Waterfalls

Today was a great day. After breakfast we hiked up the mountain on the "Sendero de Bella Vista" trail. Actually, we only went part way and then headed back to town because we were thinking of going to another hostel. We checked a few out but decided to stay where we were because of the price and they had fixed the hot water problem (we had to go to another room to shower because there was no hot water in our room).

We walked around town and checked out what there was to do. You can do white water rafting (no), canyoning down the face of a waterfall (no, no), bungy jumping (no, no, no) and waterfall tour (YES). So that is what we did today. We had a fabulous time. They took us in a safari type open bus (capacity 35) and it was just the 3 of us onboard. By the way, the cost of this 4 hour excursion was $5 each - you can't beat Ecuador prices!

The trip took us on a road overlooking the valley and river below. We went through 5 or 6 tunnels dug through the mountains (and yes cars pass in the tunnels). We stopped and took pictures of about 7 different waterfalls. The last one we got out and did a major hike down the mountain to the bottom of the falls. It was very jungly with tropical plants and trees. The falls were fantastic and then we had to climb all the way up, but the path was very good with wooden and rock steps alot of the way. On the way back our driver drove like a maniac (seems to be a theme here).


Great view of the falls from here ... but if you really want a close look ...


For $1 you can take this tram ... .


Looking down from the tram.


Looking up at one of the falls close to the road.


River that cuts through the mountains.


The legend of these falls is that there was a wedding and the groom didn't show up so the bride jumped from the falls.


The trail down to the last falls.


The last waterfall we visited.

After supper at a Mexican restaurant we walked around town and found out where the Banos (hot baths with water heated from the volcano). There are 2 pools, one 38 degrees and one 42 degrees. It is about a 5 minute walk from our hostel so we are going to do that tomorrow. Plus we are planning on doing a big hike in the morning to the Bella Vista location where they take you to see the active volcano. They usually take people up at night by car to see the fire from the volcano but the clouds are thick right now and you can't see sometimes. Hopefully we will get to see it before we leave.

Good night and hope to blog more tomorrow but internet is not reliable at this hostel.