Our journey brought us to Banos – literally meaning baths in Spanish due to the large number of thermal springs in the area. A beautiful area which is dominated by a volcano that has been continually erupting since 1999. So we decided to take a horse ride up to the volcano. Not right up to the rim – that’s considered suicidal since the last major eruption in July 2006 – just through some of the villages which were destroyed by said eruption. It was unfortunately a very cloudy rainy day, so we were only granted occasional glimpses of the spectacular view down the valley and were completely unable to see the volcano above us (although we could hear and feel the eruptions). Our guide was unworried by these though, telling us “solo pocino”. The actual horse riding was lots of fun, with the best horses either of us have ever had for a day trip before. Normally you seem to get old nags that are reluctant to go above a walk and the guides aren’t that keen for you to go fast either. Not on this trip. Within 30 seconds of being on the horses we were encouraged to speed up to a canter and throughout the morning we repeatedly galloped along roads and across lava fields. The horses also actually responded when you used the reins and only a slight squeeze of the legs was needed to get them to go faster.
The following day from our ride all we could feel where aching bones and bruised backsides so we headed to the thermal baths for the always recommended soothing waters. The water however does not do much for horse riding inflicted aches and pains and so we remained sore. The baths were nice despite waters so murky that you couldn’t see a hand span deep. One of the pools was a warm bath while the other hot bath felt like it was suitable for cooking dinner. Then if you were feeling truly masochistic you could jump under the icy waterfall – we refrained.
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