Baños y La Selva

After my first week of working in Tarqui, the other three volunteers and I decided to take a day trip to Baños. At the time, there was some tension left over from the transportation strike against the president in Ecuador, so although the roads were open for the day, the buses weren’t running because there wasn’t much gas. With that being said, the four of us ended up taking a taxi there and back.

While in Baños, we did a tour of the Ruta de Cascadas which ended with the Pailon del Diablo. We also did a tour of la Casa del Arbol where we sat on the swing at the end of the world. Here are a few pictures from our trip:

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This past Thursday, the man who runs the the zoo decided to give us a break and take us to la selva (rainforest/jungle). He took the four of us who had already been volunteering for three weeks, as well as four other volunteers from Healing Animals Organisation. These women are from Great Britain and have come in hope of teaching certain techniques to the zoo refuge in order to help enrich the lives of the animals.

While in la selva we saw some Paiche, which are carnivorous fish from the Amazon that have two sets of lungs allowing them to breath both in and out of water. Unfortunately they are becoming extinct, so the ones we saw were in captivity. We then visited the indigenous village of Cotococha where several children painted our faces and taught us how to dance. Soon after that, we canoed down El Rio Puyo and then drove to a place with a beautiful view where we did a high-up swing and explored some caves. After lunch, we hiked to la Cascada Hola Vida which was a beautiful waterfall. To top the day off, we learned a little about the process of how cocoa is harvested to make chocolate. It was one jam-packed day, but super fun.

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