We drove for about 10 or 15 minutes along the rocky mountain side road that looked barely strong enough to hold a bull and here we are putting along in José´s car. 
The surroundings were beautiful. The giant mountains of green popping out of the ground below creating a sort of canyon with the river flowing rapidly below down the center. The lush tall grasses sway in the afternoon breeze as though there is no cares in the world, and the clouds glide down the slopes blanketing the forests is mist and light rain. This is Ecuador, this is nature, my home, where real life is. We arrived to a dirt parking lot next to la Palión del Diablo, which i still had no clue what it was. From the explanation José had given me it sounded like a deadly rapid or something. We had to walk down this dirt trail through the forest. We passed several beggars along the way and a hut that had a Boa constrictor in it. I hate snakes, and José had to go and touch it. I could just imagine it launching its diamond shaped head, fangs all glinting in the sunlight ready to claim its victims life. But it didn't, and we walked along. There were these amazing views of cliffs and rocks that just stole your breath away for a minute. We reached the bottom where this hut building was and it cost a dollar to go and see el Palión del Diablo. I cant exactly remember how i finally figure out what the Palión del Diablo was but i think it was the signs with pictures that gave it way.
The surroundings were beautiful. The giant mountains of green popping out of the ground below creating a sort of canyon with the river flowing rapidly below down the center. The lush tall grasses sway in the afternoon breeze as though there is no cares in the world, and the clouds glide down the slopes blanketing the forests is mist and light rain. This is Ecuador, this is nature, my home, where real life is. We arrived to a dirt parking lot next to la Palión del Diablo, which i still had no clue what it was. From the explanation José had given me it sounded like a deadly rapid or something. We had to walk down this dirt trail through the forest. We passed several beggars along the way and a hut that had a Boa constrictor in it. I hate snakes, and José had to go and touch it. I could just imagine it launching its diamond shaped head, fangs all glinting in the sunlight ready to claim its victims life. But it didn't, and we walked along. There were these amazing views of cliffs and rocks that just stole your breath away for a minute. We reached the bottom where this hut building was and it cost a dollar to go and see el Palión del Diablo. I cant exactly remember how i finally figure out what the Palión del Diablo was but i think it was the signs with pictures that gave it way.We payed a dollar to get into the up close viewing area and it was totally worth every cent. As we were climbing through the jungle once again i noticed that everyone that was walking by was completely wet, dripping with water as though they jumped in the river or something. Well i found out soon it was because of the massive raging waterfall. 
That's what the Palión del Diablo was, a waterfall. No wonder someone would die trying to raft down it, the sheer size of the waterfall, volume of water, and speed at which it feel was enough to make the surrounding rock walls and caves rumble, as if the water were proving its might. I have imagined waterfalls so grand and impressive but never had i thought that i would actually be standing at the base of such an amazing piece of natural wonder. The entire river flows through el Palión del Diablo it appears and there were little paths that lead even higher towards the top of the waterfall. But there is a little catch, you have to crawl in a crevasse/cave path that is literally 2 feet high and goes along the side of the cliff next to the waterfall. Talk about a combination of fears, first i have to worry about what if the hundreds of thousands of tons of earth and rock above me fell and trapped me or killed me instantly, which could have happened i guess since Baños does lay at the foot of an active volcano, which we watched erupt from the car on our drive in the night before. I don't know much about geology or stuff like that, but i think i understand that active volcano means earthquakes, and if that rock wanted to shift even the slightest, i would surely die.. If, if, and more if´s. I tell you, i could not live my life by "if´s" So that's why i climbed into that crevasse, and crawled on my hands and knees through the wet and muddy rock to see such a once in a life time view. I really don't like small spaces for the record, but it was totally worth it. We emerged to be maybe 10 feet away from the waterfall, you could feel the strength of the falling water run through you, and not to mention hit you in the face here and there. There was a side walk way that lead up behind the waterfall that you could go behind but, you´d get wet. There is the reason why everyone was soaking wet coming back, how could you not go behind a waterfall? Becky and I handed our stuff to José and ran up behind it. 
All you saw was a wall of water, flowing as though it knew its part to play and preformed wonderfully at it. It was amazing... and wet! It was really cold after standing in the mist of the waterfall and getting wet from behind it, so we turned back. There was this little girl who kept getting in the way though, she cut me off on the way up there and now she was standing in the way of getting down and she wouldn't move, she just stared at us at though we were foreigners, i mean could you imagine!? Just kidding, José told her to move and she did, but she was definitely liked cutting people off and running in front of them. We walked back through the jungle and saw some really cool plants and flowers of all different sorts. We finally piled back into the car and drove back to Baños about 30 min away, more or less. We we arrived we bid fare well to José who had to go back to Quito because of classes and Becky and I ventured off and booked a white water rafting trip for the next day. hehe. it was fun, ill post later about that.
That's what the Palión del Diablo was, a waterfall. No wonder someone would die trying to raft down it, the sheer size of the waterfall, volume of water, and speed at which it feel was enough to make the surrounding rock walls and caves rumble, as if the water were proving its might. I have imagined waterfalls so grand and impressive but never had i thought that i would actually be standing at the base of such an amazing piece of natural wonder. The entire river flows through el Palión del Diablo it appears and there were little paths that lead even higher towards the top of the waterfall. But there is a little catch, you have to crawl in a crevasse/cave path that is literally 2 feet high and goes along the side of the cliff next to the waterfall. Talk about a combination of fears, first i have to worry about what if the hundreds of thousands of tons of earth and rock above me fell and trapped me or killed me instantly, which could have happened i guess since Baños does lay at the foot of an active volcano, which we watched erupt from the car on our drive in the night before. I don't know much about geology or stuff like that, but i think i understand that active volcano means earthquakes, and if that rock wanted to shift even the slightest, i would surely die.. If, if, and more if´s. I tell you, i could not live my life by "if´s" So that's why i climbed into that crevasse, and crawled on my hands and knees through the wet and muddy rock to see such a once in a life time view. I really don't like small spaces for the record, but it was totally worth it. We emerged to be maybe 10 feet away from the waterfall, you could feel the strength of the falling water run through you, and not to mention hit you in the face here and there. There was a side walk way that lead up behind the waterfall that you could go behind but, you´d get wet. There is the reason why everyone was soaking wet coming back, how could you not go behind a waterfall? Becky and I handed our stuff to José and ran up behind it. All you saw was a wall of water, flowing as though it knew its part to play and preformed wonderfully at it. It was amazing... and wet! It was really cold after standing in the mist of the waterfall and getting wet from behind it, so we turned back. There was this little girl who kept getting in the way though, she cut me off on the way up there and now she was standing in the way of getting down and she wouldn't move, she just stared at us at though we were foreigners, i mean could you imagine!? Just kidding, José told her to move and she did, but she was definitely liked cutting people off and running in front of them. We walked back through the jungle and saw some really cool plants and flowers of all different sorts. We finally piled back into the car and drove back to Baños about 30 min away, more or less. We we arrived we bid fare well to José who had to go back to Quito because of classes and Becky and I ventured off and booked a white water rafting trip for the next day. hehe. it was fun, ill post later about that.
3 comments:
Just a side note . . . that whole caves formation that we crawled through . . . is new. It, or at least part of it, was theoretically made a couple of years ago when the volcano was having the massive erruptions that destroyed a lot of those roads we were on and all. Aren't you glad you didn't know that at the time?
haha thats cool... its like in Jurassic park...dont they go hide behind a waterfall from the the T-rex? sounds like a blast!!! Keep livin life.
wow. i'm so jealous of your amazing adventures!!
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