locked out

I just got back from a great weekend of hiking and hot springs in papallacta. I was greatly looking forward to getting home early, having time to do my laundry before it got dark, and read a bit. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my house key with me this weekend, and as it is sunday, my family is up at the farm, and likely to not be back until 8 pm. Because of this I am chillin at an Internet cafe in Tena, with all my shit, passing the time doing nothing in particular.

anyway, back to this weekend...

Heidi and I left Tena friday afternoon around 4pm and got into papallacta around 7:30. Natalie came in from Quito around 8, and katie joined us around midnight after some slight bus confusion. Spent most of the night in the hostel hot springs and the rest making, and tending a fire. We got an upgrade on our room the first night since our original was not ready. This meant we got a fireplace. I loved having the chance to build a fire. It reminded me of being home. Having a fire was also very welcome because papallacta is freakin freezin.

Saturday was the day of our big hike. I have hiked in papallacta's nature reserve three time before, but have never gone past the first lagoons, which are about and hour to hour and a half hike in. This time we hike three and a half hours in. This hike is at very high altitude and with a lot of steep ascents along the way. This means it was rather exhausting. The hike brought us to a set of three lagoons and later a very large gorgeous lagoon. At this particular one we decided to stop and debate whether to chance it and continue to the next ranger station or to turn back. After a cheese, cracker, and cookie lunch we decided to turn back just to be sure we would ge4t out of the park before dark, because we did not know exactly how farm the station was. It rained the entire way back. We were soon soaked to the bone and freezing. Despite this we got very giggly from either exhaustion or the sheer lunacy of our situation. We booked it back and, because it was mostly decent, made back in an hour and a half. At the station we got a guy to drive us back to our hostel in his truck. We all hunkered down and squeezed together for warmth in the bed of pick up. He didn't charge us anything for the ride, and we ere changed and into the hot springs as soon as possible. The changing part actually took awhile since our hand were so cold we lacked some dexterity. Gracias a dios we had hot spring in our hostel and were able to warm up quickly.
After we could feel all our body part again we treated ourselves to a rather delicious diner, and some amazing hot chocolates, at the spa just up the road. Its about a 5 minute walk but we took a cab anyway. We were just that tired. Today we had a one last quick dip in the springs and caught a bus back to our respective cities.
Which bring me here, the only open internet cafe that does not even have the ability to play youtube vids. But at least here it is warm.