Kepfram & Ellie's Travel Journal

Recapping our time in Baños...

Baños, like a lot of Ecuador, was relaxing, pretty, pleasant, & welcoming for us (except for the painful realization that the town sits beneath an active volcano, which of course we only learned on the bus into town as I snapped this picture).

We went horseback riding (perhaps for the last time this trip) up the volcano that overlooks the town, rode bikes through the mountain/volcano valley there & hiked around to look @ some waterfalls, & ended one of our days with a nice visit to the local hot springs which give the town it's name.

The horseback ride was nice on the way up, we followed the road up the mountain winding our way along. We took a few pictures of the scenery & the town, but we couldn't see the volcano, it was too cloudy.
Going down wasn't as nice. The trails were tiny & the hill was steep & when the horse doesn't seem to want to go down a path I'd have trouble with on foot it worries me. That was only my 3rd time horseback riding, I was looking for a easy ride, @ least till somebody gives me a lesson (everytime they've asked I say "I don't know how to ride" hoping to get some instruction, instead I just get the slow horse).

We really enjoyed our bike ride from Baños to Rio Verde. The scenery was nice, the weather was mild & we've both been missing riding since we left NYC last July.
We saw a couple of small waterfalls from the road on our way to the Pailón del Diablo waterfall in Rio Verde & stopped to ride a cable car across the valley & check out a trout fishery. Our cable car ride was free since we helped the people move some cinder blocks (they were prepping to move the bricks to the other side of the valley by cable car for a construction project on the other side & it seemed rude to just stand there, so we pitched in & they gave us a free ride across & tour).
So after a brief mountain tour & a tense donkey experience (they didn't seem to want to let us pass on the path down) we finished our ride to Pailón del Diablo, "the 8th wonder of the world" as the sign said. That sign was a bit of an overstatement. It was pretty, it was kinda big, but my big wonder was "who had the balls too put up that sign?"
Anyway, caught a truck back to Baños & enjoyed a nice soak in the town's multiple hot springs that night, it was a great way to end that day.

Other stuff we liked: The owners of our hostel, El Oro were SO nice, they were really welcoming, & helpfull. We also found another "dinner & a movie" spot, Casa Hood. The twist there was that they have many movies in Spanish or with spanish/latin themes. We watched most of The House of Spirits there. We were also tempted again to change our plans when we saw an wanted sign for an English teacher, but who wants to live on the side of an active volcano anyway?

Kepfram