Banos

So it was only a short hop to the touristy town of Banos. It's generally an adventure-sport kind of place and also famous for being a jumping off point for jungle trips.

Once we'd gotten settled in we just relaxed for the rest of the first day just strolling around the nice town. The following day we did a hike up to Las Antenas, basically the top of one of the hills that completely surround the town - at the top it has a couple of radio antennas, hence the name. The views along the way were fantastic, and although the main attraction, the volcano Tungurahua, was mostly shrouded in cloud we did get fleeting glimpses of the snowcapped peak (there are some really stunning posters of the volcano towering over the town), but just looking down along the whole valley and the town itself way below us was brilliant too.

We checked out jungle tours later that day, but I really didn't get a good feeling about the tours being offered. They all seemed rather contrived really with a lot of travel to and from the jungle, and then typical touristy 'meet the locals' type setups. Instead I decided that the next day we'd hire bikes do another one of Banos' other big attractions - a 60km cycle to Puyo passing a number of impressive waterfalls along the way. Since a lot of the Banos jungle tours pass through Puyo anyway, I might get a better idea of options from there.

So the following morning we got the bikes sorted and headed off towards Puyo. We stopped at quite a few waterfalls, with the most famous and impressive being the El Pailon del Diablo. You can crawl through a very small natural cave to stand literally right under the powerful flow of water, and the setting was gorgeously jungley too.

So on we went, but after about 30km or so it started raining more and more heavily, until soon we were both completely soaked. So when we arrived at the small town of Rio Negro we just decided to wait under a restaurant roof for a bus to take us back to Banos. Pretty soon a bus came along and the conductor guy clambers up onto the roof and I hand him our bikes, and off home we go. It was a pity not to make it to Puyo, as the route down the valley really was lovely, and it meant I didn't get to check out jungle tour options from there. After the soaking I got I wasn't too keen on the idea of spending a number of days trekking through the jungle and since we don't have proper all-weather hiking gear, it could well have been a bit of a soggy nightmare. So I decided to give the jungle tour thing a miss, it's just something I'll have to try next time, hopefully when I have proper gear.

So the following day we just relaxed again, having a long lie-in and then doing the short hike up the 660 steps to a statue at a lookout point over the town. The views weren't as good as our first proper hike, but this viewpoint is far more accessible. Back in the town we checked out the numerous book exchanges in the nice cafes around the town, and after a great meal at the lovely French restaurant Mariane we decided to leave the next day.

From Banos I wanted to check out the Quilotoa Loop, which is a 200km loop road that passes through some great scenery and a few volcanos and stuff. But according to the guidebook public transport around the loop is very disjointed and therefore very confusing, so it was an early start to just head that direction and see how we got on.