Happy New Year, or feliz año nuevo as we were wishing one another here in Ecuador. Our much fraught-over decision to spend the holiday in Baños rather than Moñtanita turned out to be the perfect one. We had a culturally unique experience, an insanely fun night, and best of all, no stress! What more could you ask for?
We just generally fell big time for Baños and I was actually fairly sad to leave. I’m getting fairly chronologically behind real time in blogging right now (a sign that I’ve been way too busy!) and so it might be a while before you read about this magical little mountain town. Photo of the Week will have to do for now!
Photo A
Lovely locals
Photo B
Paillon del Diablo waterfall
Photo C
Amazing activities
Photo D
Biking in Baños
Photo E
Fun Fin De Año traditions!
Which photo is your favorite?
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Photo A for shock value (what are those things??). Photo C for scenic beauty.
They are guinea pigs, or cuy as they are called in the Andes! I had EIGHT (yes, eight) pet guinea pigs growing up so no, I did not sample one!
Love Photo B, how beautiful! And did you brave eating cuy? When I was in Ecuador I just couldn’t do it.
Nope! As I mentioned above, I was a proud member of the guinea pig club…. couldn’t bring myself to do it!
Photo b. such an interesting view point
Thanks Breanna! I could feel the water from the falls on my back when I took that photo!
Photo B is breathtaking!
Thank you Armando! Can you believe I took it with my iPhone?
Photo B is my favourite, but they’re all great – nice work!
Thanks Paul! Looks like B is in the lead so far 🙂
Argh I did it again! I forgot to tell you to go canyoning in Baños. I suck at travel advice (although at least I remembered Casa de Bamboo in hindsight..)
Don’t worry — I did it! Can’t wait to post about it 🙂
These are all great photos! Photo Editing is my favorite and C would be my next favorite.
I meant Photo E, not photo editing. Silly auto correct.
Have you seen that site dedicated to the funniest autocorrects? It is a total time suck but HILARIOUS!
I was instantly going to say B, until I saw C. Oh, but that looks like a thrill.
It was! Especially when I saw the less-than-stellar methods they were using to secure us to the zipline…
Wow! Photo B is my favourite! It looks so beautiful – postcard worthy for sure!
Thanks Emily! I love sending postcards 🙂
WOW! Great photos! I would love to see the Paillon del Diablo waterfall live and in person! It must have been breath taking! Thanks for the great pictures. I can’t wait to see more from you current travels!
Thanks Irving! I’ve seen a lot of waterfalls… and this was a doozy! Definitely worth putting on the bucket list!
Feliz año!!! B as I am a sucker for a rainbow! A rainbow and a waterfall – double whammie! Looks beautiful, glad you were happy with your choice. All the best for 2014 Alex!
And right back at 2014 Sarah 🙂
They are all exceptional but I like B the best………but they are all close seconds!!!!
Thanks Dad! I thought you’d like the guinea pigs after so many years of picking up their poop 🙂
Great photos as always Alex. My favourite is photo B. I do however like photo D which clearly reflects your eye for a good angle to make a great picture.
Belated New Year greetings to you.
BTW, I wouldn’t worry about falling behind in real time blog posts. I always try to keep a few articles in reserve for when I don’t have time to write. I personally feel less pressure to write then and can explore my articles more, time permitting.
I usually write posts a week or two ahead of time and just schedule them, that way I have flexibility if something really amazing comes up. But lately I’ve just been doing WAY too much. Even if I blogged every single day I don’t think I could keep up! Time to slow down 🙂
I’m choosing B. Simply stunning.
Thanks Steve! I don’t think there has ever been a week with such unanimous comments!
Photo C! Can’t wait to read your post about that activity! 🙂
Thanks Karina! There are SO many ziplines and cablecars in Banos. I’ve never seen anything like it!
I’m a sucker for rainbows, so I have to go with B! You captured it beautifully.
Thanks Diane! Funny thing is I took that photo with both my iPhone (for Instagram) and my dSLR (for the blog, or so I thought) and ended up preferring the iPhone one!
Photo C!
I’d feel like Superman.
It’s SUCH a creepy way to do a zipline. Your hands are just kind of flailing… it feels very vulnerable! But I guess that’s what makes it fun.
Photo C with the zip line. What a view!
Thanks Chris! Hope you had a great New Year in Gili!
Glad you even managed to remember with everything you’ve had going on!
Sarah & I must be such party animals these days, I think we were in bed reading by about 9.30pm (I put it down to Sarah still recovering from the seasickness she got on the fastboat)
Still, it meant we were raring to go for snorkeling the following day 🙂
Sounds like a perfect way to ring in the new year!
I really liked the photo b and c and imagine that the photo b was taken with iphone is that right? beautiful photo very good
Actually no, dSLR! You can learn more about my photography equipment here. Hope that helps!