Spelunking in Baños de Cuenca

 

As most of you know, I'm on the sidelines for a while with a stupid injury/sciatica, but that can't keep a good man down. Ron headed out to the "bedroom community" of Baños de Cuenca for a challenging hike and a bit of spelunking. (Also known as caving.) I leave it to Ron to share his hike with you.

Our group of intrepid hikers met in El Centro and then caught a bus taking the 10 of us in the direction of Baños for our newest adventure. 

View of  Bañosfrom the trail

Brian Bitner, our guide, had discovered these caves while wondering the hills and cliffs around Baños, so he invited us and we responded with enthusiasm. It had rained heavily the night before so the trails were a little more slippery and treacherous than usual especially for us, who are not in their twenties anymore. We persevered and made it up the steep slippery trails and arrived at the first of two caves. 

Steep!

Inside were the remnants from people that were obviously mining the caves, as well as the ones that decided to use it for romance and partying (the places we find in our youth). For anyone interested in geology, the veins of quartz and other minerals inside were equally fascinating.

 

 

After spending some time exploring the caves it was time to head back and that is when the adventure took a turn for the silly and a time for some of the group to revisit childhood thrills. As I mentioned early, it had rained heavily the night before and the trails were fairly muddy which made the descent far trickier than the ascent and a number of the group decided it was a lot safer and quicker to just slide down the steep trails on their backsides, which obviously made for a lot of hilarity.

By the time we reached the bottom of the trail some of the group looked like little kids who had been playing in the mud with their behinds and legs totally drenched and laughing histerically. All in all, it was a fun adventure and a great hike.

 

From there we hiked off to Baños for a cold beer and some sustenance after our workout. Afterwards, some decided to partake in the hot baths in Baños to sooth the muscles and others of us set off home and other destinations.

Tomorrow: repelling and who knows what awaits the future, the world is full of adventure waiting to be experienced.