Baños: Land of Adventure

Hey there!  Last weekend we all went to Baños for two incredible days.  We traveled with Hugo, and I slept the whole 4 hours there.  I was exhausted after the soccer game and school the day before.  Our hostal was awesome though; it connected to a bakery where we went right away to get this amazing apple cinnamon chocolate cake.  Great way to start the day!

Our first move was to book activities for the weekend.  We settled on a package that involved viewing waterfalls via bike, white water rafting, a Chiva bus, and canyoning.  We biked along the cliffs leading down to the river and saw 4 substantial waterfalls in addition to a bunch of smaller ones.  I had a blast on the bike despite the rain.  It was fun to zip down the mountain roads.

Included in our bike trip was a ride across the river in a Tarabita similar to the one we rode in Mindo.  This one was a lot faster and we just rode across and came back.  We had a great view of the river and the waterfall on the other side.

Here I am halfway across the river leaning out for a picture (much to the chagrin of Sarah).  I love moving quickly at dizzying heights.  Such fun!

So at the end of our ride I had cold, wet fingers and warm, dry hair so the result is pictured here.  Laura insisted.  More pictures of me, mom!

El Pailon del Diablo (whirlpool of the devil) is in the background; we got a closer look on Sunday.

After our ride we were picked up by van and zipped down to the Pastaza river for our rafting excursion.  Here we are decked out in our wet suits and helmets ready to go.

Everyone in the raft!  We had 3 people who had never rafted before so it was a great time.  The rapids were class 2 to 3 so it was nice and gentle, perfectly challenging for our group.

Note here that Elaine is sitting on the front of the raft.  Our guide Paúl instructed Ryan and me to push her in at a calm spot in the river.

Then we all jumped in after her.  We were in a natural whirlpool so we just hung out here for a while revolving in circles.  Paúl was a fantastic guide.  He knew exactly when to make us paddle so the raft would throw out three or four people with him still in the raft laughing at us gringos.  We always had to be on our toes!  I got thrown twice.

Another relatively calm spot in the river where Paúl encouraged us to stand on the gunnels of the raft.  He had a waterproof camera to capture our graceful and not-so-graceful moments.

We were all pretty hungry after our biking and rafting so Paúl took us to his home town of Rio Negro on the way back to Baños for a late lunch.  Here he is with the Dueña of the restaurant.  She was hilarious, the kind of grandma everyone wants to have.  She was joking with us as we ate (the meal was awesome, by the way) about Paúl growing up with her kids and all the kinds of people she meets in the restaurant.

After a shower and a quick nap we caught our Chiva that was headed up the volcano.  A Chiva is basically a bus that has been transformed into a discotheque.  There are strobe lights and speakers that blast English music.  It was quite the trip as we wound up the steep switchbacks.

The view from the top was beautiful.  Apparently when the volcano is active (which happens frequently) you can see sparks and lava at night but it was quiet when we were up there.  We all got canelazo, which is a traditional Ecuadorian drink made of naranjilla juice, cinnamon, sugar and sugar cane alcohol.  It's served hot which was great because it was cold up there.  There were two comedians that we sort of understood performing in the middle of all the food stands.  Good times!

Rosa highly recommended eating at the hostal for breakfast and we were very glad we did.  They had breads baked from the bakery next door with homemade marmalade.  The menu also had American delights such as french toast and pancakes.  I stuck with the breads but Elaine got a stack of pancakes stuffed with fruit that would rival any in the U.S.

Our last booked activity was canyoning which roughly involves following a river down a mountain.  This means rappelling, jumping, sort of swimming...all kinds of fun stuff.  So after mass we donned our wet suits and helmets this time with harnesses instead of life jackets.  We were a good looking bunch, let me tell you.  We took traditional Ecuadorian transport to the river.

We navigated four waterfalls, each in a different way.  Here I am rappelling down the first one.  Our guide Alberto belayed from the top while anchored to a rock.  It was really cool to rappel with the water rushing over you.  With about 2-3 meters left we jumped and splashed down on our backs.  The water was freezing so we were thankful for our wet suits.

Waterfall number 2.  This was the smallest and we didn't have a belay.  We went 2 at a time, side by side, so I went down with Hugo.

The third waterfall was like a water slide.  Alberto controlled our fall.  Here's a video of me sliding down.

 

At the bottom of the third waterfall Alberto hooked all of our "lifelines" together.  Here's the whole crew leaning out against the lines.

Waterfall number 4, the largest by far at 45 meters.  The water actually falls a few meters out from the rocks so we basically just jumped off and Alberto let us down by the rope.  The height was a little intimidating looking down from the top and I thought we might have some in our group opt out but we all did it!  I loved every minute.

After lunch we went back to El Pailon del Deiablo for a closer look.  Hugo told us it was well worth it.  There is a system of 3 waterfalls (pictured here is the third, dumping into the pool) and the volume of water moving through is incredible.  We navigated some questionably constructed bridges to get a very close look.  Pictures don't do it justice though.  Here's a video.




Getting so close to the falls reminded me of "Journey Behind The Falls" at Niagara on the Canadian side.  I've always been fascinated by the power of water.  Its ability to carve out canyons, generate power, and thwart most of humans' efforts to redirect it.

The path we took down required crossing a bridge that may or may not have been completed.  I noticed some scaffolding that took a more direct route so I decided to climb back up in a more vertical manner.

Here's a picture from inside the tower when I was almost at the top.  If anything it was a reminder that I need to join a gym when we get to Chile.

Speaking of which, we'll be there in two weeks.  Where has our time gone??  We leave for Tena today where we'll spend a week in the jungle taking classes and exploring.  I hear there will be monkeys involved.  I won't have any access to internet so look for a post in the week following.  Thanks for keeping up with my antics, keep the feedback coming, it's always great to hear from the states!  Peace and love to all.