Due to a combination of roadworks, bad signing and minor roads, the route today to Banos wasn’t as straight forwards as normal, and involved stopping a number of times to confirm that the road I was on was the correct one.  After a couple of hours the road stopped rising, and I stopped off for breakfast. I have to say, that stopping for a breakfast in some random little roadside restaurant after an hour or twos cycling is one of the highlights of my cycling day. Its food well earned !

After that, it was basically downhill all the way to Banos. Banos is famous for its thermal pools, but should perhaps be more famous for almost every other building being a hotel or hostal. Finding somewhere to stay was pretty easy !

Settled in, I went for a wander around the town. I’d ruled out a visit to the thermal pools on the grounds of having no swimwear, so instead, I though I would pretend to be cultured and visit the museum attached to the church.

Banos is every inch the tourist Mecca.

A view froim inside the church´s courtyard.

Latin Amercian christianity always has an element of death... Why the skull ??

Inside were a strange mixture of displays and artefacts, ranging from religious to archaeological and with a room of stuffed animals and animal skins in between.