Ecuador, Summer 2013 (Part 6)
THE FOLLOWING BLOG POST WAS WRITTEN BEFORE THIS WEBSITE WAS EVER CONCEIVED ON MY OLD TUMBLR ACCOUNT. IT HAS BEEN EDITED FROM ITS ORIGINAL FORM FOR GRAMMAR, PACING, AND TO MAKE IT AN OVERALL BETTER READ.
My backpacking trip was entering its second week as I got up on the morning of June 13th. I met up with some of the other people staying at the hostel for breakfast. Oatmeal, fresh baked bread, and homemade jam was served in the communal kitchen.
After breakfast, the “Backpackers crew” headed into town to rent bikes to go sightseeing. We stopped at a tourism company called Geotours and since there were so many of us, we were able to get a group rate which came out to be about $7 per bike for the entire day.
I gotta be honest with you, I struggled a lot with my bike, primarily because I had never ridden one with variable gears. We all got on the highway and headed east. A short distance out of the city, we stumbled upon a Discovery Baños, a zipline that would take you across the Pastaza River.
For only $10 a person, many of us pounced on the opportunity. I had never been ziplining in my life so I was a little bit nervous. At 280 pounds, I was a few pounds lighter than the weight limit would allow.
Despite my personal anxiety, I reminded myself that I started this trip to get out of my comfort zone and to experience things I never had before.
I’m happy to report it was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life.
After we took a lift back across the river, we got on our bikes and continued east on the highway. We reached a valley and hiked down to get to the Manto de la Novia waterfall.
The hike down was pretty simple and after going on a rope bridge to cross the raging river, we made it to the banks of the Rio Verde where we kind of relaxed for a bit.
We hiked back to our bikes and went a little bit further down the highway until we reached El Pailon del Diablo (aka The Devil’s Cauldron). The Devil’s Cauldron gets its name from the naturally formed pool at the bottom of a waterfall. After our hike down, which was considerably more difficult than the previous one, we all decided to take a swim in the Pailon del Diablo.
Everyone dried off and we got on our bikes once more. From here we stayed on the highway and rode another 5 kilometers. The up-and-downhill nature of biking through the mountains left me exhausted.
We passed the town of Machay before finally stopping. We were all way too tired to attempt the nearly 25 km journey back to Baños.
A small truck was driving by on its way back into town. We hailed the driver and each offered him a dollar if to drive us back.
After getting dropped back into town, we returned our bikes at Geotours and immediately began looking for somewhere to eat. None of us had eaten since breakfast and after a 20 km bike ride combined with hiking through the mountains we were starving.
