Bathing in Banos

Banos is a little town at the base of Vulcan Tungurahua that had some recent activity directly before our arrival, which my mother felt the need to frantically warn me of before our departure with a 6:00 am phone call and a myriad of emails with the subject line “Alert!” However, we decided to ignore the warning and headed to Banos anyway.

I had heard of the wonders of Banos from other travelers and had read about it in Lonely Planet, which I had yet to learn was basically completely useless and so was still referencing, where they described Banos as some sort of Shangri-La. So, as I stepped off the bus, I felt a little disappointed because the town didn’t look like much. A small grid of semi-paved roads, shouting men trying to direct you to their hostel, little kids sitting on boxes in the street, women behind wooden stalls selling nuts, Doritos, candy and sliced mangos.

Keep in mind this was my first excursion outside of Quito so I also had yet to realize that this is how all the towns look. However, here we were after a 3 and ½ hour bus ride and so we started our walk to our hostel Plantas Y Blancos. Lonely Planet had written next to the name of the hostel (you figure it out!). I thought that perhaps the name meant it was also a cocaine processing plant, but it really just means the walls are white and they have plants everywhere.

We stayed in room 13, which despite being unluckily named, was very pleasant with a comfortable bed, private bathroom, small seating area, view of the basilica and access to the patio. They have an absolutely gorgeous upstairs terrace where you can order delicious breakfasts, and based on an honor system serve yourself coffee, tea, hot chocolate and beer all day long, and play any number of board games, or use the free wifi all while admiring the 360 degree view of green volcanoes and trickling waterfalls. We paid $9.50 per person for our room, but breakfast is not included. Luckily, Plantos Y Blancos makes up for the lack of cocaine by offering exhilarating steam baths for $2.50 each morning that are guaranteed to raise your heartbeat.

These steam baths are described as “steam bath, massage, and hydrotherapy jet massage.” This is how it really is: you get into your swimsuit, go up to the terrace where everyone is eating breakfast, knock on a wooden door where a nice Ecuadorian man brings you inside a small cement changing room. You hang up your towel, kick off your flip flops and let him lead you into a second, larger concrete room with four or five wooden and cement stalls.

He leads you into one of the stalls, wraps a washcloth around your neck, tells you to sit on the cement bench, and then closes a wooden gate in front of you and slides a wooden gate up around your neck so you are fully enclosed with your head popping out. It kind of looks like a medieval torture box and you almost expect peasants to come by and tickle your nose with feathers at any moment. Then it starts to fill with steam , but no need to panic as you can control the temperature with a metal lever by your butt, although it's honestly pretty much scalding the whole time.

After five minutes the bath attendant pulls you out and makes you do a ritual with ice cold water and a towel. You are supposed to completely mimic him as he rubs the towel up one leg and torso and arm, and then redips the towel and repeats on the other side. You then are led back into your box and you repeat the entire process, but then after you are chilled from the cold towel he makes you sit in a tub of ice water and rub your own stomach vigorously ( this is the massage aspect of the procedure). If you stop rubbing your stomach he will come over and make you rub it. When you are shivering with teeth chattering he comes back and splashes you for a few minutes. Meaning, he reaches his hand into your bath and actually splashes your face with the ice water while you try not to scream and/or run. You are led back into your box (thank God because by this time you are turning blue) to repeat the entire process again, but this time instead of the tub he pours a bucket of ice water over your head.

You are led back to the safety of your box to repeat the entire process yet again, but this time he makes you stand against a concrete wall and directs a very high pressurized hose at you, covering every inch of your body. It hurts! This is the hydrotherapy jet massage. The whole experience was really torturous, but for some reason we like to suffer and did it every day. You really do feel great afterward and I recommend trying it.

In Banos there are about 20 places offering go carts to rent. We finally rented one for $10 per hour and drove it on the highway which was TERRIFYING. Buses passing you and honking, stray dogs giving chase, dark endless tunnels with one lane. The highway is called Las Cascades because there are a bunch of waterfalls along the route.

After we made it to the end I let my boyfriend drive, which was a big mistake as far as I’m concerned. When I drove I hugged the right side of the road so buses wouldn’t run us over and could pass us easily. Well, my boyfriend hugged the yellow line down the middle of the road so everyone honked and whizzed inches from us. I was trying not to complain or scream the entire time he was driving. Finally he pulled over so he could do this really cool hike to Machay waterfall ($1 for access) while I sat at a restaurant with my cursed crutch and admired the view and watched the birds.

When we got back to the go cart we realized we had left the lights on and our battery was dead. We called the company and they sent two teenage boys to retrieve us. One of the boys had to sit in the go cart which was being dragged behind the van, secured by a thin rope, and steer. They were laughing and the boy was trying to steer himself alongside the van, completely unaware he was facing imminent death. Luckily, we all survived and the boys bought ice-cream so we considered it a success.

We had $25 hour-long Swedish stone massages at a place called Chakra, which were the best massages of our lives. And I have had many massages. Unfortunately, I chose to leave my underwear on and the woman said “permisso” and pulled them down around my ankles where they stayed for the duration of the massage. A black lace thong around the ankles gave an unwanted naughty girl vibe to the whole thing which was...unfortunate. But still, best massage of my life. When you go, just go sans underwear.

Our favorite place to eat there was Casa Hood which has decent portions of delicious food for around $5. They also have a fireplace, cheap guitars you can play, a library, and they play movies almost everyday at 4:30 pm.

On the main road in Banos you can find tons of people making toffee called melcocha against wooden poles with their bare hands. I can be a little hesitant to try things like that, and you probably are too, but try it. It’s really, really good, especially when it’s still hot from their sweaty hands. Gross, I know, but everyone does it so that makes it okay.

Banos has quite a few thermal baths, but we went to the hot baths outside of town called Piscina El Salado which were very quiet and relaxing. There are three pools, one really hot, one hot, and one warm like a heated swimming pool. It was $2 to get in and definitely worth it, although the pools are basic. They are really just rectangles cut into concrete that you jump into, so they aren’t lovely like the tiled Turkish baths in Eastern Europe or anything like that.

Banos is full of other travelers (although I mostly saw the young, athletic type there) so you can definitely meet other people if you want. They have other outdoor things that I couldn’t do because of my leg such as horseback riding, canyoning (which is repelling down waterfalls), rafting, mountain biking, swing jumping, etc. Another fun thing to do is to go to the zoo in Banos, or take the bus to Puyo and play with the monkeys. When we were in Banos it was kind of cold and damp and I was chilly most of the time. Bring a warm sweater and sweatpants for lounging around.