After a short drive and 800 meters drop in altitude, our next stop was the very aptly named Abbey’s Hideaway just outside Banos. See if you can spot it next to the river on the photos.
No? Well it is there, down a winding hill with beautiful gardens, just above the river. The house is very Spanish in style, lots of terracotta colours with hammocks overlooking the river. You can lie there swinging and watch humming birds feeding and big hawks swooping down into the gorge.
Banos itself is a large city and a centre for mountain sports and adrenaline activities. There is a strange anomaly here that all the meteorological websites state that is 2 to 3 degrees but in fact its nearer 18. Even my phone insists its at least 10 degrees colder than it is. The city centre is busy but it doesn’t feel that big and once you get the gist of the one way streets its easy to drive round. We took a quick trip in for supplies.
After a chilled out lunch at the house we walked to the Cascada Ines Maria (there are a lot of waterfalls here). I do love the Spanish word “Mirador”, it conveys the idea of a wonderful sight so much better than the English word “view point”.
Then, a lightening tour of the small zoo. It wasn’t too bad as zoos go, only native animals and a definite desire to educate. It is always more interesting to go somewhere the locals go rather than attractions designed for foreign tourists. They had a couple of little stalls in the zoo which bizarrely sold practical jokes. Cara and Geoff bought a set of car keys which gave an electric shock when pressed.
Cara made a friend at the Parque Aventura (Violetta) whilst we looked at the options for cliff jumping, bridge swinging and throwing yourself into the middle of the gorge with minimal safety precautions.
A beer helped the steeper parts of the walk home seem altogether more cheerful followed by a lovely home cooked spag bol. Much hilarity at poor Drew’s expense when she was asked to unlock the car using joke set of keys (see above re items bought from zoo). Slight low point was that the glowing fire I had been looking forward to turned into a serious smoke inhalation risk so we all had an early night to escape the fog. 3rd rule of travel……..never assume that the wood is actually dry enough to burn.
Pirate Travels 