Banos- Ecuadorian Entertainers, Swings, Bridges and Waterfalls

 I rode into the adventure center of Ecuador- Banos about 3.5 hours from Quito- aboard one of the ubiquitous Ecuadorian buses.  And the bus had usual assortment of potato chip, fruit, candy cane and other vendors of life's essentials.  It also had this entertainer-

You might view Banos as sort of a poor man's (or Ecuadorian) Queenstown (NZ) with the river substituting for the lake. 

In any case,the next morning I set out on hike for the Treehouse or Casa del Arbol at the top of a local mountain.  Not a serious mountain, as these Ecuadorian Andes go, but still steep and long enough for me (about 3000' of vertical)  and 2 hours of straight climing.  Banos is famous for, among other things, its saunas and hot springs and with the humidity on this hike, it felt like I was hiking in a sauna.  

Dogs are everywhere in Ecuador, including on roof tops-

Along the way, I spotted this interesting 2 way garage as  one possible design for my planned lake house garage (came with a helpful identifying sign as well)-

Interesting color scheme too.  I spotted this somewhat patch work refugio along the way-

You don't see those in the Alps.  Again it was a cloudy day (most have been here) but some of the scenery around Banos is stunning-

 I have noticed that not all of the hiking trails in Ecuador are what you might call 'well marked' and even those few with marking are sometimes obscured just to make it all a little more interesting-

Anyway, eventually i reached the top and found there the famous Treehouse swing which brought the participant out high over the cliff below.  As the sign said, this is 'the swing of the end of the world". 

 A guy there pushed you on the swing like you were a little kid-

Well, the (almost embarrassing) fact is I really remain a kid at heart.  The swing was a total blast.  

I descended into town via a  long trail and ended up in a park eating an ice cream as my reward for the 5 hour hike.  As I had a few hours left in the day, I decided to hire a taxi to take me to some of the famous waterfalls located nearby. 

 That turned out to be another interesting adventure, as we stopped at this walking bridge suspended high over the canyon below-

Next to the steel bridge, there was this 'dare devil' bridge with only separated wooden steps-

But the sketchy bridge was not enough of a thrill for this one group who added swaying back and forth to the mix-

We continued to the famous Cascada Del Dablo which I think means 'waterfall, famous' en espanol and it was an interesting waterfall with the trail winding up it-

The taxi driver decided not to make the 1km hike down to the falls.  But we stopped at the end for a picture of the local volcan (wires are unavoidable often).  The pic does it no justice, but it is just massive-

My guide book says that Banos is something of a mixed bag, but nearly everyone leaves with a smile on their face.  Certainly, I will- it lived up to its billing.