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Banos, canyonning and my police experience! (5th Apr - 7th Apr)
The next day we set of for the small town of Baños.
Baños literally means bathroom, which is how we ask for toilets in Spanish, however the town is not so called because of it's variety of toilets but because of it's hot springs. The town is situated 1820 metres above sea level and has warm, subtropical climate. It's nestled among soaring green hills streaked with waterfalls and is one of Ecuador's most popular tourist destinations.
On the way into the town we got to see "Balso", the town's active volcano (and the reason for the hot springs) erupting, spitting out ash and gases for miles! The volcano erupted quite badly just a few months before we arrived and we saw the evidence by way of a charred sign on the outskirts of the town. However, Baños is situated so that the lava flows away from the town, meaning it wont be directly affected.
The camp site was awesome but it was a pity to be putting our beloved tent up for the last time. Charlotte and I took many good photties doing it! There was a beautiful cobbled path, which led down to the main camping area, surrounded by lovely trees and flowers with hammocks dotted around the garden, from which we could enjoy the views. The garden also looked out over a dramatic and beautiful green river valley.
We had a few drinks in the bar and then had a talk from the Scottish owner (Rich) about all of the excursions available over the next few days (there were more excursions here than anywhere else on the trip). Rich prepared us a great barbecue, followed by banana cake. We then had a few more drinks before bed.
I did canyonning the next day with the first group, i never originally budgetting or intended to do this excursion, but it seemed like it would be a fun trip and Rich totally sold it to us! Cannoning was a mix of abseiling down waterfalls, climbing up rocks, zip wiring through the canyon, swimming and jumping into pools of water. We got into our wetsuits and jumped onto the back of a vegetable truck ready to be taken to the start. The ride itself was really fun. We got soaked in the rain but had lots of laughs and saw some good views and cute villages.
We had a quick introduction to abseiling, then started our trek by being pushed backwards into a deep pool on the call of " 3-2-1 CANNONING"!! The whole trip was really good fun. We abseiled down some really high waterfalls, it was absolutely beautiful although the abseiling itself was quite difficult and uncomfortable and I was quite scared. There were also some pretty hairy moments when we had to grab onto ropes as we were carried down stream... if we missed, we would have been carried down the waterfalls! However the jumping in and zip wiring was brilliant.
That afternoon i walked to a set of waterfalls which was nice to see, nothing in comparison to the sheer size of the Iguazu falls but the water seemed to be much more powerful here and it was still a really nice trip to go and see by myself. A nice afternoon of Liz time. In the evening, I hung out on the hammocks chatting and beautifying myself (long overdue)! We had dinner and then one of the girls got stung by a baby scorpion (really cool, although obviously not for her)!
The following day, Grace, Chelsea, Kath and I got another lift on the back of Rich's vegetable truck into the town of Baños itself (we were staying about a 20 minute drive away). We had a wander around and then met the others to hire some quad bikes and buggies. I chose to use a quad bike rather thana buggy (the quads went faster!hehe)
We must have looked so funny driving out of Baños. A trail of more than 10 viechles in a row being driven by gringos (foreigners) parading through this small town, taking over most of it's narrow streets. We then drove off into the windy mountain roads (with absolute sheer drops) which passed alongside a meandering river, surrounded by boulders. Up here we could also clearly see the trail of the volcano's last eruption.
half way through our trip, my chain snapped off my quadbike copmletely and the two guides were way ahead so i had to fix it myself with the help of Clint and Kira! A few more of the quad bikes broke that trip, Tims vehicle lost a wheel! Half way through the guides asked if we wanted to continue around the volcano or go back the way we had come, about 6 of us wanted to continue on the path so the guides left us, told us to continue on the road back to Banos and accompanied the other group. We actually we very lucky not to get lost as the road split many ways and we ended up on the main road dual carriage way into Banos which was pretty scary, on a speedy quad bike with nothing but a pathetic riding hat aka 'helmet' on my head with massive buses and cars whizzing past. As we entered banos we encountered a quarry and the dust was flying upo in huge clouds, i could nto see a thing and ended up steering the bike with one hand and the other hand covering my eyes. It was actually a painfull experience and slightly worrying. As we entered Banos we realised that we had no idea where we were going as the guide had left us. The roads all had signs saying 'una via' which i thought was strange as not all roads could be called this. I later understood the true meaning of these 'street signs'. I accidently drove down a one way street which was deserted and once i realised my mistake i tried to turn around but i could reverse on the quad so i continued down the quiet street and corrected myself at the end. After turning the corner i was stopped by 2 policemen. One jumped on the back of my quad in case i tried to make a dramatic escape on the bloody quad bike. They started speaking to me in spanish but i explained i didnt speak spanish. Then another 3 policemen came running up and were all radio-ing each other. By this point a small crowd had gathered and i was told to turn off the engine. So i did, and then a bloody riot van turned up and blocked off my path from behind. After a few minutes they realised that i had no idea what they were saying and the niumber of locals trying but failing miserably to translate wasnt ideal. So i was told to move SLOWLY to the other side of the road, the policeman behind me eased his hand slightly off the brake hence allowing me to ever so slowly creep down the road. After 10 minutes i was a Banos town attraction with about 30 or so people looking at this poor 19 yr old gringo wearing a skirt (i know i know i dont know what i was thinking!!) and looking a little folorn surrounded by policemen! The quad bike was then confiscated from me, and i was formally escorted to the quad bike shop by 4 policemen. I then saw my friends and they came running over obviously quite worried after seeing a policemen driving my quad bike back to the shop where they were waiting for me! They said i looked a picture though walking surrounded by cops with my silly little helmet on! One of the policement who looked about 12 was trying to get my details and passport number but the girls told me not to say anything until i knew what i was in trouble for. They acted like id tried to blow up their town on the quad bike, i still had no idea that what i was in trouble for was actually just drivng down a one way street the wrong way. Una via means One way street i later learnt! Laura suggested giving a bribe however Holly said that there was no way i was going to bribe a cop that looked 12, had a bloody toothpick hanging out of his mouth and had a notebook with a parrot and a matching parrot pencil! The guy was trying to get my details to write in his stupid parrot notebook! It was actually a joke. I was then taken to the policestation and the tourist police came. In the end the company had to pay a fine of 30 USD which they later tried to get me to pay. I point blankly refused because it was not my fault that i had been left in the middle of a random town without a guide, without any idea where i was etc. so after much arguing they just let me go.
Later that evening, we met up with everyone, got on Swampy and made our way back into town to the hot springs. It was early evening by now so it was quite dark but really cool. The pools were overlooked by a tall narrow waterfall just metres away so it was really pretty. The hot pool was absolutely scorching and I couldn't stay in for too long but it was lots of fun all the same. We then made our way back to the campsite for dinner and bed.
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