A majority of the interns decided to do a weekend in Baños, which is a small town in the valley of the Andes that is well known to be a big tourist spot. Alexa, Suzy, and I took the bus from Tena to Baños at around 5:00pm so we would arrive almost at 9:00pm. There was one pretty scary moment on the bus ride, where at the province border there were armed guards who had semi-automatic weapons and were in uniform. They came onto the bus and had us step off to check our passports and bags. As they stood there holding their guns, I couldn’t help but be terrified. I knew none of us had anything on us, but at the moment we didn’t even know what they were looking for. I couldn’t help but fear it would be an awful story we hear on the news of these three tourist girls being shot by police in another country on the side of the road. Pretty quickly though, we were allowed to climb back onto the bus and sit down for the rest of the ride but I still was shook up for the night. I later found out it wasn’t unusual as they were checking for drugs to stop the transport of those across provinces.
I was pretty nervous when we got off at the terminal, being a group of only girls at night in a new place is hair wracking enough, and there were also about forty men standing and staring at us. We walked for about five minutes, the only people we saw were men that would stand and stare or obnoxiously call at us as we walked by. Luckily Suzy had been there before and knew where to go so she was able to lead us to an area with more women that felt more comfortable to walk around at. We had booked a nice hostel the night before we arrived, so we found the place and some dinner before heading to bed early.
The next morning we enjoyed walking around the small town and finding some amazing breakfast. A lot of stuff was closed as it was going to be a rainy weekend so we asked about paragliding which ended up being a bit expensive and a little unreliable. So I decided to rent a mountain bike and bike the ruta de cascades to the Pailon del diablo (Devil’s Cauldron) waterfall, which is the second largest waterfall in Ecuador.
The ride was 20 kilometers and I loved it. It went along these winding stone pathways for part of it where you had an amazing view of the surrounding mountains. The next part was on a highway though, so everyone else was really nervous and not happy about it, as you had to dodge cars and watch the side of the cliff. Plus through the tunnels you had to move quickly to get out of the way. I was flying on the downhills but I made sure to stop when I reached a safe place, for the rest of the group to catch up.
Within five minutes of biking Suzy complained her bike was acting up. So we switched and I took it down a side street to figure it out. Unfortunately three territorial medium-sized dogs started chasing me, so I pedaled back yelling at the others to go. I jumped off the seat of the bike and used it to put space between the dogs and I, just in time as one lunged and bit into the side of the bike wheel. We decided to just to keep going and I would keep the broken bike as I felt a bit more secure on it. It ended up being that the bike was stuck between gears so once I got that fixed up it was fine.
I felt bad as I’m not sure Suzy really knew how to bike well but decided to do it anyway. She ended up crashing on a downhill and totaling her bike. We sent her to the hospital as the bike guy came on the bus to check on what happened. She just had a few scrapes but was okay to go alone so we could continue on.
The Pailon del Diablo was amazing. We had to hike down and were able to stand behind a part of the waterfall and against the cliff but it was louder than an airplane engine. You can also walk to different viewing levels so we went all the way to the bottom to get drizzled on by the spray of the large waterfall. I had never been so close and we joked about the survival rate of just diving in from there. We got some snacks (chocolate-covered strawberries) and enjoyed the little walkways before finding our ride back to Baños. We ended up hopping a truck that was there to give bikers rides back instead of biking uphill.
When we got to Baños, we returned the bikes and went to the hostel to check on Suzy. She had some tiny scrapes on her wrist, arm, knee, and face so she panicked and went to the hospital. She did have a minor sprain on her ankle but was fine to do easy activities so we took a short walk to a nearby cafe.
While getting some burgers the sun came out so we went up to the ‘swing at the end of the world’ that is a famous swing on the very side of a cliff, so you essentially swing dangling off of it. We were able to get there by 5:30pm to get pictures and see the sunset. There was a less popular swing nearby so we swung at that for a short time and then walked around on some beams and sat to enjoy the sunny weather.
After getting back down into town, Alexa, Grant and I bought some really warm sweaters and walked around a bit more. There was never enough time to see everything and it was nice to explore other Ecuadorian cultures and activities. Those three went to sleep early that night but Dakotah convinced me to go out with them so we chilled around the hostel fire pit until almost 11:00pm just telling stories and talking about everyone’s day.
