At Eduardo's, with Ecuadoreans

Thursday ranks high on my Ecuadorean experiences so far.  We had five hours to play while our laundry was being done, so spent the afternoon at Eduardo's, an indoor spa on the edge of Banos. We were curious -- had noticed weird big dinosaurs and an airplane perched on the mountainside above it, and that it had a gym included in the $5 admission (turns out the gym excluded women : \ ).  

Note the plane, tail section barely visible, above the light post to the right. 

We took swimsuits, books, cards.  Pretty complete, it had a cold swimming pool, a hot tub, a medium temp pool, a sauna and an aromatic steam room (Turkish bath with eucalyptus branches).  Closed, but probably awaiting a busier day were a solarium, a cold pool, another Turkish bath and another three hot tubs.  And a place to buy beer, snacks, sodas, etc.  No other westerners but us and many Ecuadorean families -- playful, gentle, friendly folks, so nice to be around.

Choclo, the national snack dish -- lupine beans, toasted salted corn kernels, a salsa of onions, tomatoes, lime juice, 60 cents.  Delicious.

The main room.

Looking at the primary swimming pool, comfortably cool water.

Looking across to what's behind the arches: the tepid pool on the right, a hot tub with jets on the left.

The upstairs solarium, not working while we were there.  No photos of the auromatic Turkish bath, sauna or hot tub downstairs.

I hung out in the aromatic steam room, lamely but enjoyably making conversation with a few Ecuadorean ladies.  The kids played ball with us in the water, a guy came over and watched our card game (gin), picked it up very quickly and played cards with us.  

And we walked up the mountainside to see the dinosaurs and the plane, rather awesome in their kitschy way. 

The Ecological Adventure begins!

Notice the eggs under the apatosaurus lady, and the menacing pterosaur behind. 

Steve with a rubber apatosaurus guy.

No explanation for the plane.  At all. 

 
After a delightful rain while we were playing cards with Mario (oh, the sound of heavy rain on the plastic corrugated roof!), we exited to a beautiful sunset.