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2.19.2017 Papallacta, Day 2

On the second day of luxury, we awoke to perhaps the fanciest continental breakfast I’ve ever received. Later it was time for more hot springs, which were positively wonderful and so relaxing. We reserved spa treatments, getting a hot mud treatment where they slather you completely with this scalding hot mud that cools down quickly, then wrap you into a steamy burrito with plastic wrap, a heat reflective blanket, and then hot towels. You cook for about 20 minutes and then take a shower to get all the mud off. And finally for the last activity of the day we went on a little hike on one of the nearby trails. I made some llama friends, we walked along the river, explored the nature, and hung out on a very sketchy narrow bridge. I loved my time in Papallacta a lot and would absolutely go back again if I have the chance!

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2.18.2017 Papallacta, Day 1

My friend Maribel and I wanted to have a getaway, and that’s exactly what we got in choosing the hotel Termas in the town of Papallacta. It’s quite luxurious, with hot pools surrounding the cabins, AMAZING food, and lovely views all around. The first day we were there we were extremely lazy, spending the time napping in the cabin and eating a lot. But at night we went out to the pools and it was incredible. Because it’s so far from the urban city you can actually see the stars, as well as the shadows of the mountains in the distance. We soaked for a good long while and it was an excellent time. 

#sorry for how late this is #it's been rough collecting pics without my phone

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Bad News

Long story short, my phone has been stolen. That means no more high quality pictures taken by me. But it doesn’t mean the end of all pictures. I’m going to have my friends help me out by taking and sending me photos of our travels. So the blog is indeed not doomed.

Moral of the story here is: Don’t bring your phone when you go out dancing. 

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Views of the cloud forest while driving home from Mindo

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Cute ant friends hard at work along their very well established trail

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It was raining cats and dogs all night..

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2.11.2017 Mindo, Day 1 (pt 2)

Since it was close to Valentine’s day, the hotel set up an adorable dinner for us which made me very happy!

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My toucan friend :)

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2.11.2017 Mindo, Day 1 (pt 1) I finally got to see some rainforest this weekend when we went to the town of Mindo for two days. And boy, what an experience. We stayed in these really sweet cabins in the middle of the wilderness that were absolutely not air or watertight and it reminded me so much of girl scout camp. Our first activity was tubing (not pictured), which was honestly probably my favorite part. They basically tie together eight innertubes like a raft and you share it with about 9 other people, going down whitewater rapids. That sounds scary but it's actually extremely fun and that's coming from someone who isn't much of a risk taker. You're safe from rocks because you sit on top of rather than inside the tubes. The view was amazing. Next up was canopying, which is essentially ziplining through the forest canopy. We all piled in to the back of a very sketchy looking pickup truck and dodged hanging vines the whole way there which felt exactly like a video game. The ziplining itself definitely freaked me out, but I had a blast anyways, even though I wasn't brave enough to go upside down on some of the lines like they recommended. And god did it feel great to be in the middle of the forest. My mind was definitely at peace listening to all the birds and insects. I saw a bunch of vultures and a toucan!

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2.10.2017 Quilotoa What a gorgeous and peaceful place. In the volcanic crater of Quilotoa there's a massive lake, one I could spend days at. If you stand still, it's completely silent. You have to march down a sandy path for about 40 minutes to reach the water, and to get back up its at least an exhausting hour of climbing. I opted to take a mule back up because I'm incredibly out of shape and at that altitude it probably would've taken 3 hours for me to return to the top. This would be the perfect place for to picnic, draw, read, or meditate. I wish we had spent more time there, but it was a great day nonetheless.

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2.4.2017 A photo my friend took of me while waiting for the bus.

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2.4.2017 Looming over the west side of Quito is the massive (inactive) volcano Pichincha. It looks gorgeous from the city, but we found out how stunning it is at the top as well. You can take a cable car called the teleférico all the way up, and see the whole city and surrounding areas. Although, being the nature lover that I am, I was even more pleased just getting to enjoy the hills and valleys we walked through. It's definitely a shock to the system to climb 3000 feet higher in 10 minutes when you're already so far above sea level, but it's worth it without a doubt.

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2.2.2017 This night my friend Maribel and I went to a really cool concert at Casa de la Música, a small performance venue in town. We saw Horacio Valdivieso perform a variety of acoustic guitar songs with styles ranging from samba to popular Brazilian songs to classical Ecuadorian pasillos. He also had two lovely singers accompany him for some of the songs. It was a very fun night and we got a picture with him at the end! Then we went back to Maribel's place and I (as usual) had to admire the aesthetic from her balcony. It was my first live music adventure in Quito and I'm excited to go on some more!

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1.27.2017 These are the sunburns I got from Ciclopaseo, being outside all day! They felt just about as good as you'd imagine :')

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1.29.2017 This is from when we went on Ciclopaseo, a really cool event in Quito held on Sundays where they shut down some roads that go throughout the city so that cyclists, walkers, joggers, pets, skaters, and whoever else wants to enjoy a nice day outside can do so. We went on bicycles so I didn't get any photos while we were riding, but these photos are of Parque Carolina where we stopped for a bit to enjoy some fresh watermelon. The entire park was filled with all kinds of people; they were playing soccer, exercising, napping, playing with their kids, lounging with lovers, strolling, chatting, just enjoying the nice day. It really struck me.. possibly because I'm such a lover of all things leisure. It was just a great feeling to be surrounded by everyone in a good mood being carefree in the park. I wanted to remember it, which is why I kept the photos even if they don't look like much.

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1.28.2017 Trip to Otavalo, Day 2 The day started early as we headed out to the famous Plaza de los Ponchos, the massive indigenous market where absolutely everything is beautiful and extremely tempting to purchase. I will admit that my self control was less than admirable as I spent a large chunk of change there. But it is all on wonderful things that I know I'll cherish. It was actually a lot of fun haggling in Spanish and Spanglish with the merchants. And trying to avoid "Richard" who was very intent on selling me belts all day despite my declining until I pulled the vegetarian "I don't want to buy leather" card, which worked quite well after some convincing. I really loved the market experience and would be happy to return some day. You really could spend a fortune there if you weren't careful. After many hours of shopping it was time to go, so we packed up and headed back on the tour bus. On the way back we stopped to lunch at the lake San Pablo, with a great view of the Imbaburra volcano. I got to have more helado de paila, my favorite Ecuadorian dessert. We saw several critters at the restaurant, including a giant mosquito eater (zoom in on him, he's super cool), a kitty, and some alpacas on the lawn. It was a very nice day so we enjoyed some time outside in the sun. Overall I loved this trip a lot and wish we had been able to stay all weekend, but nevertheless the time we did have was well worth it. My bank account may be aching but my heart and stomach are full.

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Trip to Otavalo, Day 1 (pt. 2) We arrived in the town at about 5pm, checked into the (incredibly luxurious) hotel, and got to look around for a little while before having dinner. I really, really like this place. It's so pretty, the people are lovely, and it seems like there's a lot to do even though we had limited time to do a few things. My group had a fun night in at the hotel all crowded onto one of the beds talking and laughing until it was fairly late.