The road leading from Baños to Puyo is called the road of waterfalls. And indeed we saw many of them. The valley in which we drove has the water coming from both sides, creating small and large waterfalls. There are many small cable cars that lead to them, it seems to be a very popular thing here in Ecuador.

Nice waterfall

The road to Puyo is called the road of waterfalls for a reason

With every km the vegation became richer and the air heavier as we are approaching the amazonas low lands of Ecuador. We find a little hotel which we approach over a small bridge which is actually for pedestrians only.

Christy enjoying the view during a break

The next day we visit a small park where an amercian married to an indigines women shows the tradional way of living of the indian tribes from the amazon. His wife, born and raised in a tradional way, teached him the medical treatments the indigenes people do with all the different plants. He walked us through the park and explained a lot about the use of the plants and their characteristics, like the walking tree which actually walks up to 3m in a few years to optimize his position to gain more light.

Chris Canaday explaining a walking tree

We saw a lot of different small animals, like the bull ant, a giant ant that is quite peaceful but should be avoided due to its quite painful bite. He showed us a street of cutter ants dragging huge pieces of leaves to their home to fertilize a certain mushroom which they eat.

Cutting ants on their little procession

The variety of plants are incredible. And we learned (and already forgot) about the medical use of many of them.

This one is just good for beauty I guess

It was quite interesting and it was steaming hot when we finally returned to the hotel to pack our bikes.

The road to Macas is brand new, as most of the roads in Ecuador. The current president takes a lot of effort to invest into the infrastructure of the country.

On the road to Macas

Left and right of the road the jungle spreads, on the right side bordered by the mountains on the left side spreading endlessly to the horizon.

Riding was very relaxing.

We arrive in Macas after dark. As we stopped to get something to drink, two police officers chat Christy up. They are curios about our travel and help us with the directions of the hotel we want to stay in. That’s how we end up with a police escort through the small town to our little hotel.

Christy started to take over the navigation.