Activity Summary
Wednesday 6th September - Day 337 (continued)
Travel to Banos
Lunch at El RINCON DE GRACIANO
Walk around Banos
God damn hippies
Thursday 7th September - Day 338
Research / CV day
Lunch at My Veg Restaurante
Friday 8th September - Day 339
Ruta de las Cascadas
Agoyan Waterfall
Cascada Manto de la Novia
El Pailón del Diablo
Lunch at local restaurant in Rio Verde
Cascada El Rocío Machay
Saturday 9th September - Day 340
Happy birthday to Luke
Breakfast at Cafe Colibri
2hr massage
Curry at Sher E Punjab Rincon de la India
Sunday 10th September - Day 341
Both of us with stomach problems
Decision to not leave Banos and cancel Riobamba trip
Booked into new hostel, Hostel Princesa Maria
Hideaway all day
Monday 11th September - Day 342
Breakfast at Cafe Colibri
Hideaway all day
Tuesday 12th September - Day 343
Travel to Guayaquil
Hideaway in airport hotel
Wednesday 13th September - Day 344
Travel to Iquitos, Peru
Flight to Lima
Summary
Banos
There was always going to a place that didn’t stack up to the great places we had been recently and Banos was that place.
The place was fine. It was pretty being set in the valley of the mountains and the town was ok to walk around.
But we didn’t do a whole lot here, certainly not the adventure activities which it’s renowned for, which probably added to the slight boredom and then got sick. So we don’t hold Banos in too much high regard
Transport
Banos
Taxi to Latacunga bus terminal (terrestre)
12pm bus to Banos
Walk to hostel
Accommodation
Banos - Papachos Hostel
Number of nights - 4
Price per night per person - £8
Positives:
Supposedly sociable
Negatives:
Shared bathroom
Weird rooftop area that was super loud at night
Needed earplugs throughout
Hostel workers were all so weird and treated the place like their home rather than for guests
No vibe
Shit kitchen and utensils
Recommend?
Absolutely not - a bit of a horrible place really
Banos - Hostal Princesa Maria
Number of nights - 2
Price per night per person - £8
Positives:
Private room and bathroom
Comfortable
Alright kitchen - a bit small however
Really nice owner / employees
Negatives:
Smokers that happened to have their spot outside our window
Recommend?
Yes - certainly for being ill
Diary
Wednesday 6th September - Day 337 (continued)
It was a pretty easy 2 hour journey to Banos. The most difficult part was watching locals with booked seats where two backpacker girls were perched with their big bags trying to kick them out of the seats continuously. The Ecuadoreans love an allocated seat it turns out.
In Banos we grabbed our bags and walked to Papachos hostel, checked in and were shown to our private room. We were then quickly out of the door for a cheap $3 lunch at El RINCON DE GRACIANO which did the job.
Banos is quite nice. The surrounding hills are cool and the town itself was calm and nice to walk around. Even has a KFC.
After making use of the nearby largish supermarket, we spent the afternoon chilling in the hostel living area watching Netflix and doing some research. This was all going swimmingly until a troupe of guitar and ukalele wielding hippies descended into the common room and with fuck all regard for anyone else, two of the shit lid crew began subjecting us to a compulsory practice session of their less than impressive skills.
This ended any hopes of watching anything properly so after laughing, texting each other and insulting them we switched to a more inclusive planet earth 2 programme. This got quite a lot of interest from everyone else passing in the hostel.
To quote Cartman 'goddamn hippies’.
We started cooking dinner a bit later which didn’t go quite so well. The 6 burner cooker was right up against the corner so the space was tight and to top that off the people who worked there were so weird. One especially odd old guy actually moved Nicola and her stuff out of the way. So Luke took over and it wasn’t a pleasant experience.
With the hostel being wholly occupied seemingly by people who worked there, we retreated to our room where there was peace.
Thursday 7th September - Day 338
We had more days in Banos than we needed because with flights to Iquitos we only had a set amount of time in Ecuador. This meant we had sacrificed going to Cuenca as well which was apparently really nice according to others we had met.
