Ruta de Cascadas – Pailon de Diablo

December 16^th, 2021 

The day started with another rainy morning, worse than yesterday.  I spent the morning working on my accommodations for the Galapagos Islands (I tell you, sometimes this backpacking feels like a job!).  The precipitation slowed but didn’t stop but as it neared 1 pm, I figured I’d have to give this excursion a try.  I’ve been carrying some rain pants with me all this way and not used them yet…so today’s the day.

 

It took me a while to find a rental bike shop that was open.  Most of them were closed as they probably figured “Who would be dumb enough to go biking in this weather?”.  Well, it turns out this guy is.  It was my last afternoon in Baños so I didn’t have much choice if I wanted to ride the Ruta de Cascadas, the Waterfalls Route.  It is a 17 kilometre bike ride along the main road, but thankfully it’s mostly downhill as you are following the Pastaza River.   The route consists of a number of waterfalls, ending with the big finale of the Pailon de Diablo which is supposed to be spectacular (the Cauldron of the Devil).  I have to admit, after visiting New Zealand a few years ago where I must have seen 100-150 waterfalls in one day, waterfalls generally don’t do much for me, but I’ve got to give this a go.  In addition to cascading water, there were other man-made activities such as ziplines, cable cars and other roadside attractions.

 

The rental was only $5 for the bike, and it was a decent one with front suspension and disc brakes.  I had been told by numerous people to make sure that the brakes were good.  Starting to cycle out of town, the wind was picking up and it was in my face as the rain continued to fall.  Since there were no fenders on the bike, water was spinning off of the front wheel and the wind was blowing it back into my face.  It made it challenging to see at times.

 

The man at the store had instructed me that I was to ride through the first tunnel but go around the following two tunnels.  Riding through the first one was fun, but I was thankful that no vehicle was on my tail.  The bypass around the next tunnel had the first of a few ziplines.  This one looked pretty long, maybe a kilometre, running down and over the river.  It didn’t look like it was operating and considering my late start and the heavy rain, I decided to pass.

Party truck coming through the tunnel:

A few kilometres later and around a big bend, there was a big roadside attraction with another zipline, a suspension bridge with glass floors (it made me think of Squid Games which I watched a month ago – you’ll know what I mean if you’ve seen it) and a bungee cord ball ride, the best I can do to describe it.  Again, I decided to continue on to my main goal, the Pailon del Diablo.

If you ever watched an online cartoon called Homestar Runner, you'll notice I'm channeling my inner Strong Bad:

The suspension bridge with glass panels for some of the deck:

A nice waterfall on the way to the star of the show:

After coming around the bypass of the third and longest tunnel (946 meters), I entered a small village.  As I approached a river with a bridge spanning it, a man standing outside a building asked in Spanish if I wanted to store my bike in his place.  I was a little confused.  I had been monitoring the kilometre markings on the side of the road and thought I had another 3-4 kilometres to go before reaching the Pailon de Diablo but it turns out I was already there…great.  It was some little tourist information centre, so I felt safe putting the bike inside and wandered a few hundred meters down along the river to the entrance.

Some pretty sad sculptures before getting to the falls:

The combination of Covid and a rainy day resulted in a pretty deserted place.  I felt bad for a few ladies here and there cooking up a bit of food for their tiny rundown restaurants that were devoid of customers.  I wondered whether I was the only tourist there but later I ran into a few others, but it was definitely quiet.  I paid my $2 entrance fee and proceeded to walk along the designated path beside the swift flowing river.  The water sped up as the channel narrowed and then it disappeared over the edge.  Okay cool so far, but I used to live by Niagara Falls during some engineering work terms in university so hopefully it will get better than this.

And that it did!  First, I had to cross a suspension bridge which then doubled back on itself.  The falls themselves must be about 250 feet high and it was impressive.  What was even more impressive was that you could literally stand right beside the gushing water and later, once I reached the other side, you could stand right behind it! 

Since it had been raining cats and dogs all day (or I guess gatos y perros here), the waterflow was definitely more than usual.  I could tell that even though I’d never been there before because I kept thinking about “How did they make these stairs, these guardrails, the gutters etc.?”  Some parts were continuously getting drenched in water.  Oh yeah, it’s flowing full power today.  It was mesmerizing to watch the water splashing back up as it hit the pool at the bottom.

What I couldn’t figure out was how one got to the other side of the waterfalls.  There were some tourists on some concrete steps and platforms.  I could see some kind of lodge with a suspension bridge to access it but there didn’t seem to be a way to get over there.  I figured that there must be another entrance and I back tracked the 4-500 meters back to the building where my bike was and crossed the bridge.  A few hundred meters later I found the entrance for the carpark.  Okay, I must be close.

That's a big leaf!

This side was more built up with a few small restaurants, bars and shops, all of which were fairly devoid of activity.  I walked down the much longer path through the forest to reach the other side of the waterfall.  After about 15 minutes of leaving the other side of the waterfalls, I finally reached the entrance for this side.  I happily paid another $2 to enter and began my way up some steps towards the falls.

Cool statue at the entrance...a little higher quality than the other side!

The suspension bridge I was on, on the first side I visited.

 Approaching from lower than the first side I visited, the splash from the waterfall was more prevalent.  I decided to take a gamble and walk down to one of the platforms and within a minute I got drenched!  Luckily my rain gear held up well, but my waterproof hiking shoes didn’t fair so well.  I got quite concerned about my iPhone, but it survived.

I climbed back up the stairs and headed further up.  The walkway turned into a “crawlway” and one had to mind one’s head as it would have been easy to smoke it on some of the overhanging rocks.  Once through, you could get right behind the waterfall…super cool, and super loud!   

A wall of water!

After soaking it all in, literally, I walked back to the entrance, removed my waterproof pants for the hike back up and also removed my supposedly waterproof shoes and wrung out my socks.  The guy at the entrance gave me a little laminated ticket and told me that this was to cross the suspension bridge to the lodge on the other side.  Huh, I thought I was finished, but I guess not.  I walked over to the other side and entered the building.  It was a nice view of the falls and I decided that I’d definitely earned a beer, and this was a fantastic place to have one.

 

Leaving the park, I saw a bus a hundred meters ahead crossing the bridge.  Shit, I’m just going to miss it.  I ran after it, but to no avail.  The guy at the tourist place told me that there was a white truck back where I came from that could take me back to Baños…perfect.  There were a couple of 21 year old American/Indian college students who had also braved the rain to bike to the waterfalls who also took the truck back to town.

Chased by a bus through a tunnel on our way back to town:

As I mentioned earlier, I’m a little jaded about waterfalls and they usually don’t do much for me but this one was special.  I’d put it in the top 5 at least that I’ve seen…well worth the price of admission!