BEST Things To Do in BANOS, ECUADOR (+ QUILOTOA Lake Tour) | Ecuador Travel Guide

Welcome to Banos! The  adventure capital of Ecuador! Banos is located in a lush green valley outside  the city of Ambato to the south of Quito. It's   an adventure lover's paradise with no shortage  of tour operators offering all sorts of exciting   activities to take part in and beautiful  landscapes to admire. We'll be spending   a week in town and trying out everything from  cycling to one of the craziest waterfalls we've   ever seen to visiting an incredible crater lake  and of course no location in Ecuador would be   complete without some sort of crazy swings! So  today we are hiring these bikes to take us down   to a really beautiful waterfall which is one  of the top things to do here in Banos. A bit   nervous because we have to cycle on the main  road the traffic is pretty crazy on the road   and drivers are pretty fast so we'll see how  it goes. It's all downhill which is nice so   you can literally cycle all the way down without  having to pedal much and then on the way back you   can actually get a lift if you want to which  is also nice because that would be all uphill kind of want to change the gear but I don't know  if I change the gear the gear is going to come off so far quite a lot of the cars have slowed  down quite a lot when they've passed us which   has been nice there's loads of signs for bikes  and stuff all along the road so it's obviously   a really common thing to do that drivers  are aware of so far it's not been too bad   all downhill so nice and easy still feels  a bit scary with the traffic I must admit so we've just arrived to the first waterfall  on the trail at least the first that we've   seen it's down over there very pretty there  is also a tarabita here but it looks very   old and I'm not sure I would want to go all  the way down across the chasm on that thing so that first tunnel we had to go  through because there wasn't a way   around but on this one and the next  two I think you don't go through the   tunnel you can take the cycle route off  to the side makes it a little bit safer still enjoying it yeah I'm glad that we have   a little bike lane here because it  can be a bit intimidating I've not   cycled in traffic in who knows how many  years now you're doing well thank you would you do that? Hell no that's insane! at this point the heavens began to  open and things started to get very   very wet not the best experience cycling  in rain beautiful views but Ecuador is very   wet at this time of year yeah apparently  so we've seen four waterfalls so far on   this trip we must be almost there now  I hope so because we are soaking wet I could literally get a waterfall out of my jacket   we are so so wet it stopped  being fun like halfway through I'm so wet that I don't know it will take a day  to dry at this point we're so wet we just don't   care anymore we can't get any wetter and we  just reached the entrance actually I thought   it was a bit closer than that so strong wow  oh wow look at that that's amazing look how   much like it pushes it out no in the end it  wouldn't have even mattered if we stayed dry   during the bike ride because the force of the  waterfall was immense and getting too close   to it meant getting very wet but you can get  even closer by following a crazy path through   the cliffs that requires a fair amount  of crawling and scrambling to get through I think I bruised my back this is crazy Like a proper adventure this is literally the   craziest path like look how  close to the waterfall we are we didn't actually know this before coming but  there's actually two entrances to the El Pailon   waterfall the one we just went to is the original  entrance I think and that one takes you kind of   like below the waterfall and right behind it and  then there's this new entrance where you can get   the pictures from like right above the waterfall  so we're going to go check out both might as well   as seen as we're here it's finally stopped  raining so fingers crossed it stays like that looks like we're the only ones  at the second entrance when we   looked up before it was like  super busy and now nobody here This place really makes you appreciate the  power of nature so I think it's about time   that we headed back to Banos we are wet cold and  definitely ready for a hot shower we haven't even   had lunch yet we're just too wet if you have  time for both do both for sure because you get   different angles but if you only have time for one  definitely recommend the one that says like the   new entrance because it's a lot easier to access  you don't have to walk as far it's the same price   and you get really good shots of the waterfall  we loaded our bikes into the back of a waiting   truck waited a little while for a few more people  and hopped in the back for the ride back to Banos this morning we are heading up into town nice  and early because we are going to be taking a   day trip to Quilotoa Lagoon which is somewhere  we've wanted to go since we've seen pictures of   it here in Ecuador it's quite far away it's  going to be like a 3 hour ride we decided   to go with a tour from Banos just because  of our sort of lack of time a little bit   in Ecuador it's going to be a long day but  hopefully the payoff is going to be worth it   at the end apparently the drive will be really  nice and when we were driving from Cotopaxi to   Banos it was a really beautiful drive so  I assume it will be very similar to that you ready to go? yes it's a private tour so  it's great if you take the tour from Banos   you're more likely to get a private tour  so if you want a quieter experience maybe   take the tour from Banos and not from Quito  because you'll have more people in the group   I think the long drive to Quilotoa was broken  up with some scenic stops along the way our   first stop was at the Laguna De Yambo viewpoint  a beautiful emerald lagoon just north of Ambato after that we hoped back in the  car before making another quick   stop at a viewpoint of some farmland quite  literally when we checked it on Google Maps eventually we arrived in Quilotoa  and made our way up to the edge   of this enormous crater lake where  the views were absolutely incredible welcome to Quilotoa Lagoon we have just gone  to the viewpoint to check it out from the top   and we're now heading down to the base to  the lake itself which is about 45 minutes   to an hour down about an hour to an hour  and a half back up this place is just so   beautiful definitely one of the prettiest  places we've visited in Ecuador for sure so the path down Quilotoa will take you all  the way down to the bottom here where you   can actually rent boats or canoes or something  to go out on the lagoon but we're pretty happy   just here because your views