After a long day of bus travel and a quick settle into our wonderful new home in the trees, it was time to hit the spa…sort of… with an early evening trip to Termas de la Virgin, a small complex of outdoor thermal baths in the town. This was similar to the baths in Mendoza but here the water was murky (but not unpleasant) and so much hotter. There were three open air pools, going from cold to hot to very hot (heated by the nearby volcano Tungurahua) , with the idea to rotate between them including adding a cold shower with water coming straight off the mountains. It was lovely to just relax in the open air with steam rising into the night sky. The majority of visitors were local, with everyone exchanging comedy looks as the cold proved very cold! We left feeling refreshed, and ready for dinner, having eaten a croissant on the morning bus and an interesting ham and processed cheese sandwich for lunch on bus number two. We were in luck, the number one rated restaurant in Banos was a curry house, Stu in particular very pleased to have some flavoursome food. Girls tucked into tikka masala and biryani, whilst enjoying the Bollywood videos being shown on the tv.

We all awoke early the next morning to the sound of the waterfall and sunlight streaming in through the floor to ceiling windows, a most pleasant change to being in a city. Out of our window we could see parrot like birds and there were avocados growing on the trees within picking distance. Breakfast was stunning! A huge platter of fresh fruit, breads and eggs with coffee and hot chocolate, so everyone was happy. In particular the two pet dogs, Anya and Bobby hanging around the table Scrabble style looking for titbits. Girls were besotted with them!

We were met by our guide for the day, Oswaldo, to drive the local ‘route des cascades’ or waterfall route. Banos is where many of the highest mountain ranges, valleys and rivers converge and home to over 70 waterfalls making for spectacular vistas around every corner. He was a great guide, had been a gymnast in the Italian Olympics and was a former teacher with lots of stories and local knowledge. He spoke very little English though, so Stu was chief translator for the day! Our first stop was to take a tiny open cable car (basically a metal basket on a wire) towards and then over a waterfall, slightly nervy but good fun. Continuing the theme of questionable health and safety, Oswaldo offered the girls the option of riding the rest of the waterfall journey in the back of our Camioneta (open back 4×4 truck) which was the highlight of their entire trip.

Then it was onto the main attraction – the Cascade El Pailon del Diablo, or devil’s throat (yes another one!). This was a lovely walk down through lush greenery, until we could hear the roar of the waterfall – stopped for a quick view from a rather bouncy suspension bridge (kids thought this was hysterical, Katie slightly less so) then we walked up beside the waterfall. Queue all getting soaked by the spray of the waterfall. We thought that was it until encouraged to crawl through a tunnel about two feet high which then took us behind the waterfall, queue all getting absolutely soaked – think Hatty was alone in loving this! Took rest of the day to dry off J.

Our last stop of the day was to head high above the town to Casa Del Arbol, home to the ‘swing at the end of the world’. This was a huge swing attached to a treehouse where you flew out over the valley – kids loved it, Stu and Katie less sure. We headed back to our treehouse to chill and rather than heading into town for food, opted to have dinner at a small restaurant high up in the hills of where we were staying. So we donned our head torches for the short walk alongside the waterfall to essentially someone’s front room. The food was traditional Ecuadorean home cooked food, meat, salad and double carb (rice and chips) with fried eggs for those feeling adventurous. More race across the world before turning in for the night.

After another sumptuous breakfast, we were sad to leave for yet another bus, this time for Quito, the capital of Ecuador, and second highest capital city in the world after La Paz. Vamos.