Roads!

do not go to banos! quito and cuenca should be fine i think.

i'm in riobamba now after a mess of a story getting in and out of banos. getting in required a bus part of the way, 3 camionetas in the rain, walking along the barely-remaining road when the rest had fallen into the river, and then running through six inches of mud after a tractor that cleared the three feet of mud briefly on a landslide of mud going across the road. had we known about it all, we wouldn't have gone. getting out was worse--took seven hours, rain, cold, lots of trucks, LOTS of walking, some climbing... we had wanted to go to riobamba, but the road south was closed completely, so all that getting out was just to go north back to ambato.

from ambato, the road to riobamba was fine. i don't know about the road from riobamba south. we're taking the train to alausi and then trying to bus it to cuenca. i've heard the roads aren't great but they're open. i HOPE that's right. if you can't get reliable info and you can afford it, flying is your best bet, but it depends on your budget and how fast you need to get to quito. flights are $70-90, i think.

hope that helps!

if anyone knows about the road between riobamba and cuenca (or at least alausi and cuenca), let me know!

is good from chunchi on wards
alausi and chunchi is a bit bad...