Banos - the adventure capital of Ecuador!
Trip Start
Jun 01, 2008
1
4
22
Trip End
Jul 27, 2008
Banos,
Ecuador
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
We had a 5 hour bus trip from Tena and got here 2ish in the arvo. The setting is just amazing - in a valley surrounded by sheer volcanic mountains (one of them smoking away and last erupted in 2006).
After a quick lunch straight off for a horse ride up the foothills of the active volcano on a collection of motley horses. Great fun. The ride took around 3 hours and only cost $20 but the scenery was just incredible. For someof the members of our group (who had never ridden before) it was a real éxperience´´.
Found a nice restaurant where we had nachos (a bit of a staple for us at the moment) and a very decent cheese and manioc pie. Plus a very tasty hot chocolate!
Next day, we organised a rafting trip (along with 5 or so others from our group) down the Pastaza River. Now we were told it was class 3-4. HOWEVER, due to recent rains, the level on the day was closer to class 5 all through! We had some hairy moments. Our Swiss group members had more hairy moments as they were all ejected from their raft in the first 5 minutes and spent the next 20 minutes floating down the river, getting bashed on the rocks. They had never rafted before - they swear they will never raft again.
Anyway, all ended well. It was a great trip. The company only told us afterwards that 3 tourists had died doing the same trip last year.....oh well........we made it and it was a great day!
Was going to go mountain biking but had already seen the scenary (waterfalls heading towards Rio Verde) which was spectacular. Ended up going to the local zoo instead and saw a variety of native Ecuadorian birds and animals - nice zoo and highly recommended.
The hotel is really nice (a step up from Hostel Marena at Misuhalli!). The breakfasts are incredible!! Picture if you can a huge hotcake (6 inches diameter and an inch thick), topped with a bucket load of fresh fruit, granola and yoghurt, plus 3 types of bread, cheese, jam and butter, freshly squeezed juice, tea, coffee........all for $5 (but included for us anyway) sensational!!
This place is awesome and we´d love to spend another couple of days here. Haven´t been to the hot springs yet - should do that. Everyone is so friendly and most people make an effort to speak English if we try with Spanish.
Went to a local indoor soccer match as well. I´m sure everyone wondered what we were doing there but anyway, we had fun!
All is well, having a blast!
Better go and have a cerveza!
Chiao amigos
nic & Pam
