Where the Amazon begins: high up in Ecuadoran Andes, thermal spas are becoming big business for corporate customers.

Wilson Coronel is testament to the benefits of the thermal springs in Papallacta, which have become an essential stop for business travellers and tourists visiting Ecuador's capital.

At first glance it is hard to believe he's 71, even less when you consider his energetic temperament and active lifestyle in the high Andean moor, or paramo, 90 minutes drive from Quito, where a single day can seem like the passing of four seasons: crisp mountain mornings; fierce sunshine around midday; and fall-like dusks, then harsh, cold nights.

"Swimming in the pools helped cure my arthritis. There's no doubting the quality of the mineral-rich and crystalline waters," he says.

Coronel owns a restaurant and hostel, now with its own hot spring pool, at a small crossroads on the highway east from Quito towards Ecuador's Amazon jungle. In the golden days of new world exploration, the trail was blazed by Francisco de Orellana in search of cinnamon, a colonial-era treasure. The Spaniard never found an El Dorado of spices, but he did stumble upon Ecuador's source of the Amazon River, following it across Brazil before sailing back to Spain and royal acclaim.

Today the road is still unpaved along many stretches, turning into a dirt track ending in a once-glaciated valley and Papallacta's renowned thermal springs resort. Coronel has witnessed Papallaeta's transformation, including the arrival of big, corporate resorts.

"Before the tourists started coming there were no facilities. People brought their own food. Until ten years ago there were the city pools down in the village and just two or three pools at the termas up the hill, which, just as they do today, would fill up with Sunday visitors," says Coronel. "I made my name offering good cheap food, good service and a shot of fuerte," a liquor made from sugar cane.

Papallacta grew in importance in the 1980s after Quito's municipal water company began pumping drinking water from a reservoir there, later building an aqueduct to satisfy half of the capital's thirst. But the village first made its mark in 1970, at the outset of Ecuador's oil industry development.

Texaco used it as a staging post along the 500-mile Sote pipeline, now in state hands, which links Amazonian oil fields to the Pacific. The private oil industry returned to Papallacta in 2001, setting up base to lay a $1.4 billion pipeline as it confronted a particularly tricky section of terrain, including passing over the Andes. It is several treacherous miles--as roadside memorials to traffic accidents pay mote testimony--to a small shrine, at 4,300 meters altitude, where the Virgin of the Paramo and passing cars hare a wind-swept view of water-falls, lakes and volcanoes.

Back at 3,100 meters, the Termas de Papallacta are the main attraction. Since 1993 its seven shareholders have steadily expanded the resort, building more pools, restaurants, cabins and rooms, and shifting their focus up-market. Total investment has topped US$2 million. The latest extension is a spa designed to cement its appeal to a more exclusive clientele. Amid the rustic wood and stone construction are blue and pink tiled mosaics and chrome hydro-massage jets.

"The termas business has grown significantly, but the new spa is not really for children and families. We're looking for executive-level customers," says Jaime Pallares, deputy manager. "Our slogan 'health, recreation and relaxation' appeals to business clients, who have little time but need an escape from work stress."

The International Monetary Fund and World Bank heads in Ecuador have stayed at Papallacta, while Nestle and Pfizer are among companies that, according to Pallares, frequently hire rooms and multimedia facilities for project launches and strategic planning. BellSouth, the mobile phone operator, booked an employee seminar at the resort. New ideas. General manager and shareholding partner Joaquin Zaldumbide expects the business and tourist market to continue growing. "We're changing the idea that Papallacta is just a stopover on the way to the [jungle] rather than a destination in its own right." Zaldumbide admits that the weather might be a problem. "This is a rainy mountain we're oil," he says. "There are days when you can't really hike the countryside [and river bank] walks." It is sunniest October through May, coldest in July and August, and snow has fallen twice since 1996.

On the other hand, the climate ensures the rich natural setting and beautiful backdrop to a soak in the open-air pools, shaped like golf bunkers among the intimate, lush gardens. Most visitors seem happy to steam in the volcano-fed waters despite the drizzle or even heavy rain, although a clear day guarantees more humming birds, dancing among the flowering shrubs, and glimpses of the majestic, snow-covered Antisana volcano.

Zaldumbide employs some 50 people, from the village and Quito, in addition to teams of armed security guards. Pallapacta also provides indirect work farming trout, in restaurants, and at other hotels and pools. Construction of a rival development has stalled because of financing problems. "The competition worried us at first, but it's a bad location, right beside the road," says Zaldumbide.

Last year, the resort sent representatives to the International Tourism Exchange, an international travel trade fair in Berlin, while this year it will take advantage of Latin America Travel Mart, a trade fair being held in Quito. It is developing an Internet presence, although more attention is paid to direct marketing to specific companies.

And, of course, a hearty, welcome from Wilson Coronel down the road from the resort, along with a shot of fuerte for good measure, always encourages a return trip.