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We left Puyo and drove west, uphill along a lovely route that goes past seven waterfalls. It's a very touristy area and gets packed at weekends. It was a Saturday so we experienced just how busy it gets when we arrived at the Pailón del Diablo (Devil's cauldron) waterfall area at 5-30pm. Some say the rock resembles the face of the devil lying down and that's how it gets its name.
The car parks were still pretty full at that time in the evening and lots of people were swimming in the pools. We parked in front of the police station on a large tarmac parking area with security guards that costs $1 per night. We went for a walk around whilst it was still light and then came back to our motorhome to make ourselves hamburgers. Yummy!
There are two different entrances to the waterfall, owned by different people and with different views and experiences of the same waterfall. The entrance prices are $2 per person during the day for each but the night prices are slightly different - $5 after 6pm for the lower entrance and $4 for the upper and newer one.
We went to the upper entrance at 9pm and it was fantastic! It was lit up with various lights and different colours and there are two bridges to walk across. We had great views of the falls which are approximately 80 metres high but seemed larger to me. Maybe that's just the impression I got at night. We spent 1.5 hours there doing all the videos and photos. It was superb and we would highly recommend it.
The next morning we packed our ponchos and a waterproof bag for the camera and took our underwater camera with us! Yes ... you get wet!! We walked to the lower entrance and paid the day entrance fee. This was a completely different experience even though it's the same waterfall! From this entrance you walk downhill for a kilometer and about 100 metres altitude difference first and then uphill past some rapids to the waterfall across from where we were last night.
There are several viewpoints but you can't see all of the waterfall. The top part is blocked by the rock. However, there are two very narrow, low tunnels you need to crawl through to get to more viewpoints. Kirsten bent down really low but didn't get very far! She saw a man in front of her crawling through on his belly and stopped. She gets claustrophobic and scared the rock might collapse on top of her. Well they certainly get landslides and earthquakes here!! So there was no way she was going through the tunnel. But ... that meant we had to come out backwards because it's too narrow to turn around and I was right behind her. So we caused a bit of a log jam!
Then I took the waterproof camera and went through alone. Boy it was narrow! I was virtually down on my knees because of the low tunnel roof and it was really awkward to shuffle through. Of course I was filming it aswell. Next came a narrow passage with steep steps to a small viewpoint and those that really want the full monty can go behind the waterfall. Of course I did that and caught it all on our waterproof camera. Superb!! I used a tissue to keep wiping off all the water from the lens but the video looked really good and shows how impressive the force of the waterfall is. I was dry under my poncho but my boots and socks were really wet. I went back down, crawled back through and Kirsten filmed me coming back out. If you're ever in this area, don't miss this waterfall. It's superb - and that's coming from someone who's seen lots of waterfalls around the world!
We got freshly squeezed orange juice on the way back and hung everything out on the back of our motorhome to dry in the sun. I fetched a yoghurt icecream and we had coffees. It was after 3pm by the time we left and we drove the last stretch (17km) uphill into Baños. I had to be really careful because people can't drive in this country!! Overtaking in tunnels, where there's no lights in the tunnel and they don't have their lights on!! They can't possibly see if there's any oncoming traffic because they don't have their lights on either!! Death wish! But they're risking our lives too. We joked that I should start a driving school here!!
We went to Lo de Fausto camping area which costs $4 per person per night for electricity, hot showers and water. There are also thermal pools but we'd use those some other time because we wanted to check out the town. Within 20 minutes of arriving we left on foot and walked into Baños. We'd been here 20 years ago but didn't recognise it. We'd stayed in a hotel back then but couldn't remember the name and only had a rough idea of its location. We never found it!
We walked around for almost 3 hours, found an indoor market where we bought fruit and veg that I had to carry around for 2.5 hours (!), and got some yummy empanadas as a snack which we ate on the street. The chocolate factory was a huge disappointment because it didn't have any chocolate cake!!! That's definitely a No No! So we had to make do with different cakes from a bakery which we also ate in the street.
