Biking through the Ecuadorian Jungle

We arrived in Baños on April 13th and were totally wiped out. On the 14th we decided to explore all this small mountain town had to offer. Taking the advice of a few friends, we rented mountain bikes (for $6.00 each) and set out down the only road out of baños in search of some waterfalls and jungle!

The road was really beautiful and at first it was very downhill. After about 20 mins on our bikes the scenery changed from rolling green hills covered in tall trees to lush, green rainforest with the most beautiful flowers (orchids), banana trees, tomato trees, guavas, oranges, corn everything! We biked to a beautiful waterfall called Pailon de Diablo for lunch and got to climb to the top of the waterfall.

We then continued on our bike ride and it got a little hilly and a little hot. We made it in total about 33 miles to a small town that we had been told had a small dique at the end of the road. It turned out to be an awesome pooling of one of the rivers that they basically made into a natural pool (equipped with slides even). We had brought our swimsuits and jumped in for a dip! It got me excited for Lake Washington. A very nice family came over and said hi to us and (naturally) handed us thier 2 month old son, George Oswald, to hold. It was really fun to hold the little munchkin and the family was delightful.

We then heaved our bikes back up the hill and caught a ride back to Baños. We hadn´t realized how far we had ridden. It ended up being almost 8 hours on the bike!

Baños is known for their naturally occuring hot springs (from the nearby volcano) and we lined up just before 6 pm to go in for an evening soak. There were 3 pools and the hottest of the three was scalding! It felt good, but only for about 6 minutes before I thought I might have a stroke. We then ventured upstairs to the warm and cold pools. It was a great and a really cool local attraction. All the locals lined up in their bathrobes and towels and got together and chatted in the pools. We loved it so much I am headed back there now. :)

Adios!