Bike Ride in Banos

When we first were looking at places to go in Ecuador, we read lots of recommendations for Banos, a small town known for adventure activities. The one that sounded most fun to me is a bike ride from Banos down the mountain to see various waterfalls. We almost decided not to do it since the ride is on the same small highway as the cars, buses and trucks. But I'm glad we went ahead and did the bikes. We rented bikes at a local shop for $5 each.

Ready to start our bike ride

The first part was through the town and then onto the highway. It took a few kilometers until we were out of the town area and into the canyon. The mountains are so green, huge and impressive. We didn't go at a very fast pace and the biking was pretty easy as it was mostly down hill. We stopped a few times to take pictures and have a drink of water. Our first major stop was, where 4 of us rode the cable car across the river. Rich, who still doesn't like heights, volunteered to stay behind and watch the bikes. Quite an impressive view.

The first major waterfall

Riding the cable car

The highway has a series of tunnels. Bikes have to go through the first one, which isn't too long, but the other tunnels have a small side road that bikes take instead. The first side road took us quite a while to ride because we stopped to take pictures so often. At the end of the side road we found the bridges where you can bungee swing. Basically you are harnessed in, jump off of one bridge and then the cable is attached to the next bridge and it turns into a big swing. Jenna jumped off her bike and said she wanted to do it. The boys weren't quite so eager. So Jenna got harnessed up and ready to go. By this point several people had also stopped at the bridge and were watching in amazement as she jumped off a bridge. She has no fear (except of sea lions). Once she went the boys immediately said they wanted to do it too. So Joe then Seth each took a turn.

Getting ready

The river below

Joe swinging

Seth Jumping off the bridge

After they were done

We continued on our ride, stopping often for more pictures, watching others do zip lines and for 25 cent ice-cream.

A little mud splatter on the face

When we arrived in Rio Verde, we found a place to lock our bikes and had some empanadas. They were so good! Then we hiked to the waterfall called pailon del diablo. The hike down was beautiful and then we got near the waterfall.

The trail down to the waterfall

We had to pay the entrance fee of $1.50 each. We noticed people coming back on the trail very wet. When we got closer we understood why. Lucky for us we had packed our rain jackets thinking it might actually rain. We were able to get out on the platforms where we got very wet from the waterfall mist. We crawled through an area to get a little closer. What an impressive waterfall!

After hiking back up we went back to the empanada restaurant and ordered more. Joe, with Rich's Spanish help asked how to make them and the lady was so nice and talked him through each step. After we ate she made some juice for Joe and gave him an Ecuador bracelet.

Then came the process of getting back home. Thankfully we did not have to ride the bikes back up the mountain,  For $2 a person we got in the back of a truck for a ride back. The truck had 6 people and felt mostly full when a group of 5 also needed a ride. The driver said of course there's room and loaded up 5 more people and bikes. I guess there was enough room but a few people had to sit on the floor. The ride back to town was our least favorite part of the day, but it sure was better than riding our bikes.

Loading up the bikes

When we were done it had taken us 7 hours to do about a 16 mile bike ride! I'm not really sure we can call it a bike ride since we spent more time off our bikes than we did on them. Certainly a very fun day!