Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
We left Canoa and our crazy Dutch friend Patrick behind, along with Sarah who had left the day before us (she should have stayed), but we got to take our new American best friends with us!
Took the night bus, leaving at 9.45pm from Canoa, and arriving in Quito at about 4.30am. After having a check down by the police, who again carried massive shotguns, we boarded the bus. And in true hannah fashion she was asleep within the first half hour! Somehow we were oblivious to the man behind us throwing up for nearly the entire journey. However we did notice the bus crashing into something half way through the journey and continuing on like he´d not noticed. We caught a pimp bus, which included blue flashing lights and a spinning light on top, at 7am from Quito to Banos. Along the bus journey we fell alseep and I was woken up by a lady trying to steal my sleeping bag from under my chair! I managed to jump up after spotting it under her jacket and grab it off of her just as she got off the bus! After eventually finding our hostel we arranged to meet Tash & Sean at a really cool art cafe called Cafe Hood, then decided to spend the rest of the afternoon at the hot springs to relax. Little did we know the hot meant 45 degrees hot! We whimped out on this one, but managed the pool that was 27 degrees. Hannah was nearly crying from her sunburnt and bug bite riden legs. After great dinner and some drinks in a cool bar with a fire pit we collapsed into bed (now sharing our dorm with an Argentinian with very smelly feet, on par with Grandad Dick!!)
The following morning we decided over breakfast that we would attempt the bike ride which takes you past about 5 waterfalls, including the last one ´Pailon del Diablo´ that you can walk down to and in behind. We set off at about 12, and were told that most of it was downhill, however we soon came to our first hill which slowed the pace a little (mainly by Hannah). We then had to navigate through a tunnel and nearly being hit by buses before we found our first waterfall. On the 2nd bridge we came to we stopped to watch as people jumped off the bridge and swung like a pendulum underneath. A lovely Ecuadorian girl pounced on Hannah and Tash and eventually along with persuasian of a dramatic kind from me and Sean, Hannah and Tash were harniced up in a flash and ready to go. After losing the coin toss Hannah was up first, with me and Sean at a safe distance on camera duty, although Sean being scared of heights was crounched down behind a wall (so scarred tourists were also taking pictures of him!). After Hannah being stood on the ledge holding on for dear life she finally jumped off! Closely followed by Tash (still cant believe they did it). After they got their legs back we continued with the bike ride, after going past many beautiful waterfalls, and taking a cable car over one, we reached a small village. We stopped as we could hear bands playing, only to find there was a local football match going on. Me and Sean decided it would be a good idea 5mins before kick off to warm up the homw team with some penalty kicks. We then stopped for a cerveza (beer) and watched the first half. Off to´Pailon del Diablo´ the biggest waterfall you can imagine. We took the trek down climbing through small crevaces until we reached the bottom of the waterfall, amazing!! Bikes on the back of a truck and off we go back to Banos.
As it was saturday night we decided we needed to celebrate, especially Hannah & Tash jumping off a bridge, so joined in with the Banos nightlife. Joining us was another American couple who we had seen in Canoa briefly and had managed to drive to Banos, quote of the night came from Amy being "we met some people that speak Welsh, where do they come from?"! We had to laugh at that. After many cervecas and caiprinha, some pool and table football and a lock in, we were convinced by Sean & Tash to join them on the jungle trip they were booked on! We stumbled out for some street food at 3am. All was good until an old crazy lady came up to us and in spanish told us to leave Banos, at this point we sobered up quickly and the realisaiton of being in a dark street with no one around hit us, needless to say we found the nearest taxi!
Suffering with a hangover, and a scarred of heights Sean, we decided Canyoning (abseilling down waterfalls) was the best thing to do today... All wetsuited up we hike up for about half an hour sweating out all the alcohol until we got to the first point, amazing views all around. Unfortunately as we didnt want to get the camera wet we left it behind :( The first abseil was an 8m drop, we now realised how scared Sean actually is! By time we reached the 5th and biggest waterfall of 40m we knew it wasnt the best idea to take someone thats scared of heights Canyoning, to the point where he was lowered down, but we were so proud of him.
We finished our time in Banos with an early dinner and to bed as we had to leave at 7 to go to the jungle as we managed to book in with the Americans! x x
- comments