Las Cascadas - Baños, Ecuador

Following our flight from Madrid we recuperated in the hostel pool in Guayaquil, it was 35 degrees so perfect weather for lounging. After a couple of days we headed to Baños, so called due to the numerous hot springs in the area. It's a small town in the Andes, however amazingly it's only 60km from the Amazon. We booked into the local escuela de Espanol for a week, 3 hour classes in the morning were then followed by a fabulous 3 course almuerzo (lunch) for less than $2.




Probably not one of our favourite lunches, it was a mystery chicken body-part soup - we found necks, feet and various organs in there...yum!



There's no shortage of things to do in Banos- we hired bikes along the 'ruta de las cascadas' a 22km bike ride (thankfully) downhill, alongside waterfalls and butterflies. We went on grade 3/4 rapids along the rather murky water that took us into the Amazon and I amusingly watched as Tom was catapulted into the water. Luckily for him there were no piranhas inhabiting this river! We also hiked around the mountains in search of the perfect view of the Volcano Tungurahua, an active Volcano that last erupted in May this year.














Looking stylish in wetsuits before getting drenched in the rapids


I love hostel rabbits!