Weekend Excursion

Buenos dias! This weekend I went on a trip to a town called Banos. (Like Banyos, but I can't get the tilde on here.) Banos means bathroom in Spanish, so here is my bano in Banos. (We stayed in a hostal):













I know you can't see it that well, but it was pretty nice. The hostal had excellent breakfast and a great view of a waterfall in town. On Friday we took a tour on a chiva. A chiva is a traditional bus here that usually plays music and is kind of like a party bus. Ours wasn't too party-ish, but it was still really fun. It took us to see a bunch of waterfalls. They were amazing. Here I am in front of the waterfall where we got to walk down and get a closer look. It was very misty there.




















We also went in this little metal basket thing from one mountain to another about 100m or so above the river. You can kind of see it in this picture. It is the red thing on the cable.








On Saturday I went rafting with my friend. Here we are in all our gear. It was super fun!




















The rapids weren't too scary, but they were thrilling enough. The place we rafted through was at the very edge of the jungle. It was really cool to see all the tropical vegetation. I also saw a Kingfisher and a bunch of pretty butterflies. I think it was a preview of what is to come when we go to the jungle on a field trip. It was pretty exciting. The whole are was just beautiful!

Today, Sunday, we took a bus to a nearby town, Rio Verde, and we hiked to another waterfall, el Pailon del Diablo (something like Devil's Shoot I think). You could get really close to this one, and we were even able to go right behind it as it was falling in front of us. That was pretty neat. But in order to get to that point, we had to crawl up this little tunnel-ish thing. It felt very Indiana Jones.



















Here I am behind the waterfall. I'm on the right.




















We also went across a bridge to get a better view of the falls. Heres what the sign for the bridge said:













And people didn't follow the rules! There were like 10 or 12 people crossing at once! Luckily we made it, but it was a little scary.

But I don't want you to leave scared, so here is something happy to think about. Banos is known
for its taffy, known as milcocha. It is very chewy, and they make it by throwing it around this little wooden post in the wall. They make it all over town and sell it for a dollar a package. Yum! Here is a picture: