Boot camp with the Irish Triathletes!

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After a few too many Mojito cocktails the night before we all got up and Andrea and me went for a steam bath in the hostel. Basically, you sit in a wooden box and turn up the steam until you can take no more! Several of these sessions interspersed with being towelled and hosed down with cold water is supposed to help your skin and detox you - don´t know if it did that but it was damn nice anyway and the guy jet washed some on my bruises which I am covered in at the moment and they are disappearing now!

We then had breakfast and were chatting to Jen and Kevin an Irish couple we had met the night before. We decided to attempt the Baños to Puyo bike ride - 60km of supposedly downhill mountain biking (I was later to discover that downhill was a huge over-exaggeration on the part of the Lonely Planet - I bet the guy who wrote it didn´t even bike it but instead watched the route from a bus window!!).

We went to hire our bikes and then set off for the first stop at a huge waterfall called the Cascada del Diablo (The Devil´s Falls) - very touristy but beautiful all the same and a much needed rest from the "downhill" bike ride! (I was later to find out that section was the most downhill it would be!). The waterfall spray was refreshing but I got absolutely soaked.

We got some recharge juice and crisps and then I went off with Jen and Kevin to do the rest of the ride to Puyo (another 40km) and Hannah and Andrea hitched a lift in a truck back to Baños.

And what a bike ride it was - we had beatiful views over the Upper amazon basin and it was amazing - unfortunately not many photos as was getting too into the biking thing to stop anywhere!! Went through several little towns and villages and passed about 300 roadside stalls selling oranges (I have no idea how they make any money the orange market is saturated here!). We got chased by several large dogs and had to swerve out of the way of a guy who was out of his tree and lying in the middle of the road. We stopped again to stock up on some energy and it is then that I find out that Jen and Kevin had done a triathlon in Ireland before they left for Ecuador! Hmmmmmmm I find myself thinking - told them they should´ve told me that earlier when I was wondering about how fast I had to pedal to keep up with them!! Anyway it was all good and we made it the whole way to Puyo, found a nice bus conductor to put our bikes on the roof and made the hour and a half bus ride back to Baños. Ace!

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