Apparently this past weekend was all about alliteracy as my clase de Andinismo went to the hot springs of Papallacta and then hiked up to the Puntas near the town of Quinche for our second class trip.
The adventure of my second Andinismo trip actually began hours before we left for the Termas de Papallacta (Papallacta hot springs). I packed the morning we left, and since I heard it would be cold, I crammed tons of warm clothes into a large backpack (thanks, Mom for letting me use your awesome backpack!). I barely fit through the door of the bus heading to the university from Quito and it was more crowded than usual. Fortunately, one of the bus dudes let me put my HUMONGOUS backpack up front and let me sit by it.
As soon as I got to USFQ, I headed to the study abroad offices to ditch my camper-sized bag for awhile. I haven’t tested it, but I’m pretty sure I could fit at least two people in it. I guess that would be good to know if I ever want someone to smuggle me on a trip with them.
Anyway, since we would be camping for two nights, after class Megan and I headed into La Mariscal of Quito to the outdoor gear store Los Alpes to rent some sleeping bags, mats, harnesses, belay clips, and ochos for a bunch of us. The guy wanted a credit card as a deposit, but we struck a deal to leave a Censo card (my card that says I’m legal in this country) instead.
So we headed out hauling our goodies and crammed into the Ecovia bus which was quite packed as usual. Still we were able to watch each other’s backs and we made it back to the university without too many problems!
After we dropped off our newly acquired gear (which wasn’t so new, but definitely in good condition and quality), Megan and I hit up the SuperMaxi (a local supermarket) for food for our trip. We stocked up on almonds, peanuts, raisins, granola bars, bread, queso, and tuna in a bag. Mmmmmmm.
Then at 3 pm (ish) our whole class met up with our professors Diego and Ramiro at USFQ to roll out. We had planned on taking cars, but one was broken, so we headed to the bus stop where we caught a bus heading toward Papallacta.
After about 2 hours on the bus, we arrived at Papallacta and hiked up a decent hill towards the hot springs. The hike was a bit difficult with all our clothes, sleeping bags, tents, food, etc., but there was definitely plenty of pretty scenery. There were forests all around, and it seemed as if there was some military training camp or something nearby because all these runners dressed in camo-ish gear (not full out camo, but their shorts would sometimes be green…I don’t know how to better describe it) kept running by. I felt very slow compared to them, but there was some consolation that we were going uphill with lots of stuff while they were running downhill.
Pedro, Stacey, Ramiro, and Marisco by the hot springs...you can barely see the water through the steam, but it's there!
Anyway, after a short hike (well, it felt shorter the next morning when we hiked back DOWN), we arrived at the Papallacta hot springs! I had no idea what to expect, but it basically was a pool with LOTS of steam coming out of it. It turns out that the pool is heated by the local volcano. How cool is that? Er, how hot is that?
So we pitched our tents in a nearby field that didn’t look like the cows could get to. Megan’s host family had a tent so we didn’t have to borrow one. We’re not sure if it was a two or three person tent, but we managed to cram Peter, Megan, and me in it. More on that later.
So after pitching tents in the fading daylight, we changed into our swimsuits and hit up the pool! It was about the temperature of a hot tub, and since the evening and night air of the Andes is quite chilly, it felt amazing. We managed to swim/hang out in the pool for about 4 hours. Note to self: a bread, cheese, and bag tuna fish sandwich is DELICIOUS. Especially when you’re starving.
Believe it or not, we fit three of us in this tent, needless to say, we didn't move around much
We finally decided it was time to head to bed, however, there wasn’t enough room in our tent for all of us and our gear. Fortunately, Matt, another kid in our class, had spread out his rainfly, so we stashed our stuff under it.
Even though the hot springs were obviously hot, the night was VERY cold. It didn’t help that our rain fly was more of a rain hat and only covered a very small portion of the tent. Haha, so every time I bumped the sides, water would rain down. Needless to say, we were ready to get moving in the morning.
The next morning we feasted on granola bars, bread, and whatever food we had brough. Pedro supplied peanut butter and jelly tortillas, Matt supplied Nutella, and the rest of us had a bunch of bread. One thing I love about camping is that all food tastes AMAZING. Well, ok, peanut butter, jelly, and Nutella are all amazing anyway, but camping just amplifies their amazing qualities.
So we packed up all our stuff and hiked back down to the bus stop, which was a significantly easier hike than the way up. I think I’m beginning to believe this whole gravity theory!
So we chilled at the bus stop for awhile, waiting for a bus that would take us to closer to Quito. The road was pretty empty except for random trucks, but finally a bus heading back from Baños came by. Since the trip to Baños is pretty far, there was a compartment under the bus where we could stash all our gear. Then we hopped on the bus, and I took an extremely wonderful nap.
After a little over an hour of a nice warm ride, we got off at some random bus stop (well, Diego knew what it was, but to me it was random). We got all our gear (which was no small feat) and headed to another bus stop where we caught a bus to Yaruquí, the town I volunteer at the hospital in.
Once in Yaruquí, we hiked to a railroad bridge that stretched high above a ravine. It was a really cool site, and the old tracks rain through a tunnel on the other side of the bridge. As far as I know, no trains ran on it anymore. Haha, don’t worry, the track were so old I’m pretty sure a train would be forced to a screeching halt before it reached us on the bridge.
Our plan was to repel a bit off the bridge and then climb back up. However, a thunderstorm was rapidly approaching as we stood on the bridge as prime targets. So Matt repelled and climbed quickly, and then we all high-tailed it out of there before the nasty-looking storm broke.
Preparing to repel...the sunny weather is deceiving
Just as we headed off the bridge it started to spit, as in rain lightly. I don’t know if that’s a Beairdism or not. Oh well. So we hopped on another bus, which is not as easy as hopping with all our stuff. We finally ended up at a small house on a beautiful sunflower plantation which Diego’s family owns.
So right before it began to storm, we pitched our tents in his backyard and then headed into the house. We made a fire in the fireplace, which I guess is the logical place to build a fire, much better, than, say, the bathtub. Then Diego and Ramiro told us scary thunderstorm stories. I was very glad I was not standing at the top of a mountain ridge by the time he was done with his stories. I also learned that long hair can be an advantage because if it starts to stand straight up, it means you’re about to be struck by lightning and should probably do something, like hit the deck.
We were starting to go a bit crazy in the house, so when the rain let up a bit we walked into town for food for dinner. We went to an open-air market which was just closing up to buy veggies, and then went to some other stores to get bread, stuff to make tortillas, and meat. We also stocked up on water and food for our hike the next day.
Hanging with some kids outside one of the stores
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