A Weekend at Baños

I'll admit I had some serious trepidations about this place on the way in for a variety of reasons. There were supposed threats of local indigenous people trying to close the main access road to Baños as a form of protest. There's still the looming threat of Cotopaxi which is on the way from Quito to Baños and if it were to erupt on our drive or while we were there we would be unable to return. There was the sketchiness of arriving by night in a large-windowed bus filled predominantly with female gringos while men in the street were beckoning us to seedy looking bars. But perhaps above all was that this was to be a weekend dedicated to adventure sports, something I generally lack the experience of and the courage to do so. Instead of hanging back and allowing my nerves to better my determination, I volunteered to go first in basically everything, despite not knowing what to expect. Long story short I had an incredible time with some really cool people doing some really cool things--check it out:

(Pics in no particular order--video at the bottom)

Getting pumped for canopy (what they call ziplining)

Scenic bridge at Tarabita

Behind the spectacular Pailon de Diablo waterfall--I recommend looking up pics, mine didn't come out great

Machismo culture at its finest

You can make out my shadow if you look closely

Looking like Peter Pan and Wendy

Shadows also visible

Bowdoin's finest gets amped for canopy

Swing at the end of the world with the Tungurahua Volcano in the background

Bridge at Pailon de Diablo

Most popular beer in Ecuador at Pailon de Diablo

They call repelling down waterfalls canyoning

One of the guides ran down--such a beast

Made the mistake of looking down (ps sorry Mom)

No worries it turned out all right

It was more like bridge swinging than anything else 

The fall was only a split second

For a tiny bit it was awful and then just as I was loving it the fall was over

This bridge was no joke but they didn't let us fall very far

Such a gorgeous place to be swinging

You're only strapped in by three (large) carabiners. When they hooked me up I asked incredulously "esto es todo?" and the crowd of like 40 Ecuadorians all laughed at me

Not me

That look

1…2…3

Sweet jesus

I forgot to breathe for a bit

Wooooo

Look at that form

Just as I was starting to love it and wanted to dive further... 

Boom whiplash RIP me

VIDEO LINK (and yeah I set it to a T Swift song) https://vimeo.com/137217657