Baños de Agua Santa is the place where Ecuadorians go for therapy with thermal waters for example in case of soared muscles; exactly what I had after the extra kilometers needed to get to Sigchos.
As it names suggests, Baños is also a religious center and pilgrim destination, making it one of the most visited places in Ecuador. The town is located next to the active Tungurahua volcano, with several waterfalls in the area. All these has added adventure tourism to the already booming town.
The cathedral of Virgen de Agua Santa is the main church in the town.
The streets, specially in downtown Baños, are clean and safe for pedestrians. In general, I like the way most cities in Ecuador have renewed their streets to make them more "pedestrian friendly".
With some many visitors coming to town, there are many agencies offering all kinds of activities from horse riding, rafting, paragliding, and bungee jumping to yoga and massage. The competition is hard and this lowers prices.
Baños is known in Ecuador for a candy called Melcocha which is made from sugar cane is a manual process that is shown at the entrance to every candy shop.
The Pastaza river runs next to the city and its bridge, just a few steps away from the bus terminal is permanently used for "puenting", where mainly jung people jump from the bridge.
The main attraction in the city are of course the hot springs. They were also the reason for me to come to visit Baños.
All this good care plus a massage afterwards did its job, The next morning I was ready again for some new exercise and climbed to the Bellavista viewing point.
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