Baths in Banos

Anthea | May 11, 2023, 2:17 a.m. | USA

An aside about public baths: 

I love public baths. I've loved every kind I've ever visited. I loved Kings spa korean bath on the edge of Chicago with its cafeteria and Korean television infomercials in the strangely pseudoscientific pyramid-shaped rooms filled with hot clay balls, and the enormous bathing area. I loved the small womens bath in the capsule hotel I stayed at in Tokyo possibly most of all, scrubbing up on the stool, soaking, scrubbing again. I loved the baths in Istanbul, with the hot steam and the women scrubbing all the dead skin of customers laying on an enormous center with the sun shining through a half-moon skylight onto the amazing tile work. I'll be honest, I didn't love the baths in Hoh national rainforest as much, I remember them being full of a LOT of dead skin, but I did love the scrub jays we got to feed, and being with family, and the insane nature all around the baths. I have a similar sense about the baths in Joshua Tree, which I remember being less beautiful and more "fun" and company, because I was with my sister Brittany and my mom and we all had been sweating in the desert while camping right before showing up, so the baths were an unexpected treat and fancy comfort. I've been very very lucky to see so many different baths, and now I can add Banos to the list. It's a different type than the others, but definitely more a mineral hot spring-type bath. 

Banos:

First let me say that Banos in general was incredibly beautiful in a way where the nature is right there, right up against the city with the mountains and hills all around. It felt like a mountain village, and while it was certainly curated and definitely with tourists in mind, it also had farms nearby, and families with their children who lived in the area (probably wealthier) but it managed to be very quant for lack of a better word, despite the tourism aspect. And public parks weren't this backpacker-filled place, so much as families wandering around. Similarly, the public baths had a majority of Ecuadorian tourists from nearby towns, and then a few other clearly international tourists littered in among as the minority. I mention this mostly because one of the things I really enjoyed was seeing people with their families, their kids, babies in hot baths with beat red little faces, men sitting with just their feet in while they cool down, people splashing the hot water on exposed body parts to get just the right temperature, ect.  just relaxing after what I imagine might be a long day of work. It's definitely partly true that I do the thing that all tourists do, where we don't want to deal with other tourists. To think how the locals must feel. But part of it is that I feel like one of the joys of the pubic baths is the community that people seem to find there, old women sitting together right next to the hottest part of the bath, people laughing as someone gasps while sinking into the hot water, or making eye contact and laughing as they get into the really cold water pool that makes you almost dizzy when you switch between the two (this was one of my favorite things to do). I had a pinched nerve during this part of the trip, something that happens from time to time in my shoulder and neck, and it was truly a very nice thing to be able to relax in the hot water.

You have to have a swim cap, which you can buy for about a dollar on the walk over at nearby stands. You also need a bathing suit obviously and sandals, and then when you get through the turnstile, you grab a blue bin and dump your things in and drop it at the box area where someone gives you a number on a bracelet. Then you shower off, and there are a number of different large pools scattered around with different temperature water. The water is definitely not clean, though it helps people wear the caps, and especially if you go when it's busy or later in the day when the water is dirtier despite being constantly replenished by a cute frog character that bubbles into the hot swimming pools. Anyhow, very dirty. The minerals would make the water brownish and mineral smelling, more metallic than sulfur like some baths can be.  We went to the cheaper public bath, 4 dollars entrance, but there are probably nicer ones nearby that are about 25 and look over the whole valley. Actually, we originally planned to splurge on one of those, but one night we went to the close neighborhood one near our hostel because it was a very short walk and so cheap we thought we'd do both. Then we went back to that same one 2 more times because we loved the general group vibe, all the people, the different pools to choose from, the view of the city and mountains all around you, ect. It's right next to a waterfall (The Cabellara de la Virgin Waterfall) and a group of fountains with water that I think s supposed to be drunk as a healing sort of thing from the virgin mary statue nearby. The water is heated from the volcano nearby, and as you sit in it, the waterfall coming down the mountain is literally so close you could throw a rock over the balcony at it.

Some details just for the sake of memory:

We stayed at a great hostel, expensive probably, as was the food in the cafe below, but VERY cute, with a very nice balcony to hang out on, and the food was VERY good. It was also super nicely located, and Banos is so small you can walk anywhere. It was called Cafe Hood and cost 33$ a night. A meal there was around 8 dollars, but you could get something for as little as 2-4 dollars. The bath we visited was called Termas de la Virgen.