Baños - El Vuelo del Condor

December 14^th, 2021 

Yesterday I hopped on a bus to head to Ecuador’s “adventure capital” called Baños.  If you know a little bit of Spanish, well you should know that that word translates as “toilet” or “bathroom”.  The full name of this city of 15,000 is actually Baños de Agua Santa which means Baths of Holy Water.  There are some hot springs in town, although I never ended up visiting them.

 

One tourist highlight I read about was called Casa del Arbol, the Treehouse.  It is a big swing up on the nearby ridge, about 500 meters above the town, which makes you feel like you are swinging off the end of the Earth.  I also heard about an even big swing called El Vuelo del Condor, the Flight of the Condor.  I decided to skip the smaller swing and head straight to the big kahuna.

The view up on the ridge:

A local bus dropped me off about a ten minute walk from the tourist attraction.  The place was pretty dead.  One car pulled in as I got there so it was me and a family of four as the only visitors.  They did not seem interested in the big swing but were happy to see that they were going to get to watch me.  I paid  my $15 plus $3 extra for a GoPro on a selfie stick.  One of the staff outfitted me with a climbing harness and a helmet and we walked up the steps to the platform.

The two attractions:

I loved the sign for the baños!

The big swing frame:

In addition to the climbing harness, which served as a backup, you sit in a paragliding harness which is perfect for this application.  I told the young staff member that I was a paragliding instructor back in Canada, but he still took over with regards to doing up and adjusting the straps.  I couldn’t help but smile a bit inside as I’ve put the same type harness on 850 some people and on myself over 1800 times but hey, I got to let him do his job.

 

Once I was fully connected, I was told to step forward onto the part of the platform that pivots down, like on a hangman’s gallows.  “Listo?” I was asked.  Yes, I’m ready…and whoompf.  The plank dropped away and I swung down some 30-40 feet in a nice parabolic path.  Immediately my stomach was in my throat, a feeling that I like, and I could feel the adrenaline coursing through my veins.

After the initial rush, I continued to swing back and forth for a few more minutes before one the workers met me at the bottom and disconnected me.  Pretty good bang for the buck I’d say.

 

The other attraction was what they called “La Mano de la Panchamama” which means the Hand of Mother Earth.  It was another $5 and the entrance fee which was questionable for what it was.  It was a concrete platform in the shape of a hand.  The views were great and I didn’t mind paying my five bucks but for the family of four, it’s hard to justify the $20.  Still, I chatted a bit in Spanish with the dad and we took pictures for each other and then I was on my way.

They made me put on these little booties...at first I thought it was for Covid measures but no, for the nice paintings on the floor.

An automatic timer photo I tried with my phone propped up against my little backpack...not bad.

Pretty sweet view:

I knew that there was a path to hike back down to Baños and I only had to ask one local lady the directions at one point.  About halfway down, there was a small side trail to a statue of the Virgin Mary, which wasn’t terribly impressive, but I decided to check it out nonetheless.

The path down:

I was tempted to stop for a drink on this awesome little balcony but it was almost 4 o'clock and I decided it was best to get to town first.

The "Virgen Mary de Agua Santa".

Back down in Baños, I felt a beer was well deserved and I found a rooftop patio near the centre square of town.  A guy who worked there started chatting with me and paragliding came up in the conversation.  Israel (an interesting name) told me that he knew the main pilot in town, Edgar, who runs a company called Fly Niton, Niton being the name of the local site.  He said he could take me to his office, but I figured there was no need at the point.  I had already sent Edgar an email to see if he might be flying in the next few days, even though the weather didn’t seem like it was going to cooperate…but who knows, I’ll cross my fingers for tomorrow.