Pailon del Diablo Ecuador

Waterfall “Kettle of the Devil”

Yesterday, we visited the “Kettle of the Devil” waterfall in Ecuador. Its name is pronounced as “Pailón del Diablo” in Spanish. Its falling height varies from 80 to 90 meters according to different sources. It is located on the Rio Verde river, approximately 14 kilometers away from the city of Baños.

It was a wonderful trip! Why didn’t we do this earlier when we were 50 kilometers closer to the waterfall?! Perhaps we’ve become a bit lazy or tired lately.

However, we have big goals and, consequently, great motivation. Plus, it’s very difficult for us to sit still—constantly immersed in work and endless tasks and thoughts. Such trips, even when we don’t feel like it, turn out to be very beneficial for clearing our minds and resetting. Now, let’s get into more details…

In the morning, we woke up with a strong reluctance to go anywhere, not wanting to do anything. Thankfully, yesterday, we had told Alex that we wanted to stay a couple of extra days to visit the waterfall.

He had already agreed to it without hesitation, but today those words served as motivation for us to take action.

Besides, we had already packed up yesterday and even prepared some food to take with us. All that was left was to scrounge up at least 4 dollars in cash to pay for the entrance fee.

Our friends from Rostov, who live in Baños, couldn’t help us with this since they had already bought food for the week ahead.

However, Alex and Pao, the people we are staying with in Ambato, were just about to go to the supermarket, and everything worked out well. We paid for their groceries, and we had a bit of cash on hand.

Ambato – Baños – Rio Verde

Alex drove us to the highway, and after a while, a yellow taxi pulled over, carrying a family from the Galapagos Islands: Alex, Ariela, and their little daughter Isabella. They live and work in Quito and were headed to Baños for the weekend. They agreed to give us a free ride, and we spent the journey enjoying a pleasant conversation.

No one stopped on the way to “Pailón del Diablo” waterfall, and we reached it by taking an intercity bus for one dollar per person. A regular bus from Baños to the waterfall costs exactly half as much.

The waterfall is located in the town of “Rio Verde” (which translates to “Green River” in Spanish), and at one of the intersections, before the bridge, there’s a man shouting to all passing tourists in cars that the way to the waterfall is across the bridge. So, we trusted him and crossed the bridge.

Two Paths

The thing is, there are two roads leading to the waterfall, each with its own separate entrance fee.

One road is shorter and takes you to the top of the waterfall, while the other is longer and goes through the jungle and caves from below. Both routes bring you up close to the powerful stream of the waterfall, but they do not connect, and you can’t switch from one to the other.

It seems that there are roughly the same number of tourists on both routes. We chose the second route, the longer one through the jungle, which is the one you reach by crossing the bridge.

Usually, tourists visit the waterfall from both sides, but this time, we didn’t have that much time, and cash was limited.

You have to walk along a trail for half the way to reach the ticket booth. The entrance fee is 2 dollars for adults and half that for children.

The entrance to the waterfall from the other side, according to information on the official website, is slightly more expensive at 2.5 dollars.

Then the trail leads to numerous observation platforms…

and then, through a narrow path inside a cave where you have to almost crawl on all fours.

But the cave takes you directly to the stream, where you can walk under it and stand beneath the rushing water. You get completely soaked in a matter of seconds, but it’s absolutely worth it. It’s better, of course, to wear a raincoat. This time we were prepared but decided not to wear it. Why? Well, just to look better on camera, as we were trying to capture everything. Please subscribe to our YouTube channel; maybe we’ll upload this video soon.

Silliness

It was a shame that we couldn’t go back up the second trail.

Who came up with such foolishness? Iguazu Falls, Niagara Falls, and Victoria Falls, you can still understand because they separate countries, but in this case, what’s there to separate? They should have created one park, charged twice the price, and shared the profits. But as it is, it’s really inconvenient.

Back to Ambato

On the way back to the exit, we encountered a girls’ sports team for some reason, and they all wanted to take photos with us. It was fun, but a bit awkward, as they were saying many hurtful and silly things about us, probably without realizing the impact of their words.

At the park’s exit, there was a bus to Baños, and this time we only paid 1 dollar for the two of us.

On the way between Baños and the Pailón del Diablo waterfall, there are numerous other waterfalls with observation platforms right along the road. So, if you’re traveling by car, you have the opportunity to see all these waterfalls and the beautiful Rio Pastaza valley from the road.

On the way back, we once again couldn’t flag down anyone and took the bus heading to Quito. But this time, the conductor didn’t charge us more than the usual fare, and we paid only 2.5 dollars for the two of us to get back to Ambato.

When we returned to Ambato, it was already dark, and we had to walk 3.5 kilometers to Alex and Pao’s house. At times, it was a bit challenging, but we made it safely. They had other guests over, and we had a great evening together.