12th Oct - Baños Day 3

Got a mail from an acquaintance this morning. It was obviously a bit sarcastic but I think it sums up the number of things to do in Ecuador really well. He said: "What's today's rewarding adventure? Volcanobiking? Deep-sea paragliding? White-water pony trekking?"

Actually, no Jim, the plan for today was 6 hours of downhill biking only interrupted by rewarding trips to waterfalls!

I got up around nine and after lovely breakfast again on the upstairs terrace I went out to transfer more money for my Galapagos trip.

Lovely breakfast!

Haven't really thought about the Galapagos yet, but it's only a week away now! Sent a couple of mails and said goodbye to Matt Rich and Rob again. They were in this tiny little room with no ventilation and bloody hell, you could've eaten the smell in there with a knife and fork! Kryste like.

They're off to Quito tonight and Colombia tomorrow so time for us to part. Again!

As I hinted at at the start there, I went off to rent a bike as I wanted to do the downhill cycle out of Baños and look at all the many waterfalls on the way. So rented a bike for $10, the most expensive in town, you can get bikes for just $5 but worth paying more as the more expensive ones are a lot better. Had a good day, stopped the bike at about 4 or 5 different waterfalls, made this video at the first one. These lunatics were about 2 metres from death the whole time I was there! Madness.



Moved on anyway, and a bit later, met a couple of fierce sound lads from Los Angeles who were like OHMYGOD soooooo gay and going out together. There names were Carlos and Charles - is it just me or does anyone else find it amusing when gay partners have the same name!

Anyway, Carlos works in a gay sexual health clinic as a health advisor in LA. He was saying that it's a v interesting job, then he went on to tell me something which I really found hard to understand. Apparently there are many many men who have sex on the "down low". This means that they're straight (usually married or in steady relationships) but like to go out and have sex with men. But they honestly believe that they're not gay! As Carlos said: "oh they'll let men suck their dicks, sure, or they'll fukk someone in the ass, but no kissing. And no touching because that'd be a bit gay"... this took me a bit by surprise, I'd always assumed it was a stonewall fact that lads who had sex with other lads were gay, but maybe not!

Anyway, Carlos comes across them in his job as a health advisor because a lot of the black/Hispanic men don't wear condoms on the "down low". Justification: they're not gay, so they can't catch AIDS, no protection needed! And apparently a lot of these man are then passing on AIDS to their completely innocent wives. Awful.

Left those lads at the Pailon del Diablo cos I saw it yesterday and biked on to Machay waterfall. Stunning place like everywhere else around here! Quite interesting too, there are 2 ways of getting to the falls. The local community own one side and a business owned by a local family (with the ridiculous name "M'Fanny's") own the other side. Both charge for access but I felt much more comfortable giving it to the local community. Plus as I descended, I met about 15 locals fixing paths, cleaning signs and generally improving the access. And they were all v friendly. I made the right call!

Local community working away mad

Came back up from the falls and went to the nearest shop to get water. Was a restaurant too and the girl running in the restaurant with her 1yr old pottering around. She looked about 12. She was actually 16 but ah that's still way too young to have her own child!

Biked on (all downhill - brilliant) for about another hour. Ended up in a small town called Rio Negro as was advised to catch the bus back to Baños from here. Started chatting to the local cop named Wilson when he drove past. Ended up giving him an impromptu English lesson. Bizarrely I've now had the craic with three cops, and their names have been Edgar, Elvis and Wilson! What ever happened to good Spanish names like Pedro or Manuel!

Wilson after his English lesson

Got the bus back anyway which was all good and ran into one of the dull English girls from last night's dinner. She went biking as well today and she went for the cheap bikes. Chain broke down, flat tyre, she only ended up with about 60 mins of actual cycling. I felt vindicated spending the extra $5!

Savage sunset from the terrace at the top of the hostel in Baños

Decided it was time to update the blog and spent the next 3.5 hrs at the internet cafe uploading the blog and videos to YouTube. This magic doesn't happen by accident like! Plus it might be my last chance for a while. While there, I got a Facebook message from Rob. Himself and Matty had their cameras stolen on way to Quito. Nightmare. I'll have to watch out when there, petty theft a major problem apparently.