I don’t quite understand the draw of Baῆos. Yes it is beautiful: the town is built right below the Andes mountains. But it’s so touristy that it looks fake and made up. Like the whole town was built just to accommodate tourism. It is known for hot springs, which was nice after a freezing day rappelling down waterfalls. All over the town one will find shops and tour agencies ranging from hiking, waterfall rappelling, biking, atv rentals, horseback riding….The good thing is that these activities are so much cheaper than anywhere else I’ve been. I rappelled down 4 waterfalls for $25 (good thing I didn’t pay the $90 for 1 waterfall in Costa Rica.) The rappelling was definitely the highlight of my stop here. I was with a group of 7 people, and a guide who refused to speak English when he found out that I know spanish. So he spoke to me in spanish, explaining the safety and proper way of rappelling, and I had to translate everything to the rest of my group!
The city of Baños:
RandomShutteredSky 
Same experience with the locals in Guayaquil, they stopped speaking English when they found out my Mexican and Ecuadorian team members can translate for me. Luckily, towards the end of the 2 weeks, they were forced back to English because the discussions became more technical and difficult to translate.
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