Friday, December 17, 2004

The Fiestas de Baños 2004 Are Now History

The 60th anniversary of the founding of Baños is now history. The eight day celebration started with an Albazo throughout the streets of the city at 5:00Am on the 9th of December and finished with a concert and fireworks display in the Palomino Florez Park in front of the City Hall on the 16th. The “Albazo” is a Spanish word meaning, dawn attack, or maybe reveille. Most of the population awoke to the sound of music provided by a band sitting on top of a small bus, as it drove through all of the streets of Baños. From this awaking it was almost non-stop activities for the next eight days.

There were events for all ages and interests. Chess tournaments on the main street; bicycle races from Baños to Puyo, a distance of about 30 miles and mostly downhill; bicycles and tricycle races in town for the kids from five years to eight years old; there were cake sales; art fairs; a volleyball tournament with nearby towns competing; parades; a soccer match between Quito and Baños with Quito taking the trophy. The list could go on and on.

On the seventh day of the festival, Baños was treated to a concert by the Metropolitan Orcastra of Quito. They preformed for more than an hour inside the Basilica. They played a variety of music which included Glenn Millers, In The Mood.

Photo by Alex Hernandez

During these days, although an event would end late at night, with all the trash that is thrown by the crowd, the next morning when you walked down town the streets were clean and looked as if nothing had happened the night before. If they needed a stage for an event, they blocked off the street and with 12, 55 gallon drums, 12 large bamboo polls, a little rope, a few plywood sheets and some canvas, in less than an hour you had a covered bandstand. The following morning there was no evidence that an event had even taken place.

On the first day of the Fiesta de Baños, the 40th running of the Carrera de Coches de Madera. (Race of the Cars of Wood.) This race starts about 20 KM outside of town, at a place called The “U” de Pelileo. There were 42 cars entered for this years race. From this point it is approximately 90% down hill to the finish line in the center of Baños. When there is an uphill grade the drivers must get off and push. When they enter the city they come down a “S” curve, across the Bascun Bridge and when they run out of steam they need to push the car about 500 meters to the last down hill run on Martinez Street at Gonzalo Diaz de Pineda.

An hour before the race the first enthusiast start arriving. And who could be more enthusiastic then kids.

Photo by J. Walker

A fallen tree makes pretty good bleachers-

Photo by J. Walker

The police clear the street anticipating the first cars.

Photo by J. Walker

This is the most dangerous part of the race as the downhill grade on this section of Martinez is about 30 degrees or more.This picture gives a feelins of how steep the downhil grade.

Photo by J. Walker

As the cars cross Pastaza Street they are actually airborne and when the wheels touch down, some loose control and crash into the crowd injuring both the drivers and spectators alike. The race this year was not without injuries. Thirteen people were taken to the hospital...five had broken bones and one had a head and neck injury.



Photo by J. Walker



Photo by J. Walker



Photo by J. Walker



Photo by J. Walker

Although the police are there to keep the crowd out of the way of the on-coming cars, is almost a sport to temp fate as the crowd envelopes the oncoming car. At times accidents are caused because the crowd doesn’t move fast enough. Just like Pamplona....only these are not bulls.

Photo by J. Walker

The race is against the clock and each car leaves the starting point at approximately one minute intervals. Even with this one minute separation some of the cars overtake the one in front. This year, one car was trying to pass on the steepest part of Martinez and clipped the rear wheel and they both flipped. That accident sent several to the hospital.

A few years ago, the city changed the final leg of the race to come down Montalvo Street which does not have the grade of Martinez. The race was completed without accidents and the next year it was moved back to Martinez. As one person told me...”A race without accidents, is not a race.”

Over the years, the all wooden cars have evolved into hybrids of wood, metal and even some with inflated tires. It was interesting to see that the cars with hard wooded wheels had better times then the numatic tires. All of the cars that finished made the trip in from 35 to 49 minutes. The contestants are mostly from Baños but several come from other cities to win the coveted trophies. A very emotional afternoon.


