Baños

I braved the erupting Tungurahua volcano to arrive in Baños on Saturday evening. There doesn't seem to be much danger from the volcano, although I was told that the number of tourists in Baños has dropped by 40% since it started erupting last week. Baños is a small town with a pretty spectacular location in the central highlands of Ecuador, and it's a great base for lots of outdoor activities in the surrounding area, as well as for relaxing in the thermal baths that the town is named after.

I checked myself into a dorm in Hostal Plantas y Blanco, although I nearly walked straight out again because the dorm smelt terrible and was very messy, as you can see (but not smell) from this photo. However, I'm glad I didn't, because I met a great bunch of people there, who I've spent the last few days with. The majority of them were French-speaking, as well as some Spaniards, so I've been in the unusual position of being in the minority as an English speaker. At one point on Saturday evening I found myself at a restaurant table with four French speakers to my left and four Spanish speakers to my right, and wondering which language to attempt to speak in. I'd say my French is still probably slightly better than my Spanish, although having been in South America for several months I definitely feel more confident speaking in Spanish at the moment.

On Sunday a group of seven of us (Anne, Johann, Markus, Philippe, Ollie, Boyang and me) hired some mountain bikes to cycle the 60km Ruta de las Cascadas (Waterfall Route) to Puyo. We stopped off at several waterfalls on the way, including Cascada de Agoyán, Cascada Puerta del Cielo and Cascadas Rio Blanco. The photo below is of me looking a bit wet at Cascadas Rio Blanco.

Finally we stopped at Cascada Pailón del Diablo, which was probably the most impressive of the lot. There's another photo of me here at Cascada Pailón del Diablo, now very wet, and a photo taken from the bottom of the waterfall here. It was getting so late at this point that we decided to call it a day, not having even made it halfway to Puyo (actually just over a quarter of the way), and we managed to get a lift back to Baños.

The following afternoon Markus, Johann, Philippe and I decided to hire some quad bikes for a couple of hours to go up the mountain to try to see some signs of activity at the Tungurahua volcano. We did get some good views of Baños (here and below), but unfortunately the top of the volcano was blanketed in cloud, so we couldn't really see very much.

In the evening we went to the Piscina de la Virgen baths, which are one of several thermal baths in Baños. There were baths of three temperatures - hot, super-hot and freezing cold, and it was all very relaxing, except for the freezing cold one obviously. Afterwards we went back to the hostel roof terrace to try some cheese and wine that some of the French contingent had bought for us.

This morning (Tuesday) a group of four of us went canyoning in some waterfalls near Baños, the first time I've ever done anything like that. I think it would have been more accurately described as abseiling, because I'm told that proper canyoning involves several other techniques as well. Anyway we abseiled down a series of five waterfalls - here is a picture of me going down the second one, and another of me on the third one (for some reason we didn't abseil down this one, and instead our guide just lowered us down himself). The photo below is of me descending the final and largest waterfall, which was about 50 metres high.

Tonight is my final night in Baños, and I'll be sad to leave because this has definitely been one of the highlights of my trip so far. I'll be saying goodbye to the friends I've made here, as we're heading our separate ways, with most of them leaving for the Quilotoa Loop tomorrow. I've decided to head straight to Quito, although I may well meet up there with Johann, Philippe and others on the weekend.