The additional day here therefore would allow us not to travel on Luke’s birthday and give us some downtime. Luke spent the day doing research and Nicola her CV in the living room before again being chased out by weird hostel workers around lunchtime.
Instead we went out for food at My Veg Restaurante which was average at best apart from the great potato cheese avo soup, apparently a local specialty. Would recommend the soup.
We had a walk around Banos before continuing our laid back day at the hostel with leftover pasta dinner.
Friday 8th September - Day 339
The day's activity was to rent bikes and cycle the Ruta de las Cascadas.
In town we found a place well reviewed and hired bikes for $10 each. They were decent enough mtbs with disk brakes.
The first third of the cycle was by far the worst. It involved cycling through and out of town, onto the main E30 highway and contending with various cars and a lot of trucks. To quote the hostel, ‘cyclists do not have priority’.
It seemed most vehicles were used to the various gringo bikers lining the road and gave enough space, although it would have totally been illegal in the UK.
The worst part was the one tunnel we had to cycle through. It wasn’t wide enough to cycle two abreast with a vehicle and one truck thought it would have been possible with his monster vehicle. So deciding we should have moved over decided to beep his fuck off huge horn in the confine of the tunnel. Nicola was at the back and, understandably, this properly shook her up. She’s not completely confident on roads, has issues with pollution and this pushes the levels of anxiety to max.
Once through this however it got a lot easier thankfully, having routes around such horrible narrow tunnels.
The waterfalls were decent, usually set in a mass of green and all dropped deep into the river carved valley. The river itself was really nice to look at when we weren’t stressed.
The waterfalls we did stop over at along the way were:
Agoyan Waterfall
Cascada Manto de la Novia
At the El Pailón del Diablo waterfall there was an option for two routes, one shorter one that took people above the waterfall or there longer option that went along the river and behind the waterfall. Option 2 was not only easier to find the entrance of but it sounded more fun.
The views from the base of the waterfall were great and had Ed and Fiona available to take pictures of us for once.
To get behind the waterfall was an interesting crawl through a carved out tunnel that was made a lot more challenging with a bag.
Nicola, being the square she is, decided she needed her bike helmet to protect her noggin. Lame but safe.
The waterfall was popping and Luke decided to follow Ed’s lead and make a move behind the waterfall. Ed came out slightly damp and Luke absolutely soaking. The 0.5 zoom really did accentuate his bean pole like physique currently.
We parted ways with Ed & Fiona and went for a Nicola rage busting lunch at a local restaurant in Rio Verde. Some decent fried chicken actually.
Last on the list of waterfalls was Cascada El Rocío Machay. This ended up being a little further than Nicola had the energy for and also required us to cycle back to Rio Verde for the bike transport. We did however get to the parking in one piece, paid the $1.50pp entry and descended right down into the valley.
The waterfall was good but not sure Nicola thought it was worth it. It was picturesque though.
The promise of a swim wasn’t enough to coax Nicola to carry on down the river and instead, citing she wouldn’t make it back otherwise, began ascending while Luke went for a little wonder. A few pictures and mosquito bites later, he then turned around and caught Nicola up.
In town we caught up with Ed & Fiona again who had been waiting a while for the Yute to reach required numbers. Sadly this meant Ed would miss the start of the first rugby World Cup game.
Once we were in town we dropped the bikes back and all watched the second half of the France v NZ game in the hostel. Turns out the best method for it was using Luke’s O2 data with its UK based in built location and stream to his iPad. At least when he has 4g anyway.
After having some downtime we had a simple nacho dinner and chatted with Fiona & Ed into the evening.
Saturday 9th September - Day 340
Happy birthday to Luke!
We both usually have pretty good ideas of what we do in each place we visit so there’s never much surprise in what we do. So from Luke’s perspective it was quite nice to have Nicola plan the day and him see what was in store.
It was a pretty nice start. Given a card that Nicola had been carrying around for 2 months and breakfast at Cafe Colibri which served really nice food (if not far too much food) and had a lovely backdrop of a garden with a number of birds flying around.
Once eaten we chilled back at the hostel before heading out to get a 2 hour massage session; 1 hour massage and 1 hour exfoliation. This was the surprise for the day and Luke had a sneaky suspicion this was on the cards but was very much desired. Luke enjoyed the massage, seemingly getting a more aggressive one that Nicola would have liked.
