Baños, bike, volcano?
Trip Start
Oct 23, 2008
1
7
36
Trip End
Dec 18, 2008
Banos,
Ecuador
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Today we rented bikes and rode 30 km - mostly downhill - to Pailon del Diablo - a beautiful waterfall with a cafe at the bottom. We ditched our bikes and started to hike down the canyon to the base of the waterfall - on route we saw comic book guy resting on a rock in the shade. He looked pretty beat. The hike was gorgeous - no worries Ithaca. The rocks were covered with moss and abundant foliage shaded most of the path. When we got to the bottom we looked up and realized that we had to hike back up to the top of the waterfall on the other side -- we climbed rocks, crawled through caves arriving at the top of the waterfall -- a natural shower (Kali´s first in a while.) The path took us behind the waterfall. The views were breathtaking. On the way back down we stopped at a cafe for a soda and then tackled a rickety bridge -- much like one in Indiana Jones movies. When we hiked back out of the canyon, we sat panting in another cafe in the shade. A gentleman approached us and offered to give us a ride in the back of his truck back to Banos. (Yes, now we have the I was in the back of a truck somewhere in South America when..... story) Nothing eventful happened. We turned in our bikes, ate a lunch of fruit salad and ice cream in half a hollowed out pineapple, checked out a beautiful church -- which unfortunately turned out to be holding Mass -- we left quite quickly. Then, Bryce took a nap.
Tomorrow we are checking out the baths and a volcano, which is still quite active we´re told. Then off to Riobamba for a market and a train ride.
We think we´re finishing up Ecuador (sadly) in the next week and we´re off for Peru. Its a small, small world my friends.
