David –
Our journey from Quilatoa to Banos went surprisingly smoothly – the only hiccup was that I left my jumper back at the hostel in Latacunga where we picked up our luggage noooooooo 😦
Banos is Ecuador’s answer to Queenstown, New Zealand – an adventure hot-spot but for the budget traveller. Lots of people we met through Colombia and Ecuador had told us all about it and so we were excited, but still had a few reservations about the authenticity of a town made for tourists and filled with tourists!
Lush jungle mountains surrounded us and the cool air was refreshing! The town had a nice vibe, and finally some decent food. Ecuador is high on the list for its beauty, natural landscapes and culture…but not for its food. We (mostly Lauren) has been missing the exciting food scenes of Colombia. And it doesn’t help that the Latin-American food capital Peru is next door, so close but yet so far.
We wanted to tick off a few of the big sights of Banos and first off the list was Pailon Del Diablo. Ecuador’s tallest waterfall stands at 61m which allows the water to accelerate to a thunderous speed!
We caught the local bus along the narrow road which hugged the mountain on one side and was open to what seemed like a never ending cliff on the other! Lauren had her eyes closed most of the way!
We read that there are two entrances, a ‘new’ and an ‘old’ – and naively thought they were joined together but in fact they approach the waterfall from different sides. The ‘new’ path led us across multiple suspension bridges and narrow stair to the middle of the ‘Devils cauldron’ -we think we got lucky with our random selection as the visitors on the other side looked stuck in the mist and a whole lot wetter than us!
Back in Banos the post waterfall hot chocolates went down waaaay too easy! The locally made, dark chocolate was melted down into cups of pure deliciousness. We sipped and snacked on delicious chocolate all while the owner roasted fresh Ecuadorian coffee right in the front of the shop!
On day two we each had our own adventures! Lauren was craving a good massage while I was keen to give canyoning a shot, I think we both had equally amazing days!
My morning started at 9am at the Explore Ecuador adventure shop – most participants signed up for $20 white water rafting while only 3 of us were there for the $40 half day canyoning experience! It definitely confirmed that the adventures are cheap here however I’m not sure I would tempt fate with a $10 bungy swing. We drove around 10km down stream from Banos where we had our safety briefing. Our guide was called Hermano, a local Ecuadorian who seemed to have every job – firefighter, paramedic, search and rescue and who knows what else, needless to say we felt pretty safe!
After our briefing we walked a few minutes up into the jungle, during this time it the rain started to absolutely pour down – not good news when you are supposed to be jumping, swimming, abseiling and ziplining down the rivers.
We rushed through the first couple of water fall jumps, starting at 1m, then 3m and then…we caught up with the in training Ecuadorian Cave Diving team. Our guide knew the instructors and they made the call to wrap up the decent due to the torrential rain…not before we had to jump down a 7m ranging water fall!!
Safety is of course the priority and as the water changed from clear to dark brown we were all happy that the call was made. Fortunately the rain was very localised and after a short lunch we headed off to another spot to practice our absailing, jumping, sliding and…falling. The American couple and I laughed when he said there was a 40m waterfall we were going down – Hermano had changed out of his wet gear into jeans and sneakers, there was no way we would go down something like that without out him…oh we were so wrong!
From the top of the waterfall we were tied onto a rope, after a quick hands free photo he told us to jump. Looking down there was no water – just very jagged rocks, I had to fight the urge to climb back up but it wouldn’t have worked anyway!
Whilst our days couldn’t have been more different – me looking like a drowned rat and Lauren feeling relaxed, we both really enjoyed our days! We treated ourselves to the best Indian in town before an early rise the next morning – we were due to catch the 6am bus towards our next destination – the sleepy surf town of Mompiche!
Far Away From Home 