Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Arrived in Banos last night after a 6 hour bus ride from Otavalo. It was a really long ride but not too bad in the end. We arrived around 8:30 p.m. to Transilvania Hostal in the pouring rain. Great place owned by an Israeli/Ecuadorean couple. We got two rooms this time to give Sivanne a break from us.
The next day the weather wasn't too promising but after breakfast it started to look better so we rented bikes and headed down the valley to the Ruta de las Cascadas. Most of the way it was downhill with a few uphills. It was a little scary with trucks and buses going by you on the narrow, windy road but it wasn't as bad as I expected. All along the way there is a huge canyon on the right side with many large waterfalls falling from the cliffs down to the river. Amazing! We stopped at one point where they had an omega zipline (they call it canopy here), crossing from one side of the canyon to the other for a couple of hundred meters with a huge waterfall coming down on the other side. The height above the river was about 300 meters. Sivanne and I did it side by side and Omer did it after us. I think I held my breath the whole way. I couldn't really absorb just how high we were. I could barely see the bottom of the canyon. I just wanted not to fall! We made it to the other side safely and so did Omer. They sent us back to the other side again in a "tarabita" which is a little cage/cable car. That was almost as exciting as the zipline. It went very fast across the canyon.
After our hearts started beating normally again, we continued on our way with the bikes until we reached a little town called Rio Verde. Here is the entrance to the Pailon de Diablo, a 600 meter climb down to the river where there is a huge waterfall that you walk right beside. We got completely soaked, as if we had jumped in the water. There was a little cave/tunnel to climb up on our hands and knees and at the top you come out behind the waterfall, where of course we got more soaked.
After climbing back up the hill again we went to eat empanadas in the town. According to Sivanne these are the best home made empanadas anywhere and she was right! Fresh cooked, they were hot, flaky and crispy. Delicious! After eating we loaded our bikes on a waiting truck and he took us back to town. That was a terrible drive, bumping around in the back of a truck breathing diesel fumes for about 20 minutes. All in all, this day was a big highlight of the trip so far.
In the evening Omer and I went to the Banos hot springs for a soak. The pools are right up against the cliff with a waterfall splashing down beside us and a view of the town below us. Fabulous!
- comments