Baños

Day 85 - Wednesday 26th May

After arriving late the night before, wondering the dark and dangerous streets until I found Hostel Transylvania, I was ready to get out and explore the countryside. In daylight Baños is a beautiful place, small and tucked into a lush, steep valley, it's key feature is a waterfall running down one side. I gave an open invitation to the hostel to join me exploring the area and was met by another Steve, who I'd happened to have met in Buenos Aires through Dee but hadn't realised! So we set out on our cheap rented bikes and tore down the vally road to Piura. We found a gigantic bridge swing but more importantly lots of waterfalls of all shapes and sizes, the best being The Devil's Throat, where you could crawl through caves and get behind it. Awesome. When you get bored/tired you just wait at the side of the road, load your bike onto the roof of a bus and ride back for one almighty dollar...

Day 87 - Thursday 27th May

Went rafting with lots of randoms, awesome. Rough enough in places for the raft to tip over, quiet enough on others for the guide to tip it over on purpose or do backflips off the boat. Also rode us over big rocks and the 2m drops on the other side, all to a beautiful backdrop.

After skyping lots of people, I went to a Chinese with some guys from the hostel and charmed with my vast knowledge of Mandarin...