Baños is so called due to the hot springs and subsequent public baths all over this small and pretty town, surrounded by mountains and a volcano. There are also several massage spas, manicure and pedicure salons and a glorious chocolate shop selling rare 100% cocoa chocolate bars. I love dark chocolate but after trying the full strength stuff I’ll stick to 70-85% thanks.
There’s also a cool bar called the Leprachaun with a bonfire, welcome flaming shot, resident cats and good dance music. We had a great night dancing and making new friends with locals and tourists alike. Guide Johanna even got behind the bar for a stint to light up our welcome shots, unveiling a staff shirt she had kept hidden all through dinner at the Swiss restaurant where I ordered a salad and a starter tasting plate and got an army’s quota of food.
The proliferation of massage spas and pampering opportunities came into their own after our white water rafting trip on the Pastaza River went very, very wrong. Sitting at a 3+/4 grade river, we were just as surprised as everyone one else when we smacked into a giant boulder, courtesy of an apparently hungover guide instead of going around it like everyone else. It’s usually safe to assume you will survive a grade 2 rapid. We however, did not. The boat flipped, trapped four of us under it until we swam free, took the considerable length of the whole rapid and then some to get us back in, we lost two paddles and ended up on the other side of the river from everyone else. Everyone except one of our own, Stefan. He had to be pulled from the river where he had been face down and revived with CPR so he could give the river back all the water he had taken into his lungs and stomach after mildly concussing. Apparently he was a terrifying hypoxic blue colour when hauled onto the rocks and we are lucky another passenger was a paramedic and there was an access road nearby. A hospital visit, saline drip, the all clear that the lungs were clear, warming up from a core body temp of 34 degrees C and he has fully recovered if you don’t count the stomach bug he picked up the day after.
The rest of us wanted to get off that river as fast as we had flipped into it and weren’t very happy to have to go through a few more rapids before we could exit, including one you need to walk around it’s too rough. I also just about fell in again once we got going again and had I not had my ankle so wedged in under the side, I might have gone again. It’s been a little upset with me since then but a compression bandage is helping us be friends again. My neck and shoulders benefited from the afternoon massage as they had been pummeled by the upturned raft doing its best to keep me from sucking down air instead of water. All us girls who ended up in the drink had issues the next day being unable to go too far from toilet facilities as the river water made its way back out of us. It’s the river that just keeps on giving.
We are all fine now but I think it’s going to be a long time before I sign up for something like that again. Something I will try again is the ionic detox we had after our massages, it’s a plug for going vegetarian as Camille had a very mild result compared with us carnivores. Apparently I’m suffering from stress, fatigue and toxicity, particularly in the liver and lungs. I’d say the river is the one suffering toxicity and it likes to share. It has nothing to do with the cuba libres from the Leprachaun bar 😉
Canyoning the following morning was dropped in favour of staying near the toilets for Ivy, Camille and myself, with a short trip to the hot baths near the hotel just before noon. Two bucks gets you in, then you need 30 cents for the obligatory shower cap because we had flat out forgotten to bring our own, d’oh! It’s a little weird with everyone lounging around in plastic caps but I suppose makes it easier to clean the filter. Switching between the very hot 50 degrees C pool and refreshing showers of fresh waterfall water kept us occupied either side of trying the popular pool, crowded with children at a temperature reminiscent of old bath water. My legs were red for a good while after leaving, can you quarterise skin with hot water?
Ivy (on Bajo), Camille (on Mariachi) and I (on Tarzan) went horseriding in the afternoon with Jorge up and out of town to a vantage point to view the volcano completely shrouded in cloud. We did get to see the remains of previous eruptions, smell the sulphuric water and marvel at how I managed to snag my bra on the plastic-pipe-instead-of-a-pommel on the saddle. I was horrified when I heard it rip it almost all the way up the middle, felt myself fall out of it completely, saw it bring my shirt up to my chin and give Jorge a show he’ll hopefully soon forget and not tell scores of people about. After several spurts of trot and canter to reach that point I was grateful the return trip was far more subdued lest I complete the damage and knock myself out with a rogue su-su. The aftermath was very sore knees trying to push back during steeper parts of the long descent and mending my bra with mismatched thread on the public bus the following day. I don’t remember many raised eyebrows so perhaps that sort of thing happens all the time. Or I’ve just lost a goodly proportion of my observational awareness.
I rounded out the afternoon with a manicure before meeting Judith from the tour in Galapagos who also happened to be in Baños and then meeting the others to all have dinner together. It turned out Judith had been on a four day kayak trip in the jungle with our safety-kayak-photographer from the rafting trip, Diego. What are the odds huh?
