Papallacta (Paradise)

Hopin' the bus in Cumbaya to Papallacta


Soo...Papallacta. I mentioned this place in my first blog post about Ecuador. If you need a reminder, it's the place with the thermal pools my family brought me to one night when I had to wear pants. Don't worry, this time I had a bathing suit & I was ready. The 4 other gals & I arrived in Papa on Saturday pretty early in the day with bags of groceries from Supermaxi in towe. Here's what I brought for our one night stint in Heaven: bathing suit, toothbrush, diabetes stuff, yoga pants, sweat shirt, wallet, 2 boxes of wine, croissants, cheese, avacados, yogurt, & bloody mary supplies...so yeah, I was livin' healthy this weekend.

The hostel we stayed in (Hosteria Pampallacta)was like many of the others we have stayed in: family owned, friendly, flexible. This place was owned by a woman & her son, Pedro. Upon arriving, our room wasn't ready because we had gotten there an hour before check-in. They told us to drop our bags & get in the pools. We didn't argue & then we sank into a pool where we hardly moved until the next day.

The thermals all get their water from the river that flows from the naturally (volcanic) heated springs further up the mountain. Since we were in the clouds on the mountains, it was chilly, but the pools were the perfect temperature. There was one outside & two inside. The inside pools were so hot I could barely put sit in the room on the first day. The smaller room was like a sweat lodge filled with steam...I couldn't even see Fausat sitting in the pool. The owner came & checked on us after a little while & told us that she give "treatments". Treatments!? Of course I want a treatment, especially from a 53 year old woman who looks 32. I signed up for her next available time & continued to soak in sulfur until 4:00 p.m.

While we waited we did many stressful things: like drink coffee, color, read, giggle, & eat parfaits. I know most North Americans can't find it in themselves to relax, but I am not one of those people. I can relax better than most anyone I know, especially after a week of teaching, a month in the city, & Kat getting robbed. We all NEEDED to relax. Then it was time for my treatment.

<< Discovering la ducha y bano (the shower & bath)

<<holy macaroni bathtub

Treatment is a massage, but not in the way you would think. Jesse got me a massage with a professional once & I remember getting naked, putting a towel over my booty, then falling asleep for an hour while the ladygreased me up & rubbed me. It was amazing, but this was totally different. We talked the whole time & she also answered her hotel phone while she was rubbing me. Like I said, it was strange, but I think this woman was magic. You see, when she lifted the blanket (fully clothed massages in Ecuador) to look at my feet, she touched the outside of them, pinched my big toe, & asked me a few questions: "Do you know what this is from?", "You have something very wrong with your kness?" & "Why do you drink so much leche (milk)?"

<<Answer to the milk question: It's so creamy in Ecuador that I can't resist it, especially when it's warm & chocolatey & paired with an empanada de queso

The first question was her kind way of referencing a bone that juts out of my foot. My mom has it, my papa had it, & I have it. I think my cousin Joe may have it, too, but I always assumed it was just something that ran in the Thurmond blood. It also hurts sometimes. I remember when I played softball & basketball it would ache constantly & it still will start to hurt pretty bad on backpacking trips or when I go for a run. When she squeezed, she then asked the second question about my knees. I'm not sure how she knew how screwed up my knees were by squeezing my foot, but she was really concerned. If you know me at all, then you know I was a catcher year-round for about 8 years of my life. Everytime I squat my knees pop & I have holes in each knee where my bones would rub together after every squat & stand. My knees don't usually hurt, but when she shook my foot with my big toe I could hear my knees creeking like haunted wood. No one had every pointed out my deteriorating body this before. She told me I was going to hurt when I was old, worse even than my feet & knees do now when I backpack, hike, or run. I tried to blow it off because what's done is done: I wouldn't take back all of those years catching for anything, nor would I give up the bone in my foot that remind me of my Mom & Papa.

<< Answer #2 to the milk question: $1 tres leche that tastes better than it looks!

Then came the third questions: "Why do you drink so much milk?" Well, for starters. because I like it. Second, how do you know how much milk I drink, lady? She said she knew because the big bones in my feet that I always assumed were genetically wide were actually that way because of all of the dairy I consume. I´m not so sure about this, but she´s probably right about me needing to quit eating so much cheese, yogurt, & milk. So far I haven´t slowed down: milk, cheese, & yogurt are the main course for most of my meals, but I haven been trying to go easier on the rice, papas, etc.




Did I mention our room had a chimenea para fuego!? Below is a picture of it. That night we were all asleep by 10 thanks to some intense yoga with my ipod, a lot of hot bath soaking, & gorging of food/wine/bloody mary, & a long game of never have I ever. The next day Kat & I got up at 7 to yoga for an hour before her massage, we had a lovely breakfast of yogurt (you can see how much of her "no dairy!" sermon had on me), fruit, french toast con nutella, huevos fritas, jugo de naranja, & cafe. I soaked, napped, soaked again, then we eventually made it back to ever crowded Quito.

After 5 days of being back in Quito: There was an earthquake this week, classroom activities crumbled in front of me, I got food poison & stayed up barfing & d-wording all night, my roommate woke me up drunk at 1:30 last night, Chiquita didn't wake up Monday so I went without breakfast & lunch...it was a long week. But one thing great did happen: My family bought tickets to come visit me during Tori's Spring Break, so that made me smile :]