Baños is a bustling town built in a volcanic valley. The weather is nearly perfect year-round. The main business is tourism, and everything revolves around that income. Good restaurants, thermal pool spas, massage parlors, night clubs, a few parks and a beautiful church. The cathedral is the central point in town, as always.
And while there we explored some well-organized markets to buy fruit, veggies and basic supplies. There are also vendors selling hand-made wares from elsewhere in Ecuador. Not much is made locally.
We also stopped for a while to do laundry. It is such a simple process to drop off the laundry and wait for someone to wash, dry and fold it for us. A welcome break for chips and a soda or a quick dog-nap.
Baños has several beautiful parks. The large one near where we parked included fields, playground area and picnic area. There is even a statue honoring an Ecuadorian dog that helped with a huge rescue effort. And a nearby park bench with humorous dog artwork. (notice the green hills behind)
Another pretty park has a water fountain in the middle. This local street dog clearly has figured out the best use for the water fountain. Also notice how the climate supports the greenery!
We even found a couple of cute cats while we were in Baños! We don’t see a lot of cats along our journey. Check out these two kitties, hiding under a guardrail on the side of the road. 
We visited a friend from Arizona who was staying in Baños. It was fun to hang out, and she brought us a package of red licorice (we miss that special treat!) We enjoyed good food, good friends and good hot springs while in the Baños area. But, we didn’t take a lot of photos to share with you! So I will leave you with this one. And be sure to come along with us as we continue to explore this amazing country of Ecuador!
I was pleased and a little surprised to see the thoroughly modern roofed market. Very nice! And this latest earthquake made the news…they’re calling it the Jungle earthquake!