Our Trip to Papallacta...truly beautiful

Last weekend, Alex, Oscar, Mateo and myself embarked on a little adventure. Mateo Ponce is a friend that loves to travel, and he had this spot picked out. We left on a Sat. afternoon and I knew it was going to be a good trip because right when we left there was a rainbow...a little sign that God wanted to us to go...at least that's how I interpreted it.

The roads were windy, curvy and full of Ecuadorian life. I took a lot of pictures, but only a few turned out alright.

After two hours of listening to Ecuadorian music, watching Mateo snap along to the South American beat, we arrived at Papallacta. Papallacta for those who don't know, and I'm assuming it's a vast majority, is a resort known for its natural hot springs. The water is heated by near by volcanoes and then cold water is mixed in to control the temperature. It truly is a beautiful place. It was here that I experienced a little bit of my first comfort down here. I'm not sure if it was the hot water (though I'm 98% sure that it was), but I just felt better. There's just something about relaxing in a hot pool that just makes you feel great.

The highlight of the trip

There are several pools at this little resort with varying temperatures. There is a river that runs by the resort that is made of mostly melted snow from the Andes mountains. Some genius decided to fill up a small pool with this icy water. I'm not sure if it's a tradition of what, but Mateo just said the words (good thing he speaks both English and Spanish) and all 4 of us were standing outside of this 40 degree water. There was a moment of hesitation, one of those, 'Really? Do I really want to do this?' But after seeing Alex and Oscar jump in I didn't really have much of a choice. I jumped in and my body screamed at me about how bad of an idea that was. I quickly jumped out and hopped back into the 110 degree water...which wasn't the best idea either. I was cussing like crazy, and so was Mateo, but Mateo caught a little something that he shared with me a little later. During this highlight, I was cussing in Spanish and this native Ecuadorian was cussing in English. "Beautiful," he said with his Latin American accent, "Truly beautiful."