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In Spanish, Banos (pronounced ban-yos, though my keyboard doesn't have the accented 'n') translates as bathrooms, and this was an ongoing joke for people headed for 'the bathrooms'. The town was anything but, and was situated in the way of a few fast flowing rivers, mountain ranges and was a short way away from just about every type of extreme adventure sport you could think of. This is the drawcard to banos for most people. You can get your fix of adrenaline by stopping by for just a couple of days. Bungee, rafting, canyoning, zip lines, trekking, cycling etc, just about everything is on offer, and the place is covered with tourists. It was probably the most 'touristy' of all places I have been in SA so far, even more so than Cusco.
At the always inconvenient time of 6am I arrived at the terminal to be overwhelmed by locals offering me a card for their hostel (I called them paparazzi, but no one else found this funny). I concluded that they must do this for a job, waiting in the terminal to pounce on the next bus load of unsuspecting tourists. I however, would have none of this mumbo-jumbo and detached myself from the rest of the crowd to check out my setup. I started walking toward town with a fellow Argentine traveller named Leandro, who was mad about Boca FC (as were most other Argentines, though some were haters). We were eventually hassled by an old man who offered us a room for $5 per night, we accepted, but I got the feeling he was expecting the rest of our 'crew' to be in on the deal, and was probably wishing he never gave us such a good price.
With only a limited time in Banos, I could not be lounging around for that day, and ventured into the town to look for a rafting tour. Like shooting fish in a barrel, I found one, though this is not so difficult when literally every second shop knows a guy who knows a guy who can hook you up. I scored a good deal, but with only 15 minutes until we left for the river, I was running back to the hostel, then back to the office with all the ingredients for a good breakfast. After the usual stuff around that goes on with 'organised' tours, we were upstream, a bunch of tight neoprene-clad dudes with questionable helmets. We went over a few simulated situations, signals, rowing manouvres and it was time to enter the rapids. The water was freezing, but we powered downstream and tucked back into the raft when things got a little hairy. It was a good time, but I would have enjoyed seeing someone enter the drink (not me though, although I came close on several occasions). Back in town, it was only logical to eat, sleep and cruise through the rest of the day. There was a marching band playing in the plaza, people dancing and beers being thrown down. Tourism was alive and well in Banos. Myself and Leandro cooked a pasta meal (what else?) and chatted to the kids of the hostel owners, both of whom were extremely cute and inquisitive. Wanting to know how you say certain words in English, playing games etc.
The next morning saw Leandro and I in the mood for a good cycle, and there was a main road stretching from Banos all the way to a jungle town called Puyo, some 60kms away. We thought we'd give it our best shot, and pedalled off in the direction of Puyo. In my mind I found it highly unlikely that we would actually reach the town, and this was confirmed when we found ourselves stopping at nearly every high lookout to view the huge river passing through a few hundred metres beneath. The view was amazing, seeing a huge trail of water snake its way through the valley, but what was fascinating for me was seeing houses on the other side of the river. How they ended up on a seemingly inaccessible piece of land was baffling. We also passed people who had signed up for the zip line, which saw them flying at supersonic speed down towards the riverbed, held by a wire and harness.
Our first major stop was a small-ish waterfall, that took a considerable amount of time to reach. To get closer to the fall itself, you had to contort your body through the oddly shaped and sometimes extremely low ceiling, which was just rock that a slim tunnel had been cut from. There was also a nice wooden swinging bridge with a cool view of the water underneath us. I made a discreet run for it when a family of 'heavy' people entered, as I had an issue with its durability. We were DTS (down to swim), and another 13 odd kms past some tiny villages saw us in Rio Negro, aptly named for the chocolate milkshake of a river that runs alongside the town. Riding a little further across the bridge, we found a sweet little swimming hole, blessed with some crystal clear water (and fish!) flowing through and eventually into the black river. I waited for nothing and jumped in to the rapids, floating on my back like an injured hippo. Leandro was less inclined but eventually joined in. It was great, we played with some local kids, who enjoyed our company and were having a blast themselves, though I think we interrupted the peace for a couple of joint smoking Israeli girls.
Eventually, on a bus back to Banos, we were both stoked on an adventure packed day. A quick pizza at one of the many 'tourist restaurants' and it was time to turn in early for our 4am bus to Otavalo. Banos had left me with mixed impressions. Though mostly positive, I could see the contrast between it and other, less poplular tourist destinations. The local people, prices, food etc were all different to what I had already seen. I thoroughly enjoyed my time regardless.
- comments
Gabo Dumes The full name of the city is "Baños de Agua Santa" so the "bathdrooms" is not the correct translation Hahaha big hug Bro!