The first Baños is just outside Cuenca. We ended up following signs to a fancy new spa called Piedra de Agua. Rather than being an actual thermal spring, it had pools filled with volcanic water which they pumped from beneath the ground. It was a lot more expensive than any of the thermal baths we went to in Peru at $10pp, but it was a much fancier complex with nice toilets and showers, a steam room and lots of optional extras like massages.
Mid-soak, we got talking to another bather, Wilson, originally from Ecuador but who lives in the States and was back for Christmas with his family. He said he owned a plot of land nearby that had its own (free) source of volcanic water and he planned to include a pool of some sort in whatever he ended up building. How nice would that be?!
The next day we went to the more famous Baños that's a couple of hours south of Quito. We headed straight for the recommended thermal baths of El Salado that are 2.5km from the town itself.
There were lots of different pools of varying temperatures, but also lots of kids of varying levels of annoying. Plus babies who probably weren't wearing swimming nappies. And we all had to wear shower caps!
We ended up staying the night in Baños town - we'd been driving all day every day for the last 6 days, so it was a nice break. The town itself is quite touristy but pleasant enough. There are loads of stalls near the bus station selling sugar cane, sugar cane juice and sugar cane taffy (Baños has lots of sugar cane growing nearby).
Every time a busload of people emerged from the bus station, the women manning the stalls would all call out trying to attract customers! Before we left, we picked up some sugar cane that was already cut in to pieces, which you chew on and suck the sugary juice out of.
