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We took the early bus out of Quito so we arrived in Bańos by lunchtime. We booked in to a Hostel called Plantas y Blancas which had a really nice rooftop terrace and steam baths. Our room wasn't quite ready when we arrived but it didn't affect us too much as we wanted to head straight out for lunch. I wasn't quite sure what to make of Bańos as the only other times I had seen the word was when it was pointing to the toilet. Thankfully Bańos was a really pleasant town set in the valley of some lovely mountains. In the end of town where our hostel was we could see a waterfall running down off one of the mountains. We wandered around town looking for somewhere to eat and we were surprised to find it was very much a tourist driven towns with both foreigners and nationals flocking to the town with its main attraction being the hot baths. After lunch we went looking for a book exchange as Sue and I were making quick progress through our books thanks to the many hours we spend on buses. We stumbled upon a cafe called Casa Hood which had a wide variety of books to exchange but also showed afternoon movies. Sue and I went for a walk and made a couple of practical purchases before heading back to Casa Hood to watch 'Touching the Void' which is a story of two young Brits who went to Peru to climb an mountain leading to disastrous consequences. After watching the film we wandered along to Bańos hot baths which were open in to the night. Whilst it was a cultural experience mingling with the locals it was hard to enjoy being sandwich between 6 men in Speedos (for me anyway). After a brief period of time in the hot baths we got changed and went back to our favourite haunt for some dinner. After dinner we went back to our hostel where we enjoyed our roof terrace before retiring to bed. The following morning we had booked ourselves in for the steam baths which was quite an experience. We went in to the baths area where a man rapped a towel around our necks and made us sit in a huge wooden box with only our heads poking out whilst pumping it full of steam. After 10 minutes in the box we then had to use a giant flannel which was immersed in cold water to rub all over ourselves following his lead of the left leg first, then the right, then the right arm, then the left, then the chest and finally the back. After this period of washing hokey-cokey we then went back in to our box to repeat the process twice more. On the third repetition before being allowed back in the box we were made to sit in about 6inches of freezing water which the man then splashed all over us. It was back in to the box one last time before repeating the washing exercise before we were made to stand at one end of the room whilst he used a pressure hose on us not before pouring the whole bucket of freezing water over our heads. This was the final stage of the steam baths so we went back to our room to get changed and go to breakfast. Breakfast was included in the price of our room so we headed up to the terrace to have an omelette for the umpteenth time before heading to the bus station to catch a bus to Cuenca.
John
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