Papallacta Hot Springs

A great sleep last night and slept in for the first time in two weeks. The last two weeks of early wake ups for airplane rides or hikes and poor sleep on the boat was not super relaxing. We didn't suffer from altitude headaches either being back at 10,000 ft either.

We played with the dogs and fed them leftover fries from KFC. I spoke with Robert, the Australian in the Sportsmobile. He was back. It turns out that he is an avid birder and has a lifetime list of 4000 birds and has seen 700 in Ecuador alone. He mentioned a couple apps he uses: Merlin and e bird.

I paid up the bill for storing the RV and two nights of camping and gave a little more too. He gave the kids a gift bag with stickers and sweets. Coda Vista was a great place to spend our time in Quito and it would have been easy to spend another week here especially with our friends spending a week in Quito for summer school. Alas we had to made miles if we were going to make it to Ushuaia.

Andy send us a map location for a supermax supermarket on our way out of town and we spent a couple hours there buying too much processed foods. I was able to get some windshield washer fluid at a hardware store at the same plaza. It was concentrate so it will last longer. 

There was a place selling pan de yucca and gelato and we bought lunch there. There was so much that Christine could eat. The yucca bread is delicious. It has some cheese inside. We also had some bolitos which are similar. They are gluten free. Christine had a yucca bread pizza. The yucca bread is good enough to be a craze in the states like bubble waffle mochi bread.

The drive to the hot springs took us over a 13,000 ft pass and the RV overheated briefly but stopping and waiting 10 minutes the temperature came back down and we continued on. 

We drove the the pools at the hot springs ($10/adult, $5/child) and paid and tried the different pools ranging from cold to scalding hot. It was very relaxing.

We paid to camp for $18 ($6/adult and $3/child) and showered early and ate dinner. The temperature may dip down to 41F tonight.

Bad news from our friends Richie and Lauren, Lauren pocket was picked and lost a phone and was almost mugged in Quito.