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From Latacunga we had to head to Ambato and took a Puyo bound bus to Baños. Baños is a lovely little town and the adventure capital of Ecuador. With so much to choose from we decided to stay for 4 nights!
Monday morning and our first full day in town meant a half day white water rafting on the Pastaza river. Simone had opted out of the trip and with plenty of rain the water was high so we covered the grade 3, 14km run through secondary rainforest in about an hour going through a few very good rapids. You could hear the rocks moving in the river below through the force of the water and the noise sounded like thunder echoing around the valley.
Day 2 was a half day canyoning adventure on the Chamana cascades. We abseiled down 4 waterfalls with the climax being a 45 meter sheer drop over a waterfall (I´m hoping to be sent a few photos so will upload as and when). It was great fun but left me with rope burns and back ache (I must be getting old!!).
Our last day in the town was probably the most fun. The road to Puyo has loads of waterfalls along it and is a popular bike ride from Baños. Simone not being comfortable on a bike decided to get on something with a little more power. We tried a quad bike but it was a bit of a sqeeze for 2 so we ended up in a two seater go kart type thing with a top speed of a whooping 35ish mph. Doesn´t sound a lot and when you are getting chased by a dog (which happened 3 times) it isn´t. However it is a great laugh!
After setting off we soon came to the "puenting" bridge. Puente is spanish for bridge and basically puenting is like a bungee jump from that bridge but where you swing like a pendulum! It was a great buzz throwing yourself off a bridge 36 meters above a river! (See pics and hopefully video to follow!).
From there we visited a couple of impressive waterfalls and just enjoyed driving. (You go on the roads with taxis, cars, trucks buses etc but avoid the tunnels instead taking the muddy and wet dirt roads around them!).
The only down side to our 3 3/4 hours on the roads came when heading back through a long pitch black tunnel when we must of clipped a wall because next thing we were facing the wrong way with a car coming! Not as dramatic as it sounds but it a pitch black tunnel in a go kart we wre thankful to be seen! Anyway luckily there was no damage and we avoided mentioning the incident to the bloke who hired us the thing so lets keep this between us all!!!
Between adventures we drank a fair amount of Pilsner (Ecuador´s finest cerveza!), Simone got a massage and I happened to catch the Champions League Final. As much as I hate Chelski I´m still gutted the scum won!!
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