Where's the Banos?

The trip to Banos was quite an experience; it started off with a three hour taxi ride from Montanita to Guayaquil, followed by a seven hour bus and finally after approximately 30 minutes of trying to hitch-hike and an argument between four taxi drivers we finally arrived in Banos at about 1am.

The rather strange travel arrangements were due to the fact that our friend Shawn had booked us in for whitewater rafting the following day.

Heading down to the river all kitted out

Our boat was supported by a kayaker who took plenty of photos throughout the day (probably too many), so I will just include a couple...

Calm Waters

Powering through the rapids

Overall the day of rafting was great fun and a good introduction to the adventure activities that lay ahead in Banos. After such a tough day we decided to head off to the hot springs to heal our tired bodies. The hottest of the springs was 45*C which the locals seemed to rather enjoy however for most of the gringos it was far too hot!!

The following day we woke up a bit later and decided that some puenting (bridge swing) was in order. We headed off to San Francisco bridge where we were greeted by a tiny platform over the other side of the fence that we were told would be the launching point for the jump (the scariest part was climbing onto the platform without falling off)

Slowly edging forward



Holding on for dear life



The Survivors

After the stress of the swing, Ben and I headed off for a massage. Upon arrival we discovered that for the same price we could get a facial massage and facial included so we figured "why not?". The massage was quite good although I'm not sure that the facial did much to help my cause!

Continuing on with the activity trend on Wednesday we decided to hire a buggy and go and check out some waterfalls about an hour from town.

Ready to hit the road

Behind The Devil's Waterfall

Another waterfall

Holding up the rainbow

Continuing my bad luck of hiring anything with wheels, flat tyre on the quadbike and a broken bike on death road, the buggy managed to break down just as we started to head home. After 90 minutes wait we were told that no-one would be coming to help us and we would have to make our own way home. Fortunately some others from the hostel allowed us to squeeze into their jeep and we managed to get back safely; I think I might stay clear of hiring anything for a while...

On Thursday morning we tried to find another activity to do for the day however nothing appealed to us so we spent most of the day lounging around. Ben and I decided that it was time for another massage, little did we know that this would provide us with a life-changing travel experience; a pedicure! At this stage I would like to justify this and say that similar to the facial it was included however this is not true and we both paid an extra $5 to have our feet washed and nails clipped...I'm completely hooked and cannot wait for my next one.

Such beautiful feet!!

At this point it was time to say goodbye to Ben and Shawn who were both heading back south. I had a thoroughly enjoyable few weeks and will catch up with them both in the near future! Tyler and I then headed to Cotopaxi to trek someway up the volcano but I'll include information about this in my next post.