July 31, 2011

So as I finished up writing that last entry it started to rain and rained throughout the rest of the night. We decided to not go out. It gets really chilly when it rains. Portia and I worked on our charla stuff and I came home to eat. I then fell asleep before nine p.m. sad I know but I was really beat from the night before.

This morning I was up at 7:30 and got to skype with Hannah and Marshall, which was a nice surprise. I got my stuff together for Papallacta (hot springs) and walked to the restaurant for breakfast. We ate and then I went to the Santa Maria to meet up with Portia, Tom, Rebekah and Erika. The bus that we had to get on would drop us off kinda by the hot springs and then we were to walk to them. My parents warned me that it was about 5 km, quite a hike. The bus came after awhile and we got on. Luckily the guy on the bus told us when to get off otherwise we probably would have gone all the way to Baños! On our way there it was hailing at one point! Crazy right?!

We arrived at the stop and saw that there were trucks and cars acting as taxis to take people to the hot spring pools so we hopped in. So glad we did because it was a good 5-10 minute drive. It was really crazy being back at a place I had been just over two years ago. Nothing had really changed except there were tons of people there. We decided to grab some food first and then got in the pool. So warm! The scenery was so great. Natural hot springs in swimming pools surrounded by the Andes Mountains. The weather was perfect because it wasn’t too hot but not too cold. We took turns jumping in the freezing, and I mean FREEZING water then back in the hot hot pools!

Just as we were leaving it started to rain pretty heavily. We grabbed a truck back to the bus stop and waited what seemed like forever for a bus to come. Of course the one that came was full so we had to stand the whole way back to Tumbaco (1.5 hours). There is something about Ecuadorians not liking circulation so it was just a hot steamy bus of bodies. We got back to Tumbaco and I came home to eat. My sister was talking with the cake lady for the wedding. I really hope I can go!

Tomorrow we leave for Guayaquil bright and early. I have to be at the park at 5:50 AM. The bus will be around 9 hours…luckily I’ve stocked and charged my ipod and plan on sleeping! Lets hope these sex ed charlas go okay..

Hasta la próxima semana