Finally arriving in Banos at 4am we went to the first hostel we could find (San Deigo Hostel) and thought that would do for a night. It was only $12 a night for our own room/WC and a beautiful view over the river and mountains of Banos. We decided to stay there for the rest of our time in Banos and we were the only people there which was nice.

Our first day was a late start which was a treat as we knew Banos involved alot of treking and riding.We went for a walk through some small villages on the mountains which was a bit more then we thought as we left our hostel in just thongs/jandals and no supplies. Beautiful views of Banos from the top and then 4 hours later we finally get back to hostel and settled into some Spanish homework.

The next day we got a taxi (and totally got ripped off but...) to the top of the mountatins and a place called Casa de los Arbols (The Tree House). It had amazing views of the city and the volcano and of course the best views were from the top of the tree house on the edge of the hill. The lone ranger up there was very friendly and told us alllll about the volcano and surrounding Banos not knowing we were only picking up a few words here and there. He also fully encouraged us to give the rope swing over the valley a go which was pretty crazy. Then we went trekking back down the mountains to a couple of monuments and lookouts (most people trek up and get the bus back but we opted for the easy option thank god cause it was hard to get down). The trek down was good fun but it was really hard and I spent most of the time on my bum thinking if I slip over I wont have that far to go. I was happy to step foot on flat land afterwards.

The following day we hired some bikes and set of on a 60km bike ride. We stopped of at some beautiful waterfalls on the way which was nice and peaceful as we were the only people there. The ride was amazing. It was downhill most of the way and the scenery was spectacular. Around the 40km mark things got a little bit harder with heavy rain and up hills so it was time to find a shelter and flag down a bus to get us back to Banos. We spent the afternoon in the hot mineral pools which were nice and relaxing as our butts were on fire from riding.

That was about all there was to do in Banos so we booked a bus to another active volcano Cotopaxi.