We took a look at one of the churches and saw how touristy and kitschy the town had become. There seemed to be a huge amount of activities to do in the area, emphasized by the large number of tour companies vying for customers. Our memory of Baños was of a far smaller, quieter place with large blue arrows, road markings and street signs showing evacuation routes should the Tungurahua volcano erupt. Back in 2002 an eruption was certainly a danger but none of the road markings or signs exist today.
We only stayed for 2 nights because we needed to get our computer repaired. So we checked out a repair place in the town but they would need to order an SSD drive which would take at least 2 days. We got a quote and an idea about prices but we decided to drive 50km to Ambato, a much larger city where there were two different repair shops that we went to.
There was heavy traffic on our way to Ambato but we managed to get to the first place. We got information and prices but they couldn't do our computer until two days later. So we drove through narrow streets, a tunnel, and heavy traffic further into the city centre to get to the other repair place. We managed to find a parking spot just around the corner, not normally easy in a large city, but the repair shop was closed for lunch. No problem - we had a lunch break too. Once they opened at 3pm, they said they could repair it right away! Superb!
Three hours later we got our 10 year old computer back with 8 RAM extra (so 12 in total), a 480GB SSD drive, the old hard drive in a case because, whilst we've lost the data on the C drive we can still access the D drive, plus the fan had been cleaned. So hopefully it will work a lot better and not overheat! It cost $170 in total and far cheaper than buying a new computer.
We were really happy even though they used a cleaner that strongly smells of flowers!! We still need a new battery but we'll get that from Europe, plus we've lost the last video Kirsten was working on so she'll have to do it again. For now though we were really happy to have a functioning computer again. Of course that also means we have a lot of catching up to do on our website! Oh well, can't have everything I suppose!
It was already getting dark and we didn't fancy battling with the rush hour traffic so we decided to stay for the night. We looked up Chinese restaurants online and Kirsten went off to get us some food but the restaurant had closed down so she ended up at a fast food place called American Pollo (Spanish for chicken). The chicken was good but the chips were horrible and the rice wasn't the best but we still ate it!! Kirsten spent the rest of the evening getting used to the new Windows 10 system so it was late by the time we got to bed. It was a quiet night though despite being in a city centre.
The next day, we got drinking water and filled up our two large tanks before driving back to the campground in Baños and stayed for another 8 nights. During the week we managed to avoid the crowds and we really enjoyed our time here. We like our daily walks and went into town every afternoon. We got a tour of the thermal pools near the waterfall.
I also saw a hotel opposite displaying a British flag so of course I had to check it out. The Sangay Hotel is owned by a British man and is now the oldest hotel in town after the former oldest one burned down!! But ... the biggest draw ... is the Bonkers restaurant that has the theme of Alice in Wonderland, hence the name, and has fish and chips on the menu!!! We returned the following evening and the fish and chips were absolutely delicious. We were even given a free creme brulee as a gift. Wow!! We returned 4 days later for yummy chicken with scalloped potatoes. This place is a definite must! We also found an Italian pizza place where you can watch your pizza being made. The restaurant has a lovely ambience with a coy carp pool and covered tables for when it rains ... which it did!!
We both bought new waterproof hiking boots for only $38 a pair and I found a good massage place - something I haven't done for years because of the pandemic. In Ecuador over 92% are vaccinated and everyone wears masks outdoors and inside, so we felt a lot more comfortable about going back to "normal".
We also walked to a nearby slot canyon. It was a Sunday so there were crowds but we saw a man making what turned out to be sorbet. So, of course we had to have some. The guayabana fruit is green but white inside and the sorbet was yummy. The fruit looks a bit like a Durian fruit that we wouldn't touch with a bargepole!! Don't mix up the two!
We walked to see the canyon from different angles and went to see the Cascada Maria. There were lots of zip liners, rock climbers and people enjoying a kind of cable car ride in a metal cage. In fact, these type of activities are numerous in this area and are obviously a huge draw.
We were allowed to use the washing machine for free at our campground and the owners set up washing lines for us which was really nice of them. Their thermal pools are only open on Sundays and we got them to ourselves which we really enjoyed.
Thank you Baños, you've been really good to us but it was time to move on.
