Canyoning in Baños

Today Simon and I went canyoning just outside Baños. Until this week I had no idea what canyoning actually was but it seems that I'm being inducted into the world of adventurous water sports at quite a rate on this trip. Having abseiled only once before and being a little nervous of heights, canyoning ticked all the right boxes to have me scared out of my wits and at times it did just that. I must admit that I wasn't too keen on changing into my wetsuit at the tour company office in the middle of town but as the pickup truck dropped us at the end of a dirt track and we realised that we had a bit of a climb on our hands I'm glad that I didn't have to carry all of my things. My poor legs are still suffering from yesterday's hike so the 15 minute scramble to the top of the waterfall wearing my wetsuit, plastic jacket, harness and helmet was more than a little uncomfortable! The descent consisted of abseiling down 5 waterfalls, starting with the shortest and finishing on a 40 metre whopper!

Despite the nerves and the destruction of our 'white collar' hands (Simon spent a while suggesting that the guide offer gloves to the next group...such a delicate little flower that he his!) we had a brilliant time and felt as though we were in very capable hands. Our confidence grew as we gained a bit of experience and just as we thought we'd really got the hand of it, our guide showed us how it should be done!

I'll post a video of the experience tomorrow.

Bye S