Banos Ecuador Travel Guide by Eran Sofer

After spending two weeks in Banos I think I am able to recommend some activities to do and places to see. Here is a short list that I think will be helpful to the newcomer.

Accommodation
In the town we stayed in a place called Plantas Y Blanco. The owner of the hostel Carlos is a reflection of the staff and the excellent service that u will b able to find there. In addition to clean rooms, hot showers, quick laundry service and free internet access, u can get a great breakfast on a terrace that has views of the whole town and is located only 7 minutes walk from the hot springs.
As a compensation for not being able to fit Tahiti into out trip because of flight companies regulations, we went to a spa resort called http://www.lunaruntun.com/ for four days. There we had amazing views of Banos and the whole valley from above while sitting in hot mineral baths.

Food
Café Hood - excellent food, you have to try the Arabic lamb, Leah says it was amazing. I loved the Plato Hindu.
Casa Hood - very nice atmosphere, excellent apple pie and a lot of oil in the rest.

Rafting – that is one of the highlights of my trip so far. We had an excellent experience with www.rainforestur.com.ec, the guide Tito was very professional and was able to lead the raft like a king. Everything was organised smoothly including an excellent lunch.

Cycling – we hired bicycles for a day for 5 dollars. We had a great day trip along the route from Banos to Puyo. The ride starts at Banos along the main road and then splits off to a small side road along water falls inside a valley with some very nice views (one warning to travellers there is one tunnel that u need to go through in one part of the route which is shared with general traffic, unfortunately this tunnel is not lit up, so it is recommended to bring a torch with u). At one point u can go on a cable car that crosses the valley. The actual experience is pretty scary and very pretty. The car is an open basket which is run by engine at one end. Before departing u can actually see the open engine in front of u while the static driver is manuvering the basket from one side to another! We finished our trip at a place called Rio Verde. We had a small walk down hill where we have found unbelievable scenery. A big waterfall drops some 30 meters between two green foresty hills, on both sides of the hill next to the waterfall are two restaurants. On arrival we did not know a thing about any of them, but the first one tried to charge us for looking at the water fall. Which sounded really stupid, because we could see that if we continue to walk for another 20 meters we would have an excellent view from the bridge. So we did that and from there we saw the other restaurant that had an amazing setting. Offering great food, wonderful waterfall view and the best part it is owned by an Israeli family! It is called El Otro Lado (The Other Side). Currently the family is not there, but they bought the land from a local about 12 years ago and they lived there for 8 years and now they are living in Israel. Except the restaurant they offer accommodation in the same area (For more info on the bicycle route look in http://www.thebestofecuador.com/smiguel.htm and http://www.vivatravelguides.com/south-america/ecuador/andean-highlands/central-highlands/banos/around-banos-rio-verde/ )

Jungle trip
We had a very bad experience with an agency called Rainbow in Banos. This agency is recommended by http://www.lonelyplanet.com/ because the owner, a native guy called Shakay, is suppose to take u to his tribe´s reserve close to Macas while giving half of the money u pay for the trip to the community, and u have a good chance to live with them and get to know their culture better.
Unfortunately we were very disappointed with Rainbow, Shakay and http://www.lonelyplanet.com/´s guidance. We agreed on a trip for 4 days trip with an English speaking guide and among other things a taxi from Banos to Puyo at 1am. The taxi was never booked by Shakay because ¨the costs were too high¨. Shakay claimed that the ride would cost $50 us (later we checked the price with different taxi drivers and they all said its only $25 US). So instead of a taxi we had to wait in the freezing cold for a public bus. After waiting for one and half hours we said to Shakay that if the bus does not arrive in half an hour we are going back to our Hostal. At three Shakay disappeared to avoid the dead line and left us by ourselves with the entire luggage. After another 15 minutes the bus arrived and Shakay came back to load the luggage. On arrival to Puyo, after an hour and half on the bus, we were told by Shakay that the English speaking guide´s wife was bitten by a snake and could not come. Instead there was another guide that speaks only Spanish. Then and there we felt we could not trust him any more. The story with the taxi, the disappearance while waiting for the bus and the snake story were a bit too much. We demanded to return to Bnaos and a full refund. We did return but getting back the money was a very long experience which took us five days. We had help from www.rainforestur.com.ec , the owner Santiago gave us excellent advice and Carlos from Plantas Y Blanco went with us to launch a complain in the Tourist Police (which is an amazing thing that they have in all Ecuador, if u have any problem with any tourist agency the tourist police are the people to talk with).