Baños: My kind of Town

Today was nearly perfect.  After the long ride yesterday, I was ready for a lazy day around town as I sorted out what my last three days in Ecuador would look like.  When I woke up this morning, while I couldn´t see outside, I didn´t need to. I cold hear the rain splashing on the roof outside my door.  I rolled over and figured a few more minutes of sleep wouldn´t hurt me if it was going to rain all day in Baños.  After a few more minutes (ok, an hour), I got up, took a shower and moved downstairs to have my breakfast (included with the room).  This is when the day started to brighten!  Yogurt homemade granola and fresh fruit.  Can´t go wrong with that.

The rain stopped and did a tour about town taking in the thermal baths, the water fall, and a neighborhood south of town.  With a quick decision, I hiked to see "The Virgin".  The town of Baños has a thing for the Virgin Mary.  Apparently some guy was falling to his death and prayed to her and lived.  From then on Baños has had a thing.  Baños is nestled (and I mean nestled) in a small valley.  It is surrounded by mountains.  Everywhere you look are mountains.  It is really gorgeous.  Someone decided to put a statue of Mary up on one of the mountains and it is a pretty popular, although difficult, climb out of town.  I went for it; while the statue itself is uninspired, the stairway up (with the Stations of the Cross cut into the rock) and the views from the top are remarkable.  Certainly worth the walk. 

I hiked back down, booked my jungle trip for tomorrow.  It is only a one day jungle trip and probably a bit contrived, but I will at least get to another part of the country.  I checked out the bus station to get a sense of times for buses to Quito on Saturday, and then took another hike down under a bridge to a river.  This is, again, a popular walk for locals and it was great and really beautiful.  I bought some taffy (area is known for sugar cane and taffy), and watched them pull it by hand.  Impressive to watch a taffy puller at work, I was just wishing their hands were a bit cleaner! After a quick lunch from a local street food vendor, I decided to end my day at the thermal baths, soaking in all the good minerals from the volcanically warmed water.  The baths are located directly under a waterfall which makes them nice to be at and some of the showers are fed by the cool waterfall water.  All in all a nice way to end the afternoon.

Since Baños is known for the healing thermal waters, spas have popped up all over the place!  Ending the day with a deep tissue massage seemed just perfect.  I found a spa, organized my 90 minute massage (for only $34) and was pretty psyched.  The massage therapist was a pro.  She was ready to dig in and really find those knots.  Let´s just say that she wasn´t shy and "draping" was more of a concept than a reality. Good thing I do not too embarass too easily; I was "exposed" for most of the time.  I am not sure there was any skin on my body that she didn´t touch.  If I could find someone like her in CT, and for the same price, I would be there every week.  She was great, if not a bit aggressive in her massage. So worth it!  Hoping I have time for another this week!

I took myself out for dinner and a good cup of coffee and I am ready for my jungle tour tomorrow.  Nearly a perfect day.  Nearly perfect, because the rain from the morning cleared up, the sun came out and it was some of the best best weather (besides the Galapagos), which only means that I got myself a bit sunburned.  I guess I will never learn!