Baños, Ecuador

Diane: The road from Baños to Puyo is described as a 60 kilometer ride downhill from the Andes down into the jungle. With the exception of an occasional uphill and a few tunnels to traverse, the road was true to its reputation. The scenery was spectacular, with lush, green, extremely steep hillsides lining the entire route.



Waterfalls abounded on either side of the road.



Cows grazed up and down the steep slopes. And greenhouses rose almost straight uphill at grades of 60° or more.



It was next to impossible to fully grasp the magnitude of our surroundings without some human-sized objects for comparison. A person working in an orchard was a black dot amidst their green surroundings. A house across the river half-way up the mountain gave us some idea.



The first tunnel we came to gave us pause. It was entirely dark inside. The ground may have been paved, but it felt rutted under our bicycles. There were no lane dividers and traffic traveled in both directions. It was impossible to see the curb, if there was one. Luckily it was a short tunnel :-).

The next tunnel was much longer and curvy. Once inside, I couldn’t see the other end. When we entered, there was a bus coming from the opposite direction with its lights on, so I could tell approximately where the walls were. Evidently the cars that passed us from behind at about 600 mph ;-) could see us, because they steered away to avoid us. However, once the oncoming bus passed us, the tunnel was pitch black, which was VERY unnerving.

The road was wet and muddy and glistened a bit from a certain angle, but I couldn’t see the walls at all. If there were any debris or rocks on the ground, we would never have known it, so Calliope and I slowed way down. We kept talking to each other to stay calm. After a bit, Calliope said that she couldn’t see me in front of her any more. Unfortunately, I didn’t grasp the full implication of what she said, until I ran into the other side of the tunnel! I fell off my bicycle and my shoelace got caught in the gears, so it took me a few minutes to get back on the bike. Luckily no cars passed by. I could barely continue to ride, I was so nervous. For some reason, I kept veering to the left and would find myself on the wrong side of the road, before scooting back to the right side.

I emerged from the tunnel with mud up and down the left side of my jacket and pants. Lesson learned: my night vision is so poor that I shouldn’t be riding a bicycle through unlit tunnels without a headlamp.

There were a lot of police out along the road, but none of them stopped us. They did divert us around the next few tunnels. After waiting for me to emerge from the last tunnel, not knowing if I was okay, nobody else really minded. Although these detours were unpaved, muddy, and rocky, they were beautiful and our bikes were perfect for the terrain. All traffic was stopped in front of one of the tunnels. It turns out the President of Ecuador was coming that way and had stopped for a one hour conference. There were lots of political cars, music, and people gathered along the blocked-off road.

We stopped 3 or 4 times enroute for TM’s low blood sugar to rise. During the President’s stop, we stopped under a beautiful thatched roof with all sorts of beautiful epiphytes, ferns, and other assorted colorful plants growing out of it.











One of the detours led to the most spectacular waterfall along the route – El Pailon del Diablo.

It was a short, but steep walk down to a bridge that crossed the falls. There was a great lookout point a ways up the hill.



And the rock faces were stunning.



TM got separated from us, which led to a “parental” moment. Tom was starting to let it bother him that TM was missing the best view of the trip, but I reminded him that TM, more likely than not, was doing exactly what he wanted to do. Of course, I didn’t have full confidence in this, because I always have a slight worry in the back of my head that TM may get a low blood sugar and fall off a mountain. About ten minutes later, TM came sauntering back down the path with a beautiful young woman from the United States. Need I say more?

The rest of the ride was pretty much uneventful, downhill, and held beautiful views. The clouds had come in early in the morning and by late afternoon, we were riding in a continuous drizzle. We donned whatever raingear we had and continued, hoping to make it to Puyo before our shoes were soaking wet and before dark. Although we didn’t quite make it there, it was straightforward getting back to Baños. We just waved down the next bus to Baños, threw the bicycles on top, and appreciated the dry and comfy ride back to town.