There were two major parades in this years festival.

Pregón de Fiesta...This parade took place in the afternoon of the second day. It started at 2:00PM and ended close to six. For a town the size of Baños it seemed to be a very long parade.



Photo by J. Walker



Photo by J. Walker

Although there were many beautiful children in the parade...this is my favorite.

Photo by J. Walker

Most of the town turns out all along the parade route as most of the businesses close, at least until their child has passed in review. The theme of the parade was the “La Alegria y Encanto de Baños”, more or less....The happy and enchanted life in Baños.

The Military Parade is always held on the 16th. This parade was impressive as each school participated with a band, and all of the senior grades marched in uniforms. The bands were made up of mostly drums. I counted 50 in one unit from one of the larger schools. The students have practiced for the last month for this parade and for the most part they were very good. Close to where I live there is a night college that practiced at least an hour for this event each night, starting around 9:30PM, in the parking lot of the bus station which is across the street from where I live. If you can imagine 40 or 50 drums beating for an hour at this time of night, I was obviously happy when the big parade day came. I watched with special interest when this group passed. They looked stunning in their white uniforms and as they passed I had to admit that all that lost sleep was a small price to pay to view their performance.

It was a wonderful week. Everyone has a great time and if you plan now you can watch the 41st running of the Race of Wooden Cars....live.

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

My photographer friend....Jessie Walker.


Photo by J. Walker


Jesse Walker has taken many of the pictures that are displayed here on my blog. They are Copywrited and All rights are reserved.

Bird of Paradise


Photo by J. Walker

Tuesday, December 07, 2004

A Project To Get Excited About

A few days ago, Guido Washington, a young attorney in town, asked me if I was interested in looking at some property he had and hearing about his plan to develop it into a nature park for the tourists. I am always interested in an adventure so off we went.

Our first stop was at the basilica where he showed me the large painting of one of the famous miracles attributed to the virgin of the Holy Waters, where a man was pulling himself across the San Francisco gorge in a small basket suspended by ropes anchored to a large tree on the Baños side. The rope broke and I presume the man plunged into the Pastaza river a hundred meters below. He was saved, according to legend by the intervention of the Virgin.


Photo by Alex Hernandez

From the church we proceeded to the San Francisco Bridge which spans this same gorge only at a higher level. This modern bridge was built in 2000-2002, after the townspeople returned from their forced exile when the government was taking precautions for the safety of the inhabitants, while preparing for the worst. This new bridge replaces the old foot bridge, and will serve as an efficient evacuation route should it ever be needed in the future.

From here we took a small trail that led down to the old foot bridge which is still in service and used by a few locals as a short cut to their small farms to the north of the city.

Below the new bridge is a whole new adventure.

Photo by J. Walker


View of the old from the new.

Photo by J. Walker



Photo by J. Walker


Here is the historic tree that is pictured in 1940 painting in the basilica, that once anchored the cable for the perilous trip across the river. During the construction of the new bridge the tree was almost destroyed but the owner managed to save most of it.


Photo by J. Walker

Trunk of this historic tree.


Photo by J. Walker


The project as I understand it will be to improve the trails on both sides of the river. as well as reconstruct the trail that goes to the left of the foot bridge to a little know waterfall where the Bascun River empties into the Pastasa. The area to the South which is on the right side of the above photo will be landscaped with native plants of various species. The round-house will serve as a snack bar and information center. This nature park will be a place where the locals and tourists alike could come for a hike The hike in and out of the area will be a loop that will take them on both sides of the river.



Photo by J. Walker


The trail construction, at this point is most important. Washington would like to have help in this part of the plan. The problem with trails in this area where there is a lot of rain is to build a trail that will have little impact on the natural surroundings and not be washed away every few months. Trail building is an art...if there are any professionals in this line of work and looking for an adventure, here is your excuse to come to Baños.