From Quito it was on to Baños, a small town nestled at the base of an active volacano. Aside from the hot springs from which it gets its name, Baños is renowned for its multitude of adventure activities. These include: white-water rafting, bungee jumping, mountain biking, zip-lining, hiking, and my personal favorite, canyoning. Getting to Baños was an easy 4 hour bus ride, my first bus since Cuba. The van is clearly my preferred method of transportation but it was nice to just sit back and have no responsibility with navigation, advising when to pass, random speed bump monitoring, etc.
The most difficult part of Banos is deciding which activity to do first. We reunited with our Salento/Cali/Otavalo travel family who had booked rafting the next morning, so that was up first. Rafting is one of the simplest activities in the world and a perfect example of how stupid people can be when they panic. The guide tells you to either paddle forward, backward, or do nothing. If you fall out keep your feet pointed down-river so they don't catch on any hidden rocks and hold onto your paddle so you can be pulled back into the raft. That's it. The two people in front need to sync their paddling cadence, but all everyone else needs to do is match the person in front of you. We had a particularly moronic group who clunked paddles the second we hit any sort of big water and two people involuntarily pressed the eject button to go swimming in the rapids. Still, everyone managed to have a good time, and I can't complain about $25 for a full morning of action.
The next day we rented mountain bikes for a very comfortable all-downhill ride to a giant waterfall. Along the way we stopped for a 1km zipline. 2 minutes later, we were strapped into harnesses and flying down the mountain. A friendly man picked is up in his truck at the bottom, drove us back to the top, and we were on our way again.
Waterfalls are probably my favorite natural marvel to visit and this one did not disappoint. There were actually two entrances run by two separate businesses - one at the base and one at the top - and we splurged the $1.50 to visit both.
When we were ready to head back to Baños we hopped into the back of a truck with our bikes and napped the 30 minutes back up the hill. Not a bad system.
If you ever get the chance to do canyoning, do it. It is one of the best outdoor activities you can do. Imagine a collection of jumps, rappels, and natural slides down a series of waterfalls, surrounded by lush, vibrant jungle, and you've got the right idea. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from this specific adventure but here are a few from Bali last summer.
Our final activity was the most relaxing: a swing. But this wasn't just any old swing, this was a swing at the end of the world! Not quite, but it was fun to swing off of a cliff at sunset.
The most difficult part of Banos is deciding which activity to do first. We reunited with our Salento/Cali/Otavalo travel family who had booked rafting the next morning, so that was up first. Rafting is one of the simplest activities in the world and a perfect example of how stupid people can be when they panic. The guide tells you to either paddle forward, backward, or do nothing. If you fall out keep your feet pointed down-river so they don't catch on any hidden rocks and hold onto your paddle so you can be pulled back into the raft. That's it. The two people in front need to sync their paddling cadence, but all everyone else needs to do is match the person in front of you. We had a particularly moronic group who clunked paddles the second we hit any sort of big water and two people involuntarily pressed the eject button to go swimming in the rapids. Still, everyone managed to have a good time, and I can't complain about $25 for a full morning of action.
The next day we rented mountain bikes for a very comfortable all-downhill ride to a giant waterfall. Along the way we stopped for a 1km zipline. 2 minutes later, we were strapped into harnesses and flying down the mountain. A friendly man picked is up in his truck at the bottom, drove us back to the top, and we were on our way again.
Waterfalls are probably my favorite natural marvel to visit and this one did not disappoint. There were actually two entrances run by two separate businesses - one at the base and one at the top - and we splurged the $1.50 to visit both.
When we were ready to head back to Baños we hopped into the back of a truck with our bikes and napped the 30 minutes back up the hill. Not a bad system.
If you ever get the chance to do canyoning, do it. It is one of the best outdoor activities you can do. Imagine a collection of jumps, rappels, and natural slides down a series of waterfalls, surrounded by lush, vibrant jungle, and you've got the right idea. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from this specific adventure but here are a few from Bali last summer.
Our final activity was the most relaxing: a swing. But this wasn't just any old swing, this was a swing at the end of the world! Not quite, but it was fun to swing off of a cliff at sunset.
See that volcano in the background? Turns out it was feeling frisky that afternoon, and we were treated to a giant smoke-eruption.
Awesome post.
ReplyDeleteWhere is that swing exactly located in Ecuador? It's picture perfect.