They told us “It’s a 60 km ride, but all downhill…” Mountain biking from the Andes down to the Amazon, passing spectacular waterfalls along the way? It sounded like the perfect orientation to Baños, the small adventure mecca that’s been our home for the past few days. And it was, although we found the ride significantly more grueling than expected. It turns out that what goes down still has to go up at some point. Luckily Baños is not only the perfect spot to face off against the outdoors, it’s also a great spot for recovery and relaxation.
We set out early on our matching silver colored mountain bikes, carrying one backpack loaded with water, ponchos, and a bike repair kit. We bombed down the long hills that started our ride, cruising in between the dramatic mountains and stopping occasionally to take in the plunging waterfalls and churning rivers heading to the jungle. We had to pass through one unlit car tunnel at the start of the trip, terrifying both because of the speeding buses that had passed us so far and because I forgot that I was wearing sunglasses when I entered the tunnel. Brilliant, I know. Luckily we detoured around the remaining tunnels, taking small paths with amazing views.
After one particularly long hike down to the crashing “Devil’s Cauldron” waterfall, Megan called for a decision: we were either hiking to check out all the falls or finishing the ride to the jungle… not both. An excellent call, because although we still had plenty of hills to cruise down, the surrounding geography required us to pedal back up some of those Andean foothills. Spinning our pedals through lower and lower gears, we looked enviously at the vans passing by with bikes on the roof, with drivers calling: “Ride back to Baños?” We resisted temptation and pushed through. Stubbornness: a virtue or a vice?
Exhausted, we finally arrived in the town of Puyo, the gateway to the Amazon. We stumbled up to the first restaurant we could find… “Are you open? Do you have beer? And lots of food?” Eventually sated, we threw our bikes into the storage compartment of a bus and looked in wonder as we flew back up the road to Baños. We put our aching rear ends back on the saddles to ride back to our hostel, running into our friends David, Lisa, and Fiona along the way… They agreed to meet up the next morning so we could all host a joint American/British/Ecuadorian Thanksgiving meal, with Mexican food. Megan baked a fantastic apple pie to keep some part of tradition alive. It was a perfect recovery day: friends, food, and a fiesta. What better to be thankful for?
0 comments:
Post a Comment