Baños...that still means bathroom right??

View from the bus on the way to Baños

Waterfall view from our hostel terrace

Although we had been hoping for colder climates, the thought of a town full of hot springs was also very appealing after a few days in our chilly mountain retreat. So, we headed out to the highway with our packs to flag down a bus on its way to Baños. Now, we were always taught that baños meant the toilet, but we learned here that people also use it when talking about bathing or hot springs. The town Baños is known for its various hot springs, and has become somewhat of a mountain spa retreat. You can get basically any spa treatment from almost every hotel or hostel, and there are four different hot springs around town to enjoy. So, we flagged down the big, yellow Baños bus on the Pan-American Highway and three hours later we found ourselves surrounded by lush green mountains at the base of another volcano, called Tungurahua. The hostel where we stayed was located fairly close to one of the main waterfalls in town as well as one of the most popular hot springs.

Not my picture (thanks i-net), but a good view of the pools!

 After checking out the downtown eateries our first day, we decided we wouldn't waste any time by heading to our first hot springs in the evening. The Piscinas de la Virgen are located right under a waterfall, and include multiple pools of different temperatures. Luke was still feeling pretty burned, and shedding skin like it was his job, so he stuck to the bathwater-temp pool for most of the night. Kyra and I designed a system where we started in the lukewarm pool, cooled ourselves off under the frigid waterfall water for a few rounds, then headed to the hottest pool, which reaches a whopping 48 degrees Celsius, or around 118 degrees Fahrenheit. They don't lie when they say hot springs...it was hot! At first we could barely get in, and wondered how all the old Ecuadorians had been sitting in there for so long. Eventually we committed to the numb, burning feeling of our skin and just went for it. Luckily they had a small, very cold pool next to the hot one. So, when you got to the point of feeling like you might pass out, you could go take a refreshing dunk. As one older Ecuadorian gentleman explained to me, you MUST go all the way under in the cold pool otherwise you don't get the full benefits of the hot or the cold. Everyone seemed to have their own ideas about how it should be done. I was also told by some Europeans that you are supposed to stay completely still in each pool because the hot feels less hot and the cold feels less cold. I'm not sure if there's a ¨right¨ way, but we figured out what worked for us and had a great time switching from pool to pool.

Log-what?! LOGGERS! At the viewpoint...

Some good lookin' caballos on the trail

Aside from being a spa location, Baños is also a jump-off town for many hikes, mountain bike routes,
and other adventure sports. We didn't have a lot of time to take advantage of these things, but we did manage to go on a great hike up to see a few points of interest. First we walked up to a viewpoint over the city called Bellavista. On our way we saw both the police force and a group of kids in uniform, obviously in gym class. What a workout for school gym! From the viewpoint we headed up a jungle-like trail toward the little town of RunTun. There wasn't much to see there, but it was a good place to buy some water.                  



From RunTun we headed back downhill, and stopped at the luxury resort Luna Runtun to scope it out. It is definitely a hotel with a view! Then we traversed our way over to a statue of the Virgin Mary. Made out of marble, the statue looks over the town from the hillside. What we had decided was going to be a short hike had rapidly turned into an all day affair, so we headed down the hundreds of stairs from the statue back into town to make some lunch! After sitting in buses and lounging on the beach, it was nice to get out and move around.

View from Luna Runtun, not too shabby!

Statue of the Virgin Mary

Emily wanted to join us for pie!

Because Baños is such a tourist destination, there are no shortages of good restaurants or places to shop. We tried out quite a few of the restaurants, having food including Swiss fare, French fondue, as well as some Ecuadorian delights. However, one of our favorite finds was a little shop called D'vine Pies. This coffee/pie shop is owned by a Minnesotan! We haven't been able to find good pie since we got to South America, so it was great to have a little treat from the homeland! Minnesota pride goes a long way, apparently. As we were sitting at a restaurant for dinner, the owner walked by in a MN Twins jersey. When he realized who we were through the window he came back, holding his shirt up, grinning. We never saw him without a MN shirt on.

Artisan market

A real rasta puppy!

When we weren't eating or hiking, we spent our time shopping for things around town. Baños is known for its taffy, which you can see being stretched and molded on wooden pegs in the doorways of all the candy shops. Most of them even give you samples of the warm taffy when you walk by! We also shopped around to find the perfect ¨Cuzco pants¨ (I'll post pictures later, but you see them everywhere!) and gifts for Luke's family. Time flew by before we had to head back to Guayaquil (meh) for Luke to catch his flight back to the states.   

Our ride back to Guayaquil?