Baños and Puyo

Wednesday the 6th of October 2010
We were more than ready for a relaxing day. Baños is the perfect place for that. It is a small, quiet town in the center of Ecuador in the shade of the highest active volcano of the country. The biggest touristic attraction of the town – beside the magnificent view on the volcano – is the presence of several thermal, mineral rich baths, which again are only there because of the volcanic activity in the area. In the afternoon we (Martijn, Nele and myself) walked around in town, which has some funny, but also worrying, signs previously unknown to us that indicate the escape routes in case of a volcanic eruption. In the evening we headed for “Thermales de la Virgin” were we enjoyed several warming up and cooling down cycles by changing from the nicely warm to freezing cold waters. Lovely! We met two nice French couples that would join us the next day for a mountainbike trip to Puyo.

Thursday the 8th of October 2010
It is about 61 km from Baños to Puyo. Most of it is downhill, but occasionally it went uphill quite steep. Luckily we allowed ourselves some rest the day before. The first part of the route is nicknamed the “route de cascades” (the waterfall route), a nickname that it certainly deserves. Around lunchtime we reached the most famous of the falls, the devils falls. To reach the falls you have to walk down the jungle about 10 minutes (back up takes longer). Once down you can admire the massive falls from different angles, from a hanging bridge, from close by and from very close by:from behind the falls. For the last step you have to crawl a little bit, but the refreshing waterfall shower in the hot jungle is worth it.
The Frenchies took the bus back to Baños after lunch, but Martijn, Nele and I were determined; we would make it to Puyo. The next waterfall we encountered was already more than worth to continue. Again we had to walk down, this time down some stairs; it was rather steep going into the valley. At the bottom of the valley we gazed up on a massive fall with a small natural pool at the bottom; an invitation by nature that we had to accept. For a second it makes you feel one with it all if you are swimming in a pool in the middle of the jungle right underneath an absolutely massive waterfall. We stayed here for about an hour and then headed for Puyo.
This part of the road announced itself much more difficult than what we had experienced until then. The last 15-20km’s were flat again. Taken it all into account, it was an exhausting trip, but surely worth it. At around 18h, we arrived in Puyo, generally regarded as the last city before the Oriente, i.e. the city where the jungle starts. We spent some time finding a hostel and waiting for our luggage to arrive from Baños and afterwards enjoyed a magnificent meal in El Jardin (a little bit more expensive than what we are used to, but we figured we had deserved it).
Before finally going to bed, we did some research on jungle trips from Puyo. Something that was on our schedule for the coming days…