2026 ecuador
Baños is often called the “Adventure Capital of Ecuador” and all sorts of adrenaline spiking opportunities abound in this city and the surrounding area. Yesterday we had biked parallel to the Pastaza river and saw all of the impressive waterfalls along it, and today our adventure would be going rafting on the Upper Pastaza, a section about five miles downstream1 of the Pailón del Diablo, that was made up of Class III-IV rapids.
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2026 ecuador
We were finally going to be able to go check out Baños de Agua Santa in depth now that we had returned from the Amazon. The thermal baths that are one of the town’s claims to fame were first on our list.
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2026 ecuador
I awoke a new woman! The meds had helped and whatever bug I had picked up had seemingly run its course. Lo and behold, I had actually experienced the best night of sleep to date on our trip. Poor Scott however, had not. Something had nibbled on him overnight and he awoke covered in bites on his legs. We were in the Amazon afterall, and despite the bug net, something had feasted on him.
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2026 ecuador
We started referring to our Amazon jungle tour as “Amazon Lite” for a few reasons. Puyo was located fairly close to Baños relative to some of the other towns that offered Amazon tours which required 6+ hours of bus rides and extensive water taxi transportation. Baños is often referred to as the “gateway to the Amazon.” Most of the tours offered roughly the same experience: some hiking, some chocolate tourism, some sort of zoo experience, a canoe ride of varying lengths, local cuisine, lodging, a “night hike,” and a visit to an indigenous tribe. Based on this, we decided that we did not want to devote multiple days and multiple nights, and found the two day-one night itinerary the most appealing option for us. Another contributing factor to this moniker was that the whole thing, though it definitely qualified as “do the thing you are supposed to do in the place you are supposed to do it,” felt a little canned/staged/contrived; in that tourists got marched up and down this one road on the outskirts of Puyo, stopping for visits to each of the aforementioned activities.
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2026 ecuador
On January 16 we had the best view yet of the Cotopaxi volcano when the sun rose. We could actually see it through the picture window from our bed in the “Birdhouse.” Today was our last day here before we moved on to the town of Baños and we were sad that our Secret Garden Cotopaxi time was drawing to an end because we had fallen in love with the hostel.
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2026 ecuador
Thanks for coming to my “How to Train for the Cotopaxi Volcano Base Camp/Glacier Climb” discussion! With my detailed plan you will learn how to tackle the hike up to the glacier at one of the tallest active volcanoes in the world and how to make the 2.6 mile round trip that takes you from 4,600 meters elevation to over 5,000 meters elevation.
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