We left Napo at some ungodly time on Friday morning, hit the canoes, the power boat and two buses to reach the town of Baños early evening.

The bus journeys revealed more of Ecuador's stunning landscapes, moving from the edge of the rainforest into the Andes. In particular the region around Baños with its soaring peaks, waterfalls and of course volcanos.

Also, I noticed that Ecuadorean men seem to be intent on keeping their women folk permanently bearing children, be that in their arms or in their wombs. I noticed very few exceptions. Women's lib has some way to go!

Baños de Santa Agua is known for being in the shadow of the constantly active Tungurahua volcano, and the resulting thermal baths. The baths are particularly well known thanks to the antics of the Virgin Mary, who it seems is constantly performing miracles in and around the town. She's good for tourism.

Our schedule only allowed one night and so we missed on the opportunity to sample the various mountain sports on offer. Instead the next morning we hit the thermal baths. The word "thermal" should be used with caution. They were barely warm. Plus the tatty pools were full of the older, ET-a-like, generation of locals. We didn't stay long.

We wandered around the very pleasant town and then hit the road to Riobamba.