‘Just let go – and fall like a little waterfall.’-Bob Ross

When I was planning out my trip, I decided I wanted to stay in Quito for a couple days to check out some things around the area. The flight back from the Galapagos was quite easy, much better than going to the Galapagos, ha! Terra Sur had put a free day to explore Quito, the historic area and, perhaps, the cable cars. I did not do those thing but booked a day trip with get your guide to Baños, a mountain community known for extreme sports. I do have a tinge of regret for not checking out the cable car and views of the city. However, I made the right decision. The city of Quito is HUGE and English is not widely spoken. With my minimal Spanish and needing to use public transit to get there, I just did not feel comfortable. It was definitely a me thing and the city is relatively safe. To this, there are armed guards everywhere. I stayed in a nice neighborhood and many restaurants had armed security and door bells to access. This also added to my nerves of going deep inside of the city.

I looked on Get Your Guide at things to do in and around Quito. The trip to Baños seemed like the best for price and experiences. The guide, Andres, was amazing and spoke perfect English (the tour was bilingual) and there was fellow solo female traveler from Ireland that I had a great time with and took lots of photos for me (and I for her). It’s recommended to spend at least three days there but I am of the frame of mind if something you want to do and you have x amount of time, do it anyway. So I did.

The first stop was to Columpio Fin del Mundo, what claims to be the first ‘swing at the end of the world.’ It’s on the mountainside and lots of things to play with optical illusions. There was hardly anyone there when we were (there was five in our group) but a massive tour bus showed up as we were leaving. I am not great at heights but have gotten significantly better since doing the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb. Andres told us that the swing operator will take it easy on you or you can get the full experience. One guy in the group did the full-hard pushes, twisting, etc. Absolutely a hard no for me. When it was my turn, I had Andres tell me how to say ‘VERY, VERY SLOW’ in Spanish. Thankfully the guy in charge did just that. The video of it is quite funny, a lot of my shaking my head. And it is a shear drop off the platform.But it was such a cool experience. I am glad though I took the ‘easy’ version of the swing though.

Then on to check out Pailón del Diablo, ‘The Devil’s Cauldron,’ a massive waterfall. This was well worth the few hours drive to get to the region (the cloud forest section of the Amazon). You begin walking down the trail and you’ll see a small waterfall that flows into the Devil’s Cauldron. But that is not the star of the show. The real star was the MASSIVE waterfall just further down. There are two trails you can take-the one I did which is a bit higher up viewing and less wet or one, which costs more (not sure the price as mine included everything) where you go all the way down and get very wet. I was wearing my Kuhl Vantage Lined Joggr, which were gifted and I love! I also had my Danner hiking boots. I probably could have gotten away with my regular Nike’s but the extra grip worked really well with the cobblestones and slick conditions. I lived in them the three days I was in Quito.

The coolest part was how close you get to the water fall. Like you could touch it. There was so much water but Andres said that this wasn’t even that full. So I cannot imagine what it feels/looks like at full capacity. I did get a bit wet but felt nice, to be honest. It was never super hot (and I wore layers because the weather was kind of all over the place) and who does not love a waterfall! Not this girl, I will drive long distances to see a cool waterfall.

On the way back to Quito, we did stop at a couple roadside stands. One I tasted something called a ‘sandwich.’ It is not food but a drink that reminded me of the yellow triametic medication my mom would give me when I was sick. Not pleasant. I also tried some liquid sugar cane, which does not taste like sugar water. My dad enjoyed these chocolate nut/seed truffles that I bought him. Then an ice cream that they are famous for-it’s multilayered and very good (although I will never say no to ice cream).

Overall, I am really glad that I did this day trip. The waterfall was truly a once in a lifetime kind of thing. I would have loved to spend more time in the area but sometimes you just need to make the best of the time you have and make it epic!