Ecuador

After Galapagos Islands we went traveled around Ecuador. Galapagos Islands for all its downfalls, was still amazing. It's completely unique to the rest of the world, and you are consitantly amazed by your surroundings. Getting into Ecuador it felt a lot like South America; suprise, suprise. I think the three of us were exausted and broke from Galapagos, so everything in Ecuador had lost its luster. It felt like every other South American country that we've been to. We started in Guayaquil, and traveled rather soon to Cuenca. Doing so our bus broke down, which didn't help. We spent around 2 hours on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. 

Cuenca was actually a beautiful city that had a lot of hidden gems. Unfortunately we weren't loving being in a city, but if you are in the mood. It's worth the stop. My favorite part about Cuenca was all of the markets, and the beautiful displays of food.

 

Our next stop was Banos. This was finally the place for us. It was beautiful, cuaint, and had a lot for us to do. There were hot springs, markets, and a hole range of outdoor activities.

We started our Banos adventure off by bungy jumping off the local bridge. I got to hook the harness on backwords and jump backwards to do a backflip. I have bungy jumped a few times before so it was really fun to try it a different way.

 

We took a bike ride along a beautiful, and kind of trafficy canyon. It had lots of waterfalls and pretty stops along the way.

We tried a local steam bath, which was more like ancient form of torcher. They would sit you in the bath and you would get so hot you would almost pass out, and then they would let you out and you would poor freezing cold water all over you, or sit in an icecold bath. Then repeat it. We did all feel great after, but pretty much hated it the rest of the time. You finish off the bath with being sprayed with a cold hose.



Traci and I tried two different days to go paragliding. We signed up, drove out to the spot, and then waited. The first day was too windy and the second day wasn't windy enough. We were super dissappointed, and as you can see it would have been the most beautiful place ever to paraglide, and at the best price!

We loved banos, and could have spent a little longer exploring the outdoors, local resteraunts, and local markets. 

Traci and I ended our trip to Ecuador in Quito. One of the more exciting things we did in Quito was go the Equator (which is apparently a little off from the actual equator). The monument and tourist area that they have for the Equator was completely deserted other than us a few tourists and all the shop owners. After being in the bustling city of Banos over a local holiday it seemed weird having a place so empty. Most of our time in Quito was spent indoors because of the intense rainstorms goin on outside.

 

Even though we all had a blast in Ecuador, I think we were excited to get back home.