Papallacta

$2 and a smile got us to Papallacta, a little town about two bus hours from Quito. It's technically in the jungle region, but wasn't so jungly as to need Malaria medicine. Papallacta is famous for the natural hot springs, and I think it should be famous for beautiful landscape and baby cows with muzzles. (See my photobucket album for clarification)

We hopped off the bus and followed the pointing fingers of friendly Papallactans up a hill toward what we thought would be lodging. We (Laura and Anyel and I) were ecstatic to finally be traveling on our own, and especially to be out of the city. The air was crisp and fresh, and we decided it smelled like a mix of fresh hay and post-rain mist. We had no idea where we were going or what we were looking for, but we giggled at the thought of the adventure ahead. After huffing and puffing up the hill for a half hour, pausing for photos of greenery and wildlife, we heard a truck coming up the road. It turned out to be 5 other girls from our group who had decided to venture west as well... they already had a room in a hostel, and one of the owners was giving them a ride up to the hot springs. Fortuitous. We hopped in the back and headed for the water!

It turned out to be a very established/posh hot spring, and rooms at the resort started at about $130. We found out the hostel at the bottom of the hill, right where we dismounted the bus, was $10 a night and included breakfast. We decided to skip the extra comfort of $120 and just swim at the resort. We soaked for about an hour, and then went exploring around the resort. We found some neat showers outside, took ridiculous and inappropriate photos, and then returned to soak. We were pretty pruney after another 30 minutes and decided to look for food. We ate PASTA (I've been craving pasta like nobody's business) at a different hotel restaurant, and then caught the same truck back down to the hostel.

I found a nice bug in my bed and it was quite cold for the first few hours of sleep, but other than that the hostel was perfect. We woke up early to walk around the town--definitely worth setting the alarm. We made friends with a precious little puppy that followed us for the entire 2+ hour walk, I saw my first live turkey, we stumbled upon a man killing a very large pig with an axe, took lots of great pictures (not of the pig slaughter), and got some good up and downhill exercise. We walked back to wait for the bus, completely satisfied and wanting to return to the springs. While on our walk, we discovered another pool, much less fancy but with a $2 entrance fee... we're definitely coming back, and we think we can do the whole thing for under $20. Awesome.