Chill out in Banos

  Banos, Ecuador
Sunday, December 21, 2008

After all that exercise it was time for us to chill out. We took a bus to Banos which is known for its thermal baths and an active volcano. Time to get some volcancity!! The town is great and pretty touristy which was what we needed. There are lots of activities. First day we wandered around and checked out the sites. Saw the volcano smoking away, heard it rumbling and felt a wee tremour!! We also checked out the waterfalls then relaxed in the hot springs.
Next day we hired mountain bikes and headed down hill. Itīs downhill all the way to the amazon jungle. As you ride down the valley there are lots of spectacular waterfalls to see. Each one is accessed by a rudimentary cable car, called a tarabita. These take you several hundred meters across the valley suspended way above the waterfalls. Pretty spectacular!
As we headed further down the valley we came across one of those obligatory adrenalin rushes- bridge swinging.
I decided after hearing all about it from the guys back at climbzone that I better give it a shot. Before I knew it I was standing on the edge of the bridge and jumping off. A great rush and something i did not epect to be doing that day. Fiona insisted she didnīt chicen out but someno had to take the photos!

Bridge swing

Pete Jumps

The final big waterfall of this ride is the Pillion del Diablo (Devils cauldren) which is really impresive after a short walk down you can walk right up close to the waterfall and you really feel the force of the water. The rock has been hollowed out by the water. Then you can crawll up a small recessed route that takes you right behind the waterfall for a good soaking.

Pillon del Diablo

Fiona climbing up behind the waterfall

We headed further down the road to realise that there was nothing more to see so waited at the road side and got on the next bus going up the valley, our bikes thrown in the boot.
After another active day we decided to take it easy and had a steam bath in the morning that was interesing. It  involved getting in and out of a wooden steam box where only your head pokes out, then getting a good soaking of cold water each time to finish with being hosed down, certainly one of the more interesting wakeup calls weīve ever had. The rest of the day was spent chilling out.

Roast Cuy (Guineapig)

For our last day in Banos before we headed south to Peru we hired a quad bike to head up into the mountains to get a better view of the volcano. Getting the right quad bike proved interesting as everyone was trying to rent us different ones, we opted for one really powerfull one as there would be lots of hills. As we jumped on the big warning sticker on it said NO PASSENGERS this didnīt bode well. The owner said "no problem in Ecuador" as he handed us bicycle helmets! This proved a bit exciting when it stalled miles away from anywhere then refused to start. Shortly after this i proceded to get it stuck in mud once it actually got going again. It certainly made things a bit more interesting. Unfortunately the views of the volcano were no more exciting because it was shrouded in clouds but we did have fun driving about. We finished off the fun with a trip up the valley to a giant zip slide across a gorge that was really good fun. We took back the quad bike without incident then headed back up to the hot baths for one last time before we left. After speaking to some folk in the baths we decided to jump on a chiva (an open sided lorry with seats in the back) There was music pumping out and flashing lights like a crasy dsco truck! We ended up watching some fire jugglers who were funny whilst drinking strange hot sugarry tequilla juice! Then it was all back on the chiva for the downhill ride on the rooftop, ducking to avoid the bushes and overhead phonewires!
Next morning we were to take a marathon of bus trips that should take us to the north of Peru in a 36hour stint- we were starting to dread it!!