Banos

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Today has been a fantastic day. Bit of a sleep-in with a 9 am start for various activities. Nearly all of us opted for a 16 km one-way bike ride down the hill initially following the same road in on arrival yesterday. While the road passes through 6 tunnels up to 1 km long we only had to negotiate 1 as external bike paths have been built around the others.

We paid for better bikes although they were pretty average & mine had a flat front tyre but still had good fun and dressed in our wet weather gear for the inevitable intermittent rain. The ride follows the Rio Verde (Green River) valley with photo stops at 6 spectacular waterfalls along the way. Each waterfall had some variation of zip line, bridge free fall or gondola ride to attract tourist interest. At the 3rd waterfall (Manto De La Novia) we all took a stand-up cable car over the canyon for a photo stop over the middle of the canyon before proceeding to the falls at the other side & return. All for $us1.

The last waterfall at the village of Rio Verde was the most spectacular & known as the Devils Cauldron & involves a 15 min walk to a panoramic balcony & pathway cut into the rock so you can go into the cave behind the waterfall where the intensity of the water drop and noise reminded me of Niagara Falls.

The return trip back to Banos was in the back of an old truck with the bikes where you could see straight through to the road below as the floor of the truck had a beautiful filigree of rust. After a late lunch we wandered around town for the rest of the afternoon. The cathedral was a highlight especially the wall mosaics and the sound acoustics as a mass started soon after we entered.

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Comments

[Steve]

Fantastic photos
The Devil's Cauldron looks great. Those steps you can see down to the mirador look ridiculously steep!