Sendero de los Contrabandistas

Today we hiked down the other side of the canyon, along a path that used to be used to smuggle contraband sugarcane alcohol out of Banos.

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It was supposed to be a nice scenic walk past more waterfalls.

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It turned out to be a harrowing journey past lots of waterfalls.

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We were terrorized by snakes.

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Crossed treacherous bridges.

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Entrapped by spider webs (this is hard to take a picture of so here are some pretty flowers instead).

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Stared down by creepy cows, both at a distance and about 2 feet away as we had to walk past them on the path.

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Trudged through mud and cow pies.

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The views were quite nice and could distract us from some of the more stressful events.

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This is looking back towards where we started. However by now you couldn’t see the dam anymore.  image

Picked up a hitchhiker.

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Threatened by flowers.

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Swarmed by butterfies

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Stampeded by horses.

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I think we mentioned there were nice flowers along the path.

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Occasional pictures of Matt were taken to keep spirits high.

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Oh and more swarms of butterflies were encountered.

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Here we are even further away from the dam.

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Here Kerri is looking less sure about our future trail path, would we ever escape?

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Blockaded by cows.

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Balanced over gorges.

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Revelled in the weak breeze as we made it to a break in the trees.

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Followed an imaginary trail.

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Confused by signage.

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Climbed halfway up a mountain.

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Chased back down by an old man.

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Jumped over barbed wire.

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Confused by threatening looking flowers.

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Mocked by Inca Jay birds.

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They were actually quite cool with the different colours.

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We finally made it to the end of the trail, but at the end we were trapped on the wrong side.

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So a terrifying gondola ride back was required to get back across the river.

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