We travelled 6hrs from Cuenca to Riobamba through part of the avenue of volcanoes, truly spectacular scenery. However, the highlight was seeing Chimborazo volcano looming large. On to another bus for the 2hr hop to Banos, only it wasn't. We were turfed off the bus, dumped into a collectivo and abandoned half way up the volcano. A huge landslide had swept away the road, which to our disgust meant we had to don the packpacks and actually do some trekking across fields and down an alarmingly steep path. Legs shaking, we were relieved to find a bus waiting at the bottom to take us the rest of the way to Banos.

Banos is a spa town set at the foot of Tungharua volcano at the head of the valley of waterfalls. Perfect place for adventure sports as we were to find out. We stayed in cool hostel with a rooftop terrace bar. This is where we met Davy and Guus, 2 crazy guys from Holland. Another place where we had planned to spend a few days, but we were still there 9 days later, we love Banos!

First up, we hired some bikes and cycled 22km downhill along the valley of waterfalls. As you can imagine the scenery was all very Arthur Conan Doyle. We passed many waterfalls on the to Cascada Diablo, a hugley powerful and spectacular waterfall which we viewed from the rope bridge (see the photos, they do it more justice than words). Luckily we managed to blag a lift back with our bikes on the back of a truck saving us the 22km uphill ride.

Much drinking all evening where we met people from Brunsiwck Square (of all places!) and Ireland. A 3am finish meant that the following day, all we managed to do was wallow in the spa baths, 3 pools of varying temperatures heated by a hot spring from the volcano. By 5pm though we were ready for beers and the Copa America (football) with Davy and Guus, when we madly planned our next days adventure.

Canyoning! Loco! Emma was scared, Jona was trying not ot look scared, and we all looked ridiculous in our yellow and black getup. We had a couple of practice sessions on small (20m) waterfalls, which involved throwing ourselves backwards into the plunge pool from about 5m, it was freezing! We approached the last waterfall (50m) from the top, so had no idea what we were letting ourselves in for. This involved going down about 10m and then dropping off the overhang to abseil the rest of the way. Brilliant! Although Emma nearly chickened out at the top, and has never been so petrified in her whole life, but luckily Davy (ex Army, so experienced in this sort of thing) managed to encourage her into it. It was an altogether exhilirating experience. Again, you have to see the photos to get the full picture.

Of course we needed to go out and celebrate and decided a more relaxing pace was needed for the next day, so horse riding was booked. Comedy! Everyone took the piss out of Emma's odd coloured pony, but she had the last laugh. The boys were all stuck on nags that were only fit for the glue factory, but Emma's was completely loco and just wanted to gallop.

More beers that evening and a general desire for more exhilirating experiences, so white water rafting it was. The 4 of us ended up on a raft with a mad guide, Enrique, and 2 fairly dull English girls. Enrique thought it was hilarious to try and push us all out of the boat (he suceeded with Emma and Davy) and heading the raft for the biggest rapids he could find. We all had a great laugh and white water rafting will definitely happen again soon.

More beers needed. This time we had an additon to the group as Enrique joined us for an evening of hilarity and mad table football ("your players are stuck together!"). A late finish so more relaxing spa bath action the next day.

Enrique joined us for goodbye beers that evening as he was off to Quito and managed to convince Emma and Jona a day paragliding in the Andes would be a good way to spend the final day in Banos. Unfortunately the wind was very strong the next day, so Emma didn't get a chance to fly. Jona however, was lucky enough to spend 20mins flying high over the Andes with panoramic views of the Altiplano. Very relaxing.

Very sad to finally leave Banos, but happy to be meeting up with Davy, Guus and Enrique for one final blow out in Quito before heading to Bolivia.

WE LOVE BANOS!!!