Cuenca to Baños, Ecuador

Diane: We stopped in Baños, en route to Quito, en route to the Galapagos. After finding a hotel, we made reservations to rent bicycles for tomorrow to ride the scenic road to Puyo, where the Amazon basin begins.

The central church in Baños is called the Basilica de Nuestra Señora de Agua Santa – the Basilica of the Virgin of the Holy Water. Inside the church, we first came to a large painting with a detailed Spanish description of a miracle performed in Baños by the Virgin. A man fell from his horse as he was crossing a bridge back at the turn of the nineteenth century. As he was falling hundreds of feet to his certain death below, he shouted to the Virgin of the Holy Water, and he survived.

As a nonbeliever in this type of miracle, I was caught off guard and found this very amusing. Or, perhaps, the Virgin of the Holy Water was working a small miracle on my behalf by bringing me such merriment, when I felt quite weary. Since there would be no Spanish lessons for two weeks, Tom and I decided to look at all the paintings and read the descriptions. A volcano erupted. A building went up in blazes. A big accident occurred. But, if the potential victims called out to the Virgin of the Holy Water, they were spared certain disaster.