Our first destination on our new set of travels was the beautiful town of Baños. The town is surrounded by towering mountains (volcanoes) and waterfalls. A beautiful setting. We were there for four days and spent most of those days walking through the mountains exploring the waterfalls. The first day we walked up, up, up the top of a steam mountain through lots of farms to reach the summit which provided us the perfect view of the active volcano that threatens the town of Baños with another outburst. In November 1999 the volcano erupted resulting in the town evacuating for over 3 months. Ever since the town has been on red alert, in actual fact the road we walked up had only been built 4 months ago as an easy getaway route for the towns inhabitants. The second day our plan was to walk along a different path in the mountains to pass a few more farms and waterfalls and the end of the path was to meet a small cable car that would take us over the top of a waterfall. Unfortunately Aidan's normally good sense of direction didn't provide us with any luck on this day. The walk was still lovely but a lot steeper than intended which was a little rough on our poor legs that were getting over the aches and pains gained from the previous day's steep hike. Day three in Baños Aidan hired himself a mountain bike to ride down the road around 16km to the waterfall town of Rio Verde. I opted for the lazier option the bus. In Rio Verde we walked through some beautiful green lush mountain scenery to reach some lookout points for the awesome waterfalls. At the lookout point we were warmly greeted by a log cafe built into the side of the rockface overlooking the waterfall and swinging bridge. Seeing though this was our semi lazy day we treated ourselves to lunch. Good decision too because the meal we had was exceptional with loads of fresh vegetables (just what we needed after being at Jatun Sacha - food was okay but not exceptional). On our last morning in Baños we treated ourselves to a steam bath. The process is very interesting and takes around 40 minutes in total. We have our own little bathing wooden boxes which is basically a steam hot box. Sit in it for around 4 minutes and then come out and use cold water and a towel to wipe down our body. There is a particular way in which this is to be done to follow the correct circulation of the body. We then go back into the hot box and repeat this process about five times. On the second last time we sit in a small bath of really cold water which is splashed all over us while we massage our stomachs (helps release toxins). Then the last time out of the hot box we are sprayed with a jet spray of cold water. Really invigorating - loved it. On the road again to Riobamba