A Dip in Baños

Day 107 (October 13, 2018) – Baños, Ecuador

We were in Baños for four days and for three of them we did the exact same thing every day. Wake up, go into town for breakfast, spend the morning catching up on the blog or planning future travels, grab lunch, and then head to the Termas de la Virgen, the local thermal pools, for the rest of the afternoon. Baños, set in an almost tropical valley between Andean mountains, is known for being a hub for every adventure sport imaginable. However, we forwent all the adventure and instead decided to spend our time relaxing and luxuriating.

The older set of thermal pools, right at the base of the waterfall.

We stayed at a surprisingly nice hostel called Hostal Chimenea, which was maybe 100 paces from the entrance to the town’s thermal pools. There are actually two sets of baths, the old ones and the new ones. We went to the older ones first. Set at the base of a waterfall, the frigid water from the falls is collected and diverted into a numbingly cold pool. Similarly, hot water, heated from the volcano just behind the town, is sent toward a comfortably warm pool and a super-hot pool. The water is brownish in color and a bit smelly, but that's to be expected from a natural hot spring. Donning the mandatory shower cap (for which Travis was allowed to exclude himself from this rule), I found at first that the hot pool was too hot and the cold pool was too cold, so my strategy was to alternate between the two pool after spending about 5 minutes in each. It worked out perfectly. I could have spent hours there and, indeed, we did just that.

The newer thermal pool complex, complete with water slides and multiple pools. This was also a perfect place to watch the sunset from.

We also visited the newer facility, which by comparison feels a bit like a small water park. The same waters are pumped into brand new pools. The facilities are incredibly nice. There is even a wave pool and a few waters slides. We indulged in both, but much preferred relaxing in the hot water. There is even a steam room and a sauna. The sauna was so hot that when I first opened the door the scalding hot eucalyptus-scented steam came billowing out onto me and I immediately had to close the door and run away. I did ultimately manage to spend about a total of about 5 seconds in the sauna with the door closed before feeling like a steamed tamale being cooked alive and having to flee. I don’t know how anyone could survive in there or even find it enjoyable. I went back to the cool water pool to recuperate from the incident. 

One of the parks in town.

Outside of the hot springs, Baños was an enjoyable town to walk around. It’s small and compact. It’s also full of tourists and backpackers, but that also meant that there were some really phenomenal restaurants and craft beer bars. The scenery is also beautiful with green mountains all around and the waterfall that feeds the thermal baths being visible from anywhere in town. We could have spent longer, but we were feeling plenty relaxed by the time we had to leave. It was the perfect spot to enjoy right after our strenuous hiking adventure back in Quilotoa.