Ba

In June of 2004, my wife and I spent a week in Banos, Ecuador. Our clean hotel room, with cable TV, cost $6 per night. It was $12 normally, but we're good negotiators. We paid just $1 for lunch each day ($2.25 total for both, with tip), which was usually chicken, rice, beans, salad and juice. Sometimes we splurged and paid $1.50 at a nicer place.

Evenings we went to Santo Pecado ("saint/sinner") or one of the other discos. Our favorite was Tuparina, perhaps due to the huayusa, a drink made of a psychadelic plant collected by the family of the owner. Most days I played chess in the open market in the center of town, with Manolo or Rene, or other locals.

Getting Into Hot Water In Ba