spending nuevo ano en el bano

No we didn't spend New years in the bathroom- but there is a town in Ecuador named banos. It is quite an amazing place- very lush, waterfalls galore, ziplines, and a ginormous swing.

I don't think my photos quite capture this swing- it was way out over an edge- made you want to hold on real tight. They had a cool mini zip line too that Luca will race you on.

On New Years eve the kids... well pretty much everyone, gets dressed up like we do on Halloween. They tie ropes across the street and make you stop and give change for passage. We liked this idea (of dressing up) so grabbed a few costumes ourselves.

The other big part of New Years is to make big paper mache figures for the midnight bonfire. TV show personalities, sports stars, politicians, spouses- the idea being that when they go up in smoke any bad decisions they made is gone- only the new year to look forward to.

We had some nice hikes and a great one way waterfall bus tour (the way back we got stuck in traffic). I would recommend for you to go to the banos. It feels great.

So we saw this little cable car crossing the river and figured we could ride it and walk out the other side. Close- we had to actually ride it back as well. This was when we saw that a zipline was another option for the return trip. 

no liabilities to sign- so we had that going for us. Plus we had the heavy guy go first so we felt quite safe the children would be okay. 

Some more waterfalls and hiking shots:

hey mama

Our poor children- how many times did they have to hear us say no after asking "can we get something?" from either a cheap plastic toy vendor or streetside candy maker. 

We're building character right?

oooh shiny

oooh shiny