Know your Volcano Evacuation Procedure
Trip Start
Jun 12, 2011
1
120
131
Trip End
Jun 16, 2012
Banos, Ecuador
Monday, April 30, 2012
Banos was a beautiful town with endless activity options: you could bridge swing, mountain bike, hire dirt buggies, hike, horse ride or just bliss out in one of the countless massage parlours. In fact the whole town centre seemed to be nothing but massage parlours, tour agencies, restaurants, souvenir stands and ice cream shops! It was also a major holiday spot for locals, so it was good to get the vacation vibe without the endless hordes of gringos.
Banos is on the road from the Andes down to the Amazon, and this is known as the Route of the Waterfalls. With a name like that we'd have been crazy not to hire mountain bikes and give it a go! In my ideal kind of cycling (mostly downhill with minimal pedalling) we covered about 18km down the mountainous banks of the Rio Pastaza and finished at the premier waterfall, the Pailon del Diablo. Here you hike down into the gorge, and then brave claustrophobia and vertigo, to get a very damp view behind the torrent of water flowing over the cliff above.
We ended up staying in Banos for about 3 days recharging the batteries, which was just what the doctor ordered. But my sister was now arriving in Lima in about a week, so I had to keep moving if I wanted any chance of being there when she arrived. Time to hit the road again!
[321 days on the road]