We then went to two different clubs on this crazy full party street. All down the street the houses were lit up with blinking colorful lights, people stood outside smoking, drinking, and having a little fun with a partner. One thing that will always be my favorite part of being in Ecuador was the dancing. My feet never stopped as I salsa’d the night away with all kinds of people, men and women. The bouncers were great and would send the best dancers our way, setting us up with guys as there were limited girls there to dance with for them and giving us a fun night to remember. As we headed back to our hostel at 2:00am, we really had no choice but to stop and grab some chocolate covered bananas as a quick snack.
The next day, we left our stuff in Andrew’s room, another coworker, as he was staying an extra night, but we had to get back to work for the next day. We went to a company across from our hostel at 9:00am and got ready for canyoning. Canyoning is this really fun activity where you rappel down waterfalls and Maya had found a great deal for it online so most of us signed up.
We were given shoes and wet suits to put on and then we waited for the others to show up. We headed out for the canyon around 10:00am. We had the same instruction on how to rappel safely and then were told not to let go of the rope “because your life is in your own hands” by our slightly comedic, but with a little seriousness in there, guide. We hiked about twenty minutes up into the canyon, then we began rappelling down four different waterfalls.
The entire experience was a really great one and I am super happy I went. I surprisingly never felt the fear or nerves, I was calm and enjoying the trip. We would be told when to go and then you lean back so you are 90 degrees against the waterfall and slowly walk yourself down while sliding the free rope through your hands. One waterfall my foot slipped and sure enough I face planted into the rock, the fall wasn’t hard so I was fine but it was difficult to find my footing on the slippery moss covered rock again. Plus with the weight of the water coming off the waterfall, it made it hard to stay balanced and I slipped around like a person on black ice until I could right myself.
Towards the end, there was a waterfall that was too high for a rappel so they set up this makeshift zipline, where you jump off the cliff and let gravity pull you down to the second guide holding the rope tension at the bottom. It was pretty exhilarating as you free fall for a second before the rope catches you. My heart skipped a beat slightly as you expect to feel the ground below hitting you though you are far from it, as the rope catches you. I ended up getting turned upside down and was dangling stuck towards the end so they had to loosen and shake it for me to make it down. Grant got pretty stuck as well, which was entertaining to watch as they shook the line and he bobbed his way down to the bottom.
The last waterfall was a double decker and didn’t need rappelling, as you could slide right down it. We went in pairs, Maya and I went first, wrapping our arms around each other, we slid down the steep first tier into the small pool of waist deep water. We were told to pause for a second for a photo, but as we were smiling together, I felt a sudden rough tug of my attached harness and went reeling backwards into the pool of water and under the waterfall. I came up gasping and coughing, eyes wide with the sudden shock of freezing mountain water seeping through my wetsuit and helmet. I got over the shock quickly as I heard the guide who had dunked us laughing his butt off and I couldn’t help but join along in the chuckles. You can be sure I was ready to get into some dry, warm clothing and have a hot drink to warm up my numb hands.
The tour then dropped us off at a nice cafe that gave us great sandwiches and tropical fruit tea. We got our pictures downloaded on our phones and then some of us went out for more food. I got an amazing chocolate milkshake and garlic bread at casa hood cafe, something that was quite the luxury after living on basic vegetables and meats in Tena.
That canyoning experience meant a lot to me and I could see a lot of these activities in my future. I loved being in the great outdoors and challenging myself and it was a real turning point in my attitude towards making sure I can continue my adventures in the future.
When we arrived back, my phone wasn’t working or was dead. I can’t quite remember, but our group had split up a bit to do what we wanted with the little time left of the day. So I was wandering around and managed to make it to the very edge of Baños, which is such a unique view as it is a literal cliff ending the city into a river. I stared at it in confusion. The city just drops off on all sides into a river and this was a massive cliff. To get into the city there were these large bridges to drive across. I realized after returning to the hostel and talking to Andrew that I was the only intern left and hopped a bus at 8:00pm back to Tena where I arrived at midnight and went straight to bed.