10 de Agosto Market, Cuenca

 Wherever we go, one of my favorite things to do is wander the local markets...

Canyoning in Banos

slide

They call it canyoning, but what it really is - rappelling down waterfalls. Kinda crazy, but lots of fun! It's a series of 5 waterfalls - and the bottom of the last one is small, so we just slid down it on our bottoms...

going down

That black dot below is Manuel

long way down

almost there

Here I come....

A Blast in Paradise

following the stream

 On the second day of our 2 day jungle tour, we followed our guide through paradise, down a beautiful stream into caverns, through bat filled caves (or at least they were before we got there- the bats flew out en masse when we invaded their space), over logs, shimmying up crevices - getting muddy, soaked, scraped up - and having a blast!!

Our fearless leader

going in...

up and over

bat cave!!

tight fit (no comments, please)

following the leader...

lunch on the river

Our River Transport

Tilapia

Lunch stop (view from above)

Quinoa

The Beach

We booked an overnight trip into the jungle- part of the adventure was floating down the river in inner tubes and stopping for lunch by the side of the river. Lunch was tilapia cooked over a fire in banana leaves, quinoa, yucca, and lemon grass tea, with leaves from the jungle as plates. Yummy.