After our breakfast we were about to walk into town to grab one of the tours of the waterfalls. They cost $5. per person and the cost of any of the activities we might want to do at the stops we will visit. The tour goes to the “Cascadas” or waterfalls of which there are many in the area surrounding Banos. Our host sees us in the courtyard and approaches us and asks what our plans are for the day. We tell him and he advises us that they have a tour right from here. The bus can pick us up here at 10:30. OK, sounds good.

We have an hour so we decide to walk up the street (big hill) to the hot springs that are above us. The pools vary in colour and temperature. The ones with the yellower water are hotter and have more mineral content than the greener cooler pools. People even go for dips in the flowing river. They have a bar that they hold onto as they make their way into the river.

As we are making our way back at 10:15 our host is driving up the hill to try to find us. The “Chiva” or bus had arrived early so he came looking for us. It had carried on picking up other passengers as we were not there, but did make it back to pick us up.

There is agriculture all around us, even though we are surrounded by tall volcanoes. These industrious people manage to cultivate and grow crops on these very steep hills.

We stop to see a waterfall. This stop has a bucket that will take you across the rivers gorge and back again. It stops in the middle on the return so that you can take photos. This costs us $2 per person.

Our next stop is at a candy factory of sorts. They are making guava leather. They boil the fruit until they have a thick red liquid. This boils more until it is done. Not sure how long it all takes, but they pour the resulting paste into trays that then get cut into rectangles or put into wooden boxes which they sell.

We also stop at a zip lining place. Not sure if this is $2 per person or not. None of us were interested 🙂 They also have this ball swing that spins around as it swings out over the gorge.

The next stop is another waterfall. This one is called the Devil’s Cauldron. We arrive at a busy parking lot. It is full of Chivas.

Here we pay another $2 per person and enter the park where we understand that there is about a 15-20 minute walk. There are lots and lots of signs here warning to stay on the path, don’t damage the vegetation and that we must be sober to enter the park. 😉

We are seeing many plants that have other plants living on them. Here is an example of a tree with these succulents growing along the branches.

We soon discover that there is an amazing waterfall here. So stunning.

This was the finale. Just spectacular. We didn’t have time to go all the way down to the bottom as the Chiva needed to keep it’s schedule. This trek would have taken a while, especially getting back to the top.

As we leave we have a close call with a car on a narrow roadway out of the waterfall area. Tight squeeze.

We headed back into Banos to finish this tour. Well worth the price of admission. 😉

Later we enjoyed a great dinner in town at a place called “Casa Hood”. Food was good. Street entertainers would pop by, some not so good.

Another great day!!