So we had read in the lonely planet about a bike ride from Baños to Puyo, about 60kms down hill along the valley next to the river. It sounded nice but I was concerned about how we would get back up to Baños. The book just stated that you catch a bus and they put the bikes up on the roof of the bus. It was not till we were 5kms on to the ride that Damo said “you don’t see any bikes on top of the buses do you“.
We thought we would give it a go so we went with some friends we met on Nemo 1, Matt and Harriet.
$5 for the day per bike and we were also given a dodgy photocopied map but we were not too concerned as there was only one real direction to go and that’s DOWN the steep hill. We were also given a small flimsy chain to lock our 4 bikes up and a puncture repair kit.

It was nice to be out of the town and away from people, just us on the road. The first scary thing that we encountered was a pitch black road tunnel, it was single lane and one way. Damo went first then me with Harriet and Matt behind. It was down hill so we were going fast and I could not see anything except the small amout of light at the end with a silhouette of Damo. Just as I was thinking to myself this is ok, haven’t hit any thing yet, not much further to go, I hear Harriet scream behind me “there’s a truck coming!” and sure thing we heard it but could not see any lights that it should have shone if they were on. Then I thought I should probably start peddling and at least I’m not the last person! We all make it. But felt a bit scared by the experience and stopped for a break once we were all safely out of the dark narrow tunnel.

We passed lots of water falls and stopped regularly to take pictures of the beautiful valley and cliffs over the river with no safety barriers. Then I saw an orange thing swinging across the valley and I realised that it was the one of the two cable cars. We decided to get the second one as it had a greater distance to cross and therefore would be more fun. So after secureing the bikes we headed of to the cable car. The one we got was green and had two long seats facing each other, but no cover to stop people jumpin off. So it was probably not the most secure of cable cars. Before we knew it we were off, going very fast and arrived at the other side. Matt commented that the he saw a look of mischief on the adolescent that controlled the ride. Coming back it was a bit slower and I think I got some good photos.

After a while we came to another village. One guy was saying something to us, possible about the water fall. ( Yes that’s right, after 100 hr of Spanish lessions you would think that I could follow a simple convastion but no I couldn’t ) so we walked off in the direction that he pointed. Two minutes later we came to a sign saying entry $1 and were greeted by a man who look normal. ( don’t judge a book by it's cover!) Damo described him as a typical westerner who had been living long term in Ecuador. He started off normal enough talking about the water fall and then about his gallery and his garden and then about the secret and the key to life and rambling about his inspirations for his spirituality. Anyway, I was happy to give him a dollar to stop him from talking but no that didn't stop him. Then he started talking about the other waterfalls in the area and Damo (he's a clever guy) made a run for it ( well not a run but just walked off ) so I just followed.

After leaving the crazy guy we walked through some pretty gardens and came to the gallery he had spoken of. It was a small hut with a number of large paintings inside which we all agreed were the product of a disturbed mind!

A bit further through the gardens we came to the top of El Pailón del Diablo (the Devil's Cauldron) which is one of the larger waterfalls on the route we were travelling. There was quite a lot of water in the river and a small waterfall descending into a short canyon before plunging over a larger drop. We were able to walk to a lookout at the top of the larger falls and it was an impressive sight 100m down into the valley although we couldn't see the actual waterfall. Returning to our bikes we continued along the road and got a great view of the waterfall from another vantage point.


After a few good downhill runs and some not so fun uphills we came to the town of Rio Negro (Black River) and stopped for lunch. We had been cycling for about 5 hours covering 30 km and needed a break. After lunch Sarah and I decided to catch a bus back to Baños. Matt and Harriet said they would keep going (They ended up only going another 5km before coming to a really steep hill.) so we waited in Rio Negro for a bus. After a half hour wait we were able to squeeze onto a packed bus with our bikes put underneath and headed back to Baños. Coming down the road we had only needed to go through the first scary dark tunnel as the rest were able to be bypassed on bicycle via dirt roads along the river. (Much safer and more scenic) Going back by vehicle though we went through several long tunnels and I was quite glad that we hadn't taken this route on the quad-buggie.