We spent another four days near Baños, staying with Sue and Marc at their campground about 20 minutes down the valley from town. Their place, Pequeña Paraiso, is set in a cloud forest with lots of birds. Marc is, among other things, an amateur videographer and has made some amazing videos, including ones of the active volcano above town and of the local wildlife.
It rained quite a bit while we were there, but we still made the most of our time by visiting a few of the many tourist attractions in the area.
We did a day trip to Puyo (in the jungle) by bus where we visited a monkey reserve and learned a little about medicinal plants
Cool looking caterpillar
We hiked to another waterfall near the campground.
After saying goodbye to Sue and Mark we drove back to Baños to visit Casa de Arbol where we did some swinging. After lunch we drove up the valley opposite the volcano to a campsite where we hoped to have a good view of the volcano.
Above town at Casa de Arbol there’s a giant swing where you swing over a cliff. Imagine this picture with blue skies and a volcano in the background.
Tungurahua volcano with Baños below.
Great campsite!
Tungurahua has been active since 1999 and erupts every couple of years. The town of Baños is festooned with evacuation route signs.
On the way back to Cuenca we drove through Chimborazo National park one more time hoping to get a glimpse of the volcano that was shrouded in mist on our last trip through. We weren’t disappointed!
Here is a view of the Chimborazo Summit. Interesting fact: this summit is actually further from the center of the earth than the top of Everest due to the equatorial bulge of the Earth!
We saw more vicuñas in the park too.
That night we found a great bushcamp in a pine forest with no one around. We built a fire and roasted marshmallows for the first time in months!