We left Cuenca last Tuesday after a somewhat unsuccessful stay and made our way to Baños which can be accurately described as the centre of Ecuador for the tourist. Everyone we met in our travels had either been to Baños or were planning to go. But Baños is a pretty switched on place, it´s easy to get around on rented bikes, there are plenty of outdoorsy things to do and there are little signs pointing out attractions or activities all through town. The town is also crammed with tourist agencies trying to sell trips to tourists wandering the street which got to the point of being downright annoying. We couldn´t walk around the corner without being harrassed by 3 guys all trying to sell us the same deal. We had plenty of things to do to fill our time here which was a welcomely stark contrast to sauntering about Cuenca.
On the Wednesday we hired bikes and rode out of town along the Ruta de las Cascadas (Route of Waterfalls) towards the town of Puyo. It´s a nice downhill road that winds through tunnels and follows the river past the hydrodam and many waterfalls plummetting from the hills above the river. The final and most spectacular waterfall was Pailón del Diablo and we were able to grab a bus back to town and continued our explorations there. It was a nice way to sightsee as we were free to go our own pace and stop wherever we pleased. After about an hours ride we came to another Baños attraction, a bridge swing, and I decided that I ought to take the plunge... ahem, sorry.
The bridge passed 20m above a rocky, roaring little river and as I was harnessed up I realised that I hadn´t really thought much about just how freaky it would be but as I stood on the bridge rail with traffic storming past behind me, I had to concentrate to stop my legs shaking me off the bridge. I knew I had to jump at the end of the countdown or I wouldn´t at all, and as I plummetted down towards the rocks the only clear thought in my head was that I had lost my mind. What a rush! It wasn´t until the rope had swung back twice that I was able to think about screaming. Needless to say I was buzzing for the rest of the day. Tessa took a bunch of photos but because she was so nervous they all came out blurry!
We spent the night soaking in the rather skodey public hot pools next to the Cascada de la Virgen. Noone seems to have told the Ecuadorians about not putting your head under the water in the hot pools, although by the browny green colour of the water, I´m surprised they don´t make the connection. It was a relaxing way to end the day though and we both managed to avoid contracting anything from the water.
We had organised a rafting trip for Thursday which was further down the same river towards Puyo. We had a solid team of 5 in our rafting comprised of us, our guide and an Alaskan couple who had come to Baños for an adventure get-away. After practicing some moves on shore that we never used, we hit the water. The river was quite high and wide so it was an easy trip but a lot of fun, our guide had a knack for angling the raft through rapids just right to make us as wet as possible. That night we hiked up the hill overlooking Baños to watch the sunset and were lucky enough to see the very nearby Volcano, Turungahua, spitting out sparks and clouds of ash. Baños has had a dificult time in the shadow of the volcano with eruptions in the past wiping out large chunks of the city.
We spent the next few uneventful days back in Quito organising things for our trip through the jungle which will have to be the next post...
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