Touring Baños
Cake & coffee overlooking Banos at Luna Runtun's Cafe in the Sky
Painted and polished Baños and the beauty of the surrounding mountains attracts both domestic and foreign tourists. The public volcanic baths, beautiful church and 300ft waterfall were the town’s historic draws. Today it is filled with hotels, cute restaurants, businesses offering various adventure tours, and candy making storefronts. We enjoyed the relaxed and safe atmosphere and the many vegetarian possibilities in the tourist restaurants. In the afternoon, after doing laundry and having a leisurely lunch we did a bike ride up a steep mountain road (happily without panniers) to try to get a view of the volcano Tungurahua, which was hidden behind the smaller mountains looming over the town. Unfortunately the volcano remained hidden in clouds this day, but we had wonderful coffee and cake at the exclusive Luna Runtun resort where we enjoyed overlooks of the town and countryside. Later that evening back in Baños, as we waited for a table to open up at the popular El Jardin restaurant, we were surprised by Romy and Tomas, the German honeymooning couple we had met several days before in Chaupi. They invited us to share their table with them. After great conversation and food, I was beginning to feel like Ecuador was a small place where one might meet old friends on a night on the town.
