Thermal day in Piedra de Agua in Baños

Today is my birthday and we have decided to spend it at Piedra de Agua, a day spa in the city of Baños.

It's about 7km away from Cuenca and because of its natural hot springs, has a few thermal retreats.

We picked the fanciest and got an amazing deal thanks to the fact that it's a weekday .

The place has a few nice outdoor pools, sauna, steam rooms. But they are famous for their more private subterraneans pools. It's a circuit, they guide through various treatments.
First we arrive and are left soaking in a warm outdoor pool for an hour before our circuit starts.

Underground it's dark with candlelight and there are only 4 persons at a time in this part of the retreat and never in the same pools. You stay about 15min in the station.

Our first pool is red colored and we are given red volcanic mud to scrub on our skin, then we soak into the bath. The second pool is light grey, and this time its clay that we apply on our skins.

The third stop are hot and cold pools and you have to alternate to stimulate blood circulation.
After soaking for so long, I was happy that the following stops were individual enclosed chairs (cabin like with your head sticking out ) which are like mini sauna blowing eucalyptus sented steam.

The final stop underground is the shower. Here you get two final treatments. First salt that you tap on your skin and immediately rinse off and then coffee ground that you gentle scrub.
The entire tour takes between 1h30 and 2h and we didn't see time go by. It also includes a drink that you can take while underground, on a floating thing in the outdoor pool or at the restaurant.

We had our bubbly with a meal at the restaurant, it was 1pm and we were starving. Our massage was scheduled for 2 pm, so we had plenty of time for our meal and then another quick soak in the hot pools.

The massage was nice and relaxing, it's just an hour so it felt like not enough.

We stayed a little longer soaking the sun on lounge chairs after we had done all our treatments before deciding to leave.

On a week day, this was a great time - the place was quite empty and it was very quiet. I also like that you can just open a tab with reception and order what you want at the restaurant. You pay at check out.

The restaurant has a small menu, every main dish around USD15, sandwiches and other mains were between  USD 7-10.

It was an enjoyable day outside.