Baños, located roughly in the centre of Ecuador, is the adventure capital of the country. Baños is also Spanish for bathroom/toilet, so you can imagine it is the butt of all jokes.
The trip through from Guayaquil was pretty scenic: lush plains, cloud encapsulated rain forest, and stunning views across Ambato when we got above the clouds. Unfortunately our photos are rubbish.
The town of Baños is, appropriately, located in a bowl. The surrounding hills are covered in forest and it is pretty lush:
Nice plazas in the town centre:
We wandered up the hill for a half hour or so to get a good view over the city:
Being such a warm, wet climate, with fertile volcanic landscapes, there was a huge variety of insects and butterflies. Four months of travelling, though, and our photo skills still haven't improved enough to catch a moving butterfly. I managed to slow this insect down enough to catch a photo:
And this one was not in great health:
The view over Baños:
We have wanted to go parapenting for ages, and Baños was the perfect spot for it. Rain in the morning didn't bode well, but the weather cleared mid-afternoon just as we were due to head up the hill. The instructor looked Cat up and down and gave her the biggest jumpsuit they had:
After spending a while laughing at Cat, we kicked back on the grass and waited for a while for the perfect conditions. The wind was reasonably strong so they sent the heaviest people up first, hoping for the wind to die down. I was heavy enough so got to head off.
My legs were longer than the instructor's, so I had to do all of the power running for lift-off:
And away:
Unfortunately the wind picked up a bit more and we had to wait another hour or so while for the wind to die down a little before the little lighties (Cat and Co.) could take off. The view over the surrounding volcanoes made it all good, but the wind was freezing cold:
When the wind finally became steady enough, the sun was starting to go down which meant a pretty spectacular time of evening for Cat to head up. She trusted her grip more than I did and took a camera up with her:
Just kickin' back:
From the ground:
Silhouettes of the windsock and trees:
Parapenting was not as scary as I had expected, but such an awesome feeling. The only noise up in the sky is the wind passing through the sail. Even the sound of the breeze drops away and you're just floating in silence which is totally wicked.
Another day we hired bikes and took off down the road past a trail of waterfalls and canopying (zip-lining) locations. The weather was pretty shit and it was pissing down for half of the ride, but the temperature was all right so we still had a ball.
We went 'superman' canopying here, which was a bit spooky as the operators here seem pretty relaxed about everything. Anyway we let them send us down head first over the waterfalls which was awesome. We didn't take a camera over the other side of the valley, but the volcanic rock formations were impressively black.
Not us, but the same idea (although this is a kid strapped to her mum's feet):
Bikes on bridge:
We could have gone puenting (like bungy jumping but without any stretch in the rope - the swinging action breaks your fall) but I figured it might wreck my shoulder again so we left it for today.
We continued on downhill until we had to ditch the bikes and took a walk to see one of the more impressive waterfalls in the area:
We had to pay $1.50 each to walk across this bridge to nowhere, but the view was pretty OK:
Just as we were ready to return, the weather cleared up. Tired legs and an uphill bike ahead of us, we jumped in the back of a truck with our bikes and got a lift back to Baños:
Happy with our adventuring here, we're spending today drinking coffee, smoothies and beer, and writing this. Tonight we'll catch a couple of buses, a taxi and a motor canoe and make our way into the far north east of the country to the Amazon.
The trip through from Guayaquil was pretty scenic: lush plains, cloud encapsulated rain forest, and stunning views across Ambato when we got above the clouds. Unfortunately our photos are rubbish.
The town of Baños is, appropriately, located in a bowl. The surrounding hills are covered in forest and it is pretty lush:
Nice plazas in the town centre:
We wandered up the hill for a half hour or so to get a good view over the city:
Being such a warm, wet climate, with fertile volcanic landscapes, there was a huge variety of insects and butterflies. Four months of travelling, though, and our photo skills still haven't improved enough to catch a moving butterfly. I managed to slow this insect down enough to catch a photo:
And this one was not in great health:
The view over Baños:
We have wanted to go parapenting for ages, and Baños was the perfect spot for it. Rain in the morning didn't bode well, but the weather cleared mid-afternoon just as we were due to head up the hill. The instructor looked Cat up and down and gave her the biggest jumpsuit they had:
After spending a while laughing at Cat, we kicked back on the grass and waited for a while for the perfect conditions. The wind was reasonably strong so they sent the heaviest people up first, hoping for the wind to die down. I was heavy enough so got to head off.
My legs were longer than the instructor's, so I had to do all of the power running for lift-off:
And away:
Unfortunately the wind picked up a bit more and we had to wait another hour or so while for the wind to die down a little before the little lighties (Cat and Co.) could take off. The view over the surrounding volcanoes made it all good, but the wind was freezing cold:
When the wind finally became steady enough, the sun was starting to go down which meant a pretty spectacular time of evening for Cat to head up. She trusted her grip more than I did and took a camera up with her:
Just kickin' back:
From the ground:
Silhouettes of the windsock and trees:
Parapenting was not as scary as I had expected, but such an awesome feeling. The only noise up in the sky is the wind passing through the sail. Even the sound of the breeze drops away and you're just floating in silence which is totally wicked.
We went 'superman' canopying here, which was a bit spooky as the operators here seem pretty relaxed about everything. Anyway we let them send us down head first over the waterfalls which was awesome. We didn't take a camera over the other side of the valley, but the volcanic rock formations were impressively black.
Not us, but the same idea (although this is a kid strapped to her mum's feet):
Bikes on bridge:
We could have gone puenting (like bungy jumping but without any stretch in the rope - the swinging action breaks your fall) but I figured it might wreck my shoulder again so we left it for today.
We continued on downhill until we had to ditch the bikes and took a walk to see one of the more impressive waterfalls in the area:
We had to pay $1.50 each to walk across this bridge to nowhere, but the view was pretty OK:
Just as we were ready to return, the weather cleared up. Tired legs and an uphill bike ahead of us, we jumped in the back of a truck with our bikes and got a lift back to Baños:
Happy with our adventuring here, we're spending today drinking coffee, smoothies and beer, and writing this. Tonight we'll catch a couple of buses, a taxi and a motor canoe and make our way into the far north east of the country to the Amazon.
