Jordana and I set off this morning on a 61k bike ride, from Banos to Puya. We were told the route would be mostly downhill, mostly on paved roads, and with several opportunities to hike and see waterfalls. In actual fact, all of these things were true!
We set off around 9am and within a few km of Banos, Jordana noticed that her bike pedal was falling apart. Fortunately, she had suggested that we bring along duct tape, and the problem was mostly solved. Our first official stop was 12k out at the Agoyan falls. A man asked if we wanted to go repelling off the somewhat sketchy looking bridge and we declined. Several km futher we came to Manto de la Novia waterfall.. and feeling brave, took the cable car across the canyon to get a closer view of the falls. Not nearly as scary as I feared, the view was great, and the flowers on the other side were stunning.
Bike on our bikes, the next stop was the Cascada Pallon del Diablo. Here we hiked down to a suspension bridge and then up a little further and got very close to a powerful waterfall. I´m clearly spoiled by Niagara Falls, but getting this close was breathtaking (literally.. I had trouble breathing) and the cooling mist was very refreshing!
Shortly thereafter we passed over the Rio Verde (which really was green) and arrived at the Cascada de Machay. We hiked down a very steep 2 km and saw a few small waterfalls as well as a mid sized on. A little further along, we hit the Rio Negro, a brown looking river, due to all of the minerals inside. By this point, we had another 25 km to go to get to Puyo, with only stops in small towns left on the schedule. We had been warned this last stretch had many ups and downs.. and we figured that since we still had energy, we should do it. On we went, very slowly at times (walking along the side of the road at times) and finally we saw signs indicating we were near the town Shell (not a gas station, but a cute town). The skies had been getting darker for the last hour but we nearly in Puyo, so on we went... it may not have been the best idea as the moment we were beyond Shell, the skies opened up and we got completely soaked. Nonetheless, we made it to Puyo (which is on the border of the Amazon region), looked around briefly (amazing vegetation and saw some cool yellow tailed birds) and threw ourselves and our bikes onto a bus back to Banos. We were treated to a beautiful rainbow as we arrived back in Banos and the sun made a reappearance.
We were thankfully rejoined with our luggage at the hostel and I had one of the best showers ever (i was COVERED in dirt), knowing I could put on clean clothes. Simple pleasures.
No comments:
Post a Comment