Baños sits in a crack in the Andes with a volcano breathing down its neck, and that is the secret of its charm. The town, whose full name is Baños de Agua Santa, lies at roughly 1,800 metres where the Pastaza river leaves the highlands, with the cone of Tungurahua rising directly above. The name of the volcano means throat of fire in Kichwa. After a long eruption phase beginning in 1999, which forced people to evacuate for a time, the mountain has been alternately quiet and restless, and you should check the current status before you go.
People come for the hot springs, fed by the volcano's heat, and the waterfalls, and a reputation as the adventure capital of Ecuador. The basilica holds the Virgin of the Holy Water, credited by the locals with protection from the volcano, and the walls are covered with paintings of miracles. Sweet shops pull melcocha, a stretchy cane-sugar toffee, on hooks in the shop windows, and the smell of cooking sugar drifts down the main streets. At night, steam rises from the pools.
The ride out is the famous part. The road east follows the Pastaza gorge down through a string of tunnels and past waterfalls to the Amazon basin, dropping by roughly a kilometre of altitude, with hairpins, cliffs and ferny rock faces. The Pailón del Diablo, where a large cascade thunders into a narrow chasm, is the best known of the falls. Cyclists share the road on weekends, as do buses and lorries, so ride with your wits about you, and expect wet tarmac at almost any time of year.
Baños lies about twenty-seven kilometres from Ambato, the big city to the north-west, and Pelileo, a town of around sixteen thousand, is closer, but the town itself has fuel stations and the services of a place that lives on visitors: hostels, restaurants, motorbike rental shops. Weekends and holidays are packed, so arrive early or come midweek. Rain is likely in the afternoon, and the morning is the best time for the road. Try a plate of trout or a sugar-cane drink from the stalls.