Banos

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Banos is a really cool city in southern Ecuador that has a great view of a volcano, lots of thermal baths, and very cool waterfalls. Everyone we have met so far has been telling us how green Ecuador is…and they were right. Within minutes of crossing the Peruvian border things got much greener. In Banos we were able to do a little hike to the Devil’s Cauldron waterfall and I felt like I was in a jungle. Everything was so green and there were huge leaves and plants all around.

The other big thing we did while we were in Banos was go canyoning. We signed up to do two different canyons and both were really cool. The first canyon we were in the river the whole time, making our way down by jumping, sliding, floating, abseiling, and zip lining. We weren’t able to do the whole thing though because the water was so strong from all of the rain. I had to be rescued by the guide twice because I was getting carried off by the water. The other canyon we went to had huge waterfalls and we got to abseil down. The highest one was 45 meters. It was a wonderful day. Shigeko ended the day by jumping off a bridge twice…I was quite satisfied with just canyoning.

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Photos

Giant Leaves
Supersized leaves were everywhere as we hiked to the waterfall.

Devil's Cauldron
A very cool waterfall. They built these platforms and you could crawl behind it and watch it from the inside.

Canyoning
Sliding down rocks....One of the guides is hidden from all the water.

Being Rescued
This guide had to help me multiple times. The water was so strong and it was really hard to stand up. One time I was going down a slide thing and basically the water pushed me right into him and we both fell. Woops.

Evacuating the Canyon
The water was so strong that we had to evacuate the canyon. It was basically like walking in white water rapids.

Lunch
The canyoning crew and the best fish I have had on the whole trip.

Me Jumping
They told us that we would have to let go of the rope and jump the last bit. It was really hard to hear...so you just had to hope you were doing it right.

135 Foot Waterfall
This was a huge waterfall that we go to abseil down. You couldnt see where you were going so you basically just had to go over the edge and hope for the best.

Me Abseiling
We got to do this big waterfall twice because we had to evacuate the other canyon. It was much easier to enjoy it the second time around when you knew what it was going to be like.

We Made It!
Despite the huge amounts of water because it rained all day, our canyoning trip was great and we all made it out in one piece.

Shigeko's Bridge Jump
Shigeko jumped off a 270 foot bridge (twice!). I was way too scurred to do it.

Butts Up
Shigeko's jump continued.