. $30.

As we left Guano we all had varying ideas of how to find the road we came in  on... and the GPS didn't agree with anyone... so we wandered around and around and finally found a road out of town. We were concerned as these roads were not paved, or very primitive, and again the locals gave us looks like we were definately on the road less traveled. We continued on and eventually found our way back to the main highway and into all the little towns preceding Banos.

Just a little hillside farming!

We arrived in Banos much to our relief a little after 1. Checked into Hostal Timaru. The rate was $10 a day, the nicest thing was the flowers and turtle in the courtyard.

We were off to find lunch and see a bit of the town. We had a nice Pizza at Pappardelles. YUM, and a liter of wine.. Oh my.. thank goodness there were four of us. Here are some pictures of the town.

Cool painting on the wall of a local bar.

1990 Piaggio Vespa and a old Ecuadorian hippe.

One of the vehicles you can rent to tour around town

We wandered around the rest of the afternoon, then went back and rested until dinner. We went to a recommended restaurant the Swiss Chalet for dinner. We were all still pretty full from the wonderful pizza so we all had appetizers. After dinner we meandered back to our room and crashed. Another big day ahead. We were going to go to Puyo... the gate way to the Amazon.