Biking to Rio Verde and Hiking to the Pailon del Diablo

SHARLA: Well, we decided to stay in Banos tonight instead of trying to find a hostel in Rio Verde. We got sort of a late start, ate breakfast, and rented our bikes. It was 11:00am by the time we left Banos. We were recommended Wonderful Ecuador to rent our bikes. The bikes were old, and the lady working the desk wasn't too friendly. But, we thought since they were recommended and we were close to the highway where we would be riding, we would go ahead.

The wind was blowing extremely hard, right in our faces....so even on the downhills, the riding was tougher than normal. We made it past the first bridge, when Marsha's chain came off. She said that it had been slipping the whole time. She worked on it for a while, but we could tell there was not way she was going to make it the 20 kilometers to Rio Verde. We were right across from a bus stop, so she decided to catch a ride back to Banos, and told us to go on. We wanted to stay with her until she got a ride, but she told us to go on and she would meet us in Rio Verde. We hated to leave her, but we thought it might be faster for her to go alone.

We fought the wind, but the ride was beautiful. We saw some amazing waterfalls, and the mountains were ridiculously green. There were a lot of bikers out today. The area has grown so much and is catering a lot more to tourists since we were here two years ago. In a way, it's sad, but as Camille said, everybody should get to enjoy the beauty here.

We made it to Rio Verde and stopped for some water and to wait on Marsha. The little restaurant we stopped at has a trout pond right on the side, so I guess the trout here is extra fresh! Marsha finally found us, and we locked up our bikes and began our walk down toward the waterfall Pailon del Diable. This area has become much more touristy as well. Many more little stores, and a whole new building for local artisans to sell their handmade crafts and jewelry.

The walk to the waterfall is mostly downhill, but at the very end you start walking up and then you reach this amazingly beautiful, huge, roaring waterfall. You can climb up through a cavelike walk. You have to walk completely bent over, sometimes crawling, and climb up through a hole in the rock, before finally climbing the last steps where you can stand right behind the waterfall! Needless to say, we got drenched! It was awesome. The power of this waterfall is awe inspiring.

We walked across the bridge to El Otro Lado, a really cool hostel which recently closed. We tried for months to make reservations there, and none of the locals seem to know why it was closed. The bridge swayed quite a bit, and only five people were allowed on at one time.

Slowly, we climbed our way back out of the forest/jungle back to Rio Verde. We caught a ride with a local who threw the bikes in the back of the truck and took us back to bike shop. We stopped at Buon Giorno, and had some more amazing food, then back to the hostel to shower and relax. We are planning on renting bikes again tomorrow and riding all the way to Puyo. Gotta get an earlier start!

MARSHA: just adding my bike experience to sharias well written account of today. i was the lucky one who got a crappy bike. the gears kept slipping and finally the chain came off. i put it back on but it was beyond my ability to fix it on the side of the road so i sent sharia and camille on. i was gonna just catch a chiva back into town and trade bikes and meet the girls at the waterfalls in rio verde. well i waited and waited and every truck already had bikes or motorcycles or people in the back. finally a guy on a dirt bike came by and picked me up. i left the bike at the bus stop and tried to stick it as far out of sight from the road as possible. he took me to the bike shop where they told him i needed to catch a bus back out to where the bike was and catch another bus back into town (with the bike this time) finally the guy who picked me up convinced the guys at the bike shop that they needed to get a vehicle and take me out there to get it. i waited about 30 minutes and the owner of the bike shop showed up and was in a panic that i left the bike out there unattended. fortunately when we finally got there, it was still there. we traded the bikes and i headed out and met up with the girls at the waterfall entrance.