Three Caches along the Machay River, Ecuador

This is the second time I've joined up with jimnet2005 to go caching. What a pleasure it is to finally have an Ecuadorian caching friend. Both he and his wife, Maria Belen, came to our hotel in Banos, Ecuador during a weekend get away and took me off to show me their part of the country. The site of choice for this morning of caching was the Machay River and a series of waterfalls. The drive from Banos was short, only about half an hour. We parked beside the river and headed up the jungle path beside the river. The goal was to find Ruta de las Cascadas: Machay, a secret place (GC2Hp9F). It was a great time to catch up with my friends. They had visited me in Quito when we first met to do some caching. The climb was easy as we were at about 5000 feet above sea level as compares with the 10,000 feet plus we frequently experience in Quito (where I live) and Riobamba (where they live). Due to the surplus of oxygen we were able to make good time. We arrived at the GZ in about 45 minutes. At first my GPSr was guiding me away from the site so jimnet2005 prodded me in another direction. It was a good 60 feet off from the given coordinates so we submitted an update on the coords. After finding the cache and getting the necessary photos we headed down the trail to hide two more caches. I hid one and jimnet2005 another, bring Ecuador's total number of caches to 100! That's a milestone in our little country with just a handful of geocachers. Now the Machay River has caches at the first three waterfalls along the trail climbing up. Be sure and check out Ruta de las Cascadas: Machay, Las Orquedias (GC2M7H5). We headed back to Banos for lunch. If you get the chance to go down the Pastaza River valley from Banos towards Shell, be sure and pick up the caches along the way and up the tributaries that join the Pastaza. You are sure to see some beautiful waterfalls along the way!