There was more chill time at the hostel before going to the top rated restaurant in Banos, a curry house that was also quite expensive. Some pakoras, saag chicken, chicken tikka masala and garlic naans with a beer and we were both ready for bed by 9pm. Hardcore.
Sunday 10th September - Day 341
What wasn’t in the surprise birthday plan was giving Luke the shits.
Sadly he was awake most of the night urinating out of his asshole. Imodium seemed to help after 10 hours of a lot of discomfort.
Nicola did join him on the poo wagon for a couple hours and in that time we had made the executive decision we weren’t going to Riobamba today. Sadly the last part of our Ecuador trip would be spent in Banos, a place we hadn’t really enjoyed all that much.
Nicola booked a new hostel, Hostel Princesa Maria, which turned out to be a much better joint than Papachos. The two beds, private bathroom and a lot more comfort went down a treat when we moved across in the morning.
With what little energy she had left, Nicola went to the shop for food & dropped some washing ahead of us going to the Amazon.
Luke conversely watched rugby all day and when out of the worst of it had energy to pick the washing up and cook dinner when Nicola was spent.
Not an overly fun second day as a 32 year old.
Monday 11th September - Day 342
It was another very slow day for us. We were both feeling better and therefore decided to go back for breakfast at Cafe Colibri.
We booked the 6:50am bus to Guayaquil from the terminal and then once back in our room did very little with our day, researching and watching TV from the comfort of our room.
Tuesday 12th September - Day 343
6am rises are never fun but for some reason the hostel was a tinderbox of noise the night before. Coupled with the need to get up, neither of us were particularly well rested.
We were at the bus terminal by 6:30am and on the bus before it departed at 6.50am, interestingly leaving before its due time.
It was a bumpy ass ride to Riobamba which made us both feel woozy, Nicola because Nicola and Luke when trying to write the blog. The roads appeared to be main roads but these went right up into the mountains and along some interesting steep drop offs.
At least we had enough space on the bus so we didn't need to sit together.
With two stopovers for a toilet break, a TV playing the loudest films possible requiring our Bose headphones to protect our ears and 7 hours later we were at the terminal Terrestre in Guayaquil.
Fortunately for us the bus terminal was really close to the airport and therefore our accommodation. First we had a stop by mcds in the terminal for lunch, which turned out to be up there as one of the worst McDonald’s we’ve ever eaten, and then over to the taxi stand ‘taxi segura’ which simply translates to ‘safe taxi’ and was recommended by our hotel. There was the usual slight delay in trying to show where our hotel was but the guy we were allocated was an absolute boss and for the first time ever, didn’t need any direction whatsoever. It only cost $4 as well.
Once checked in we crashed in the room, ordering an overly priced takeaway burrito from a nearby place so we didn’t have to leave the complex.
Wednesday 13th September - Day 344
Another planned travel day, another problem.
It seemed Nicola’s surprise birthday present of the shits had come back around to knock Luke down some more, this time with some added shame. While waiting patiently for the toilet to be free, what was thought to be a harmless fart turned out to be round 2 of whatever had been plaguing him a few days previously. The error in judgement led to him sharting himself, just a little bit but enough to bring shame upon his family and obviously had to share this with Nicola who, without remorse, burst out laughing. In the wise words of Elton John, cold cold heart.
He wasn’t faring overly well in the morning but after some Imodium and a positive attitude he was fine enough to continue the day's travel on the two flights to Iquitos via Lima.
Breakfast at the hotel sucked but it was safe and they were able to call us another $4 taxi to the airport.
Check in was fine, the only pain being the requirement for onward travel from Peru to please the airline rather than immigration. A bit strange but we had sorted our Peru Hop buses already.
There is nothing in Guayaquil international airport, just like the domestic terminal. Nicola was hungry so had to settle for an overpriced $12 pasta. Luke went for the somewhat cheaper $3.50 Cinnabon option plus some equally expensive sprite bottles. Airports in South America are such a rip off.
We were then on the flight to Lima and Peru.
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