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El Cajas National Park
Flowers along the way - Cuenca Baños The next day we boarded the public bus to take the very long 6-hour journey south towards Baños, a town renown for their hot springs. Cramped & lethargic from our journey, my first activity for the evening after our arrival was a visit to the public baths for a dip in the skin peeling hot water to relax.
The town of Baños (elevation 1800m) sits at the base of the very active Volcano Tungurahua, which had its last major eruption in 2006, forcing the town to evacuate. Hmm! In Australia we get green, yellow & red warning levels to monitor the potential for bush fires. In Baños they get the same warning levels - only this time it is to monitor the threat of Volcanic eruption! We were on yellow, which I was told was safe - Uhh! Isn’t that only one away from red???
I was told that Baños is also a good spot for the adventure seekers, wanting to mountain bike, trek, go canyoning and rafting. In saying that, I was very certain that I was not up for any strenuous activity, so the following day (after planning what time I would end up
at the thermal baths again later that day) I hopped into a buggy and together with my roommate rode our way to the 'Pailon del Diablo' (approx 18kms outside of Baños), successfully driving past the rest of our group who were in the mood for mountain biking along the same road.
Along the way we stopped off at a few other water falls, went along a superfast cable car suspended precariously high along the mountains to take photos of the surrounding landscape and lastly to conquer the “Devils Crater” itself.
I never ended up at the thermal baths that night. Instead I spent the rest of night in the bar district chatting to the locals & the barman who kept plying me with Bob Marley shots (possibly in an effort to improve my Spanish?) before finishing the night off in a local 'club' practicing my salsa moves with whoever wanted to dance......
Cuenca Cuenca is Ecuador’s third largest city, the centre of which is listed as a UNESCO world heritage site. Sadly - as a trade off with any organised tour, I had to follow a timetable - This for me meant that I had
Buggy ride views through Baños
One of the many waterfalls along the way very little time in Cuenca to explore the area, staying only one full day/night in the city itself. Nevertheless, we made the most of our time exploring as much as we could, starting with a night out in the bar district drinking ‘Pisco Sours’ with the locals. (Technically Peruvian- so it came as no surprise that it tasted terrible)
The following day we were up for an early morning start to trek through a small portion of the ‘El Cajas’ National Park with an elevation of 3900m. This was going to be my first trial run through of walking at Altitude and a small insight into walking the Inca Trail (albeit only for 2 hours - not 4 days worth). And although I was one of the last of my group to make it back to the base - I was still happy with myself for being able to do it at my own pace without almost hyperventilating to death due to lack of oxygen & zero fitness ability. Sadly, one of our group wasn’t so lucky, breaking a rib after falling and almost impaling herself one a stump of wood in the paper bark forest halfway through the
walk.
For the rest of us, we returned to Cuenca just after midday to peel off our muddy clothes and get ready for our afternoon walking tour of the city. We wandered around the streets looking at the two main cathedrals of Cuenca; past the flower markets, which sold one of Ecuador’s major exports - Roses! for as little as 20 cents a rose and through the Mercado central to get a taste of some of the local South American fruits that were in season. Our last stop was a visit to the Ecuador Hat Musuem (really a factory that made hats and had a small ‘museum’ attached to the front of it). For those that don’t know, The ‘Panama Hat’ as it is called actually originated from Ecuador - but was given the name of Panama hat by the people who wore them building the Panama Canal. Of course, I ended up with one, specially marked with my name ‘Cristinita’ by my hatman, Effrin - so a very big thankyou to you!.
I didn’t know where my energy came from but later that night after dinner, I managed to join some of the group for a farewell
Cable car ride in Baños
Magnificent views of the surrounding countryside drink with Diego, our Ecuadorian Guide at a local bar followed by some dancing in a nightclub. Techno music - Latino style just doesn’t have the same ring as the English version (techno music as a whole is not very appealing), so I didn’t stick around too long into the night before heading home with one of the other girls for an exhausted nights sleep.
Tomorrow was going to be a big day. It was goodbye to Ecuador and hello PERU!
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