Feb 24, 2013 - Banos

Niedziela, 24 luty - Banos Dzis troche relaksowy dzien. Pozne sniadaniu (bardzo syte i wliczone w cene pokoju w Posada del Artes) spacerujemy uliczkami miasteczka wypelnionymi turystami. Nie idziemy do goracych zrodel bo tez pelne wczasowiczow. Troche wiec odpoczywamy na tarasie naszej posady i poznym popoludniem znow wyruszamy na miasto. Okazuje sie ze dzis wieczor (niedziela) wiekszosc turystow wraca do Quito. Przed dworcem autobusowym ogromna kolejka. Miasteczko pustoszeje. Ale tez robi sie slonecznie wiec idziemy na druga strone rzeki...

Feb 23, 2013 - Cuenca, Banos

Sobota, 23 luty - Cuenca, Banos Ceunca nie ma bezposredniego polaczenia autobusowego z Banos. Wiec, aby tam dotrzec bierzemy autobus do Ambato. Autobus odjezdza o godzinie 8 rano (bilet $7/osobe) aby po 7 godzinach dotrzec do Ambato. Jedziemy tz. 'Ruta del Volcanos'. Jednak tych wulkanow nie jestesmy w stanie zobaczyc. Znaczna czesc drogi jest we mgle. Ale jedziemy dosc wysoko. Mozna to zauwazyc po roslinosci. Od czasu do czasu udaje sie zauwazyc 'podstawy' wulkanow (nawet az do widocznego sniegu) ale ich stozki sa zupelnie niewidoczne we...

Feb 19, 2013 - Mountains, rain and a SPA

At 9 am some of us met up with Giovanny and, despite the rain, we decided to hike the mountain. It's only about 2,000 metres above sea level but I sure felt the altitude. Bellevista was our first stop on a muddy, steep path and it sits at 3,300 metres. Next we hiked along a road (uphill) to a hotel where the views are magnificent, again, despite the rain and clouds. More muddy paths down hill now and some up hill and we came upon a cow tethered to a tree. Further along, the path splits and we took the uphill path to visit the virgin Mary....

Dec 18, 2012 - Baños

Nous voilà maintenant à Baños où nous avons rejoint pour deux jours Stéphanie et Alex. (J'avais rencontré Stéphanie en travaillant à Genève Tourisme. Elle voyage aussi avec son copain mais dans le sens inverse que nous). C'était super de se retrouver et nous n'avons pas pu résister à une bonne fondue du Swiss bistro. Elle était vraiment excellente. Il faut dire qu'après bientôt 9 mois, nous étions en manque de fromage. Et là, nous avons même eu droit à un plateau froid avec du gruyère et du fromage à raclette, un vrai luxe ! Nous avons...

May 31, 2012 - Come al luna park

Gli ultimi giorni è come se li avessi vissuti a Gardaland, con la differenza che ambientazioni, avventura e pericolo qui erano reali. La mia idea iniziale era di limitarmi al rafting, ma poi ho visto il video del canyoning e poi siamo passati dal ponte da cui ci si butta per il “puenting”, o “bridge swim”… e non ho resistito a nulla! Nonostante a ogni briefing iniziale sulla sicurezza (a parte per il puenting, inesistente) mi chiedevo se fossi pazza. Ancora una volta il nostro camping era in un luogo da sogno, in mezzo alla giungla, sulla...

Mar 2, 2012 - Banos, Bike Ride, Rafting, Zip Lining, Canyoning and Friends

Rafting I met two English girls from up north near Bolton who were pretty crazy and lots of fun so decided to go rafting with them, their names were Suzan and Lisa. The rafting here is rated at about 3.5 with 7 being the highest rating i think. We paid $25 each for the rafting and had about 1hr on the river. There were 2 boats, ours consisting of a Chilean couple, the guide and us and the other boat had 5 Chileans and the guide. We set off in an old Ford van with the boats on the roof for a 40 minutes ride to the starting point on the...

Dec 8, 2011 - Baños

Dec 8 to 9 Banos We had so much fun in Banos and it was our second favourite place in Ecuador (first being Galapagos). On the first day we rented buggies to go driving around to the various waterfalls around Banos. At the first waterfall Ian (being an adrenaline junkie and braver than me) did a zip line across in the superman position. He said it was a ton of fun. Then at the second waterfall we took a cable car across and over the waterfalls. They were twin waterfalls next to each other. We then walked around, went on a tire swing and saw...

Nov 16, 2011 - Crazy Beautiful!

This last leg of the journey has been of course amazing, we are on our second to last day here in Ecuador and it is bittersweet :( After going to the hot springs we went to the Amazon! We had to take a boat across the Rio Napo to get to our hotel, and man it was so breathtaking! Everything was gorgeous, no amount of ground was left uncovered, everything was sooo lush! Jen W unfortunately got eaten alive by bugs but it's worth it! We went on a hike in the Amazon and learned a lot about the native trees and plants, our guide made some cute...

Sep 11, 2011 - Nestled in the crook of a river.

Banos 11/09/11 Nestled in the crook of a river. We spent the rest of the morning packing for the trip to Banos and didn’t achieve much else. After lunch we got a mini bus down the very bumpy cobbled road to the town of Macharchi. We were dropped off at the side of the motorway and said that a bus would be along soon for Banos. There were lots of buses, but none said Banos. They were also flying past and the signs on the front of the buses were so small that it was almost impossible to see them. Eventually one stopped and said that he could...

Jun 4, 2011 - Banos, wish we were here longer

Banos is such a relief form the residential filled areas of Ecuador, surrounded by mountains makes it very picturesque. It is probably the most touristy place we have been to, but it definitely seems worth it. If we were here longer we would do a lot more of what they have to offer. It seems though we will just take away the delicious taffy, such a wonderful texture. We have spent less than a day here but it seems like a lot longer. We went this morning to the out of town "hot spring" which was a series of swimming pools heated by the...

May 31, 2011 - hola

Banos is a very cool town, touristy but mostly Ecuadorian tourists, kind of reminded me of a smaller less commercial Banff because of its setting in the mountains (the volcano is not visible from the town and was hidden by clouds). There are a lot of adventure sports here so I signed up. It was pouring rain all morning, then a few of us went canyoning. This is rappelling with ropes down waterfalls. We drove out of town for half an hour, got into wetsuits, spray jackets, helmets and belts, then climbed up into the mountains then down into...

May 28, 2011 - hola amigos

Our trip started with a stay at Papallacto Hot Springs where it is colder than in Quito because it has an even higher elevation, it gets close to freezing at night. This is the premiere hot springs in the country and is kind of posh. We stayed in cabins with small hot pools in between. This was good because of what was to come the next few days. Our bus leaving the hot springs was late due to a landslide, but finally arrived to take us to the entry town to the jungle. We rode in the back of a truck to reach our jungle lodge. Here I ran...