11th Oct - Baños Day 2

Woke up still rattled after bank issues last night. Made it to breakfast before 9 cos the Aussie lads and myself said we'd try and do some downhill biking today and see the waterfalls along the way. Sadly the weather was crap so it became a day of getting jobs done. Went to the bank with fingers crossed, come on AIB! And yes, I was able to withdraw loads and pay next instalment of my Galapagos trip! Next was long overdue haircut time and Doris did a wonderful job!

Came back and met the lads around midday and with the weather still not great for biking, we said we'd head to the thermal baths. Baños has a number of naturally occurring hot springs and the ones near the hostel were under a waterfall - sounds good. I wasn't too pushed about going along but in fairness it was brilliant. Sitting near the bottom of a waterfall in pools of 38/39 degrees with the air temp about 15 and misty was brilliant. And there was a cold shower as well coming directly from the waterfall, after going under this for 30 secs, the sensation when I went back into the hot pools was superb. Stayed for a couple of hours and went for a bite to eat.

New haircut at the thermal baths. View from inside the pools is incredible beside the waterfall that seems to go up for miles!

The lads played chess as we whiled away an uneventful day. As Rob said, the first time that bad weather has affected our plans and it's in the country named after the Equator!

Chess over lunch - was this to be the most exciting part of the day?

Chess finished and it was nearly 4, so Matty decided he wanted to do something. How about we hire some dune buggies and go for a spin if there were any dirt tracks around. We all grudgingly agreed, then it turned out there were no dirt tracks just all paved roads to visit the waterfalls. Yerra, we were there at this stage, we'll go for a spin.

Looking good in the dune buggy!

Inspired decision, turned out to be savage craic. Bit dangerous at one stage as we drove through a tunnel that we shouldn't have and we were being chased by trucks and buses but other than that, all good!

The lads in the dune buggies

Here's a view from the passenger seat - the lads are up ahead:



And here's Matt and me destroying the lads by overtaking with ease:



Stopped to have a look at a waterfall called Pailon del Diablo. Amazing place. Power of the water was incredible and in 2008 a new route behind the fall itself was built. Sheer power is astonishing.

From the top of the walk down to Pailon del Diablo. The waterfall itself is around the corner to the right hand side

In front of Pailon del Diablo

We were driving for about 2.5 hrs all in, came back and went for dinner in this really lovely place which had lovely Malbec. My last dinner with the lads (again) but I reckon I really won't see them after this! Curiously as we were about to order, two English girls came in and just decided to sit at our table. Normally I wouldn't really mind but it completely limited our banter and they girls were unbelievably dull! Nightmare. Anyway I'd a bottle of Malbec for myself so they stopped irritating me then!