Buggy Driving
rented out one of those Quad buggys to do the "ruta de cascadas" the waterfall route. not one other traveller wanted to do it, preferring to choose "safer" ? bikes instead, hahahaha passed a few on the way.
its a 3 hour drive on main roads and some off road too.
it was great to be behind a wheel again and a real novelty to rip through mud, under some light waterfalls and when you put the boot down on the open road it feels and sounds rather like a formula 1 car. ( a 50kph version hehe).
it was raining lightly this morning, and as seemes to always be the case, the sun comes out in the afternoon, i couldnt wait though so i just went ahead with it and got mucky hehe.
the fotos look a bit dull for that reason, the temperature however is just right in Baños all of the time. not too hot not too cold.
looking over the edge of the road.
me taking a picture of, me taking a picture of a small waterfall which crosses the road.
another waterfall coming down on the road.
ah, so thats why the guy asked me if i had a rain poncho!!
no hand brake, so i used a rock under the wheel for pit stops. here you can see the gutter that goes along the better roads, the more dangrous the fall, the deeper the gutter.
I stopped here to ask for directions.
you come to a small village called Rio Verde, where you park up and continue on foot down into this valley to see the biggest waterfall.
the rope bridge across the raging river below made me slightly nervous. a friendly girl and her cousin (as seen in picture) stopped me in the middle of the bridge to for a wee 10 minute chat and some english-spanish practice..
view of waterfall from the bridge.
here is a foto taken from further up the hill , you can see the rope bridge, a house (restaurant) and although the waterfall is hidden you can see the massive cloud of vapour rising off it.
nice drawing.
the text on the right says "dont be dirty, dont urinate here, ill make you clean it! "
in the distance you can see a tunnel, this was only wide enough for one vehicle, (theres another tunnel nearby for cars going the other direction) pretty freaky with one very dim headlight , and though i was pretty sure i was going the right way, i disconnected the seatbelt in case an oncoming vehicle were to enter at the other end hehehe.
finally i have found a ciber caf with fast enough connection to upload videos. they also do free coffee, and lunch (eg. two toasted sandwiches for $1.50) while you are on the pc! though i will only upload this one for now, because there are two flys bugging the hell out of me.
this is an off-road part where you must drive through some water. the "archos head-camera" let me down big time, it wouldnt even turn on. so i filmed this with the canon camera in one hand and the other hand on the wheel.
1 comment:
Great report and shots.
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