Leaving the jungle for Banos

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The jungle experience was great but it was time to find some dryer weather & get a hot shower & laundry done. We reversed our arrival movements with a canoe back to the port on the other side of the Napo River, loaded our luggage onto 4wd's back to Tena to the bus station for a 3 hr local bus ride to Banos after a brief tour of the local market.

The bus ride ride was a climb back into the central highlands but not to any significant height but unfortunately not away from intermittent rain. The latter part of the ride was into some very lush mountainside with numerous waterfalls into massive gullies.

Arrived early afternoon & lunched at a very arty/spiritual/vegetarian cafe (with a very Byron bay vibe) & then wandered around to get a feel for the town. Beautiful clean town surrounded by mountains (including the active volcano Tungurahua (5000 mtrs). Banos is fortunately unaffected by its fairly regular eruptions as they occur on the opposite side of the mtn in remote country side.

We are looking forward to the next 2 days as Banos is renowned for every adventure/adrenalin type activity including canyoning, bungee jumping, rafting, zip lines, horse riding, hiking, quad bikes, cycling, hot springs etc and all at reasonable prices.

Three of the girls in our group did a free fall dive off a bridge in town into a massive canyon with a fast flowing river below. The rest of the group had just as much fun watching. The group is really jelling well together with a fantastic Ecuadorian guide organising everything. There is 13 in the group including 3 couples of similar age to us, 1 middle aged male and 6 single girls all in their mid to late twenties. 11 are Aussies & 2 girls are Brits.

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Comments

[maureen]

great ifo
Great to hear you are enjoying it so much. Keep having fun