aren't going to get  any better if you go lower and it's really really   steep going back up one thing you can do from the  top is walk all the way around the crater there's   actually a path that goes all the way around we  haven't got time for that unfortunately but I   think the views would be pretty much the same the  whole way around and from here it's pretty epic you enjoying the way up? I'm having the  time of my life no honestly guys it's so   bloody steep unless you are wanting to do  the boat trip or like you're going to get   a horse back up I don't really see the point of  walking down unless you enjoy walking uphill in   altitude the views aren't any better you get  this view from like near the top so it's not   going to get any better the lower you get  also if you come and you want to walk down   a bit just wear supportive shoes because we  saw some people with heels on heels on this Finish line well done after making it back to the top  we stopped for a well needed lunch break before hiking up a short distance to get  one final look at this incredible crater then it was back in the car for the  long drive back to Banos how's that   for a view that's a nice way to end the  day it's so beautiful so clear as well   apparently this volcano very rarely  clears so this is like super lucky at the start of our third day in Banos we hired  a taxi to drive us up to La Casa del Arbol on the   slopes of Tungurahua volcano the main reason  to come up to these scenic gardens is for the   treehouse it's named after and the swings hanging  from it La Casa del Arbol has not one not two but   three different swing sets one is just here in  front of us one is over there at the end of the   path and the other one is the main one all the  way down at the end so this one is the swing that   everybody wants to have pictures with the actual  Casa del Arbol so I'll have a little go on that keep going that's fine keep going keep going they also have this really cool like zip line  kind of thing I don't know what you would call   it half zip line half swing you can go all  the way down are we going to have a race?   you gonna race awww no fun I wouldn't be able  to get off it yeah it's just too high for me I   think look how I'm going to get off it you could  get off it no I see how you're doing here we go oh might help if you take the uh thing off first that's so much fun I have to get  Kitti to try that it's so fun I   have to do it a second time but  no Kitti look at that empty chair so our main recommendation is to come up here as  early as you can the tour group is arriving like   just after 10AM so if you come between like 9 and  10 you'll probably have the swing all to yourself   which is really nice and you can really enjoy  the atmosphere rather than just queuing up for   like 10 minutes to get a go make sure you pick  a nice day to do it because you need the views   like this so the volcano should be here you can't  quite see it today unfortunately but everything   else pretty epic could have been a lot worse like  when we were doing the cycling yes that was awful so we're just leaving La Casa del Arbol now really  really fun little park and only $1 entry so it's   like super cheap here on the mountain side  there's a bunch of different places you can   visit if you wanted to they have all sorts  of things animal parks dinosaur parks we're   now walking back down the road a little bit  because about 3km from here there is a place   called La Mano de la Pachamama which is like  one massive big hand that sticks out of the   mountain it's cool on the pictures so we'll  try and check it out hopefully we'll find it after a short walk we arrived at La  Mano de la Pachamama and were really   lucky to once again have the whole place to  ourselves while we took in the amazing views we're just leaving the hand of Pachamama a cool  experience a little bit expensive compared to   the swing this one was $5 the swing was $1 and  there was like way more to do there so it's $5   literally just to walk to where the hand is you  can do multiple things here but you have to pay   them separately like if you do that crazy swing  you have to pay $20 you can go up to that little   viewpoint that's like 50 cents but is worth coming  here I think it was really cool being able to fly   the drone here really made it I just asked them  if it was fine signed some details then I was   able to fly it around and we got some really  cool pictures if you don't have a drone you   can always ask somebody to go up at the viewpoint  for 50 cents and take a photo of you because you   can see the hand from there oh my God look at  that okay oh hello hello oh my goodness hello hello hello I want to take you home I want  to take you home oh my goodness look at that   cuteness you can see what takes priority in  uh our videos we'll tell you later okay sorry   about that got a bit distracted we so going  to miss these dogs he's coming back look you   coming home with us ahhh so much fun definitely  going to miss these like random dogs around this   part of the world because we've been having  so much fun with them honestly the best thing   after finally managing to get the adorable  puppy to stop following us we hopped back   in a taxi back to Banos and then went to try  some traditional Ecuadorian food in the main   plaza we've got some patacones which are  basically just fried plantain with cheese   and then we've got some lapingachos they're  basically just potato cakes with like fried   plantain some corn and a nice salad let's  dig in try one of these patacones first never thought of putting bananas  and cheese together is it nice   very nice nice fried oily snack with cheese yeah it's just like potato cake really  you should also definitely make sure to   visit Aromi Cafe and Chocolate to get one  of the nicest hot chocolates in Ecuador we really enjoyed our stay in Banos and would  consider it a must visit location on any trip   to Ecuador there is way more to see and do  here than we could cover in this video but   the highlights for us were definitely  the Pailon Del Diablo waterfall and our   tour to Quilotoa Lake thanks for watching  and we'll see you on our next adventure!

Channel: Kitti and Jon

Views: 6,442

Keywords: banos ecuador, ecuador travel, ecuador travel 2023, ecuador travel 2024, best things to do banos ecuador, top places to visit banos ecuador, quilotoa lake, quilotoa laguna, quilotoa ecuador, ecuador travel guide, how to spend one week in banos ecuador, everything to do banos ecuador, how to travel ecuador, pailon del diablo waterfall, pailon del diablo, la casa del arbol banos, swing at the end of the world banos ecuador, la mano de la pachamama banos ecuador

Id: GW4pKPwjzJQ

Length: 20min 1sec (1201 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 22 2023