May 12, 2021: Papallacata Hot Springs with Ecuador Best Tours (Author: J)
On our final day in Quito before heading to the Amazon, we booked a tour to Papallacata Hot Springs (pronounced “Papa-Jacque-Ta” according to Luis) with Ecuador Best Tours. I was worried about having too many early wakeups in a row, but we were up long before our 8 a.m. alarm. For the first time, I woke up feeling almost normal. Although I still had a bit of a headache, it responded to the aspirin and water I took. The rest of the family had, by now, accepted my gospel of good hydration, and we polished off all 3 bottles of water that the hotel had provided.
We went down to breakfast when we were ready — and were happy to see the hot food out this morning. After our meal, we had time to kill before our 9 a.m. departure, so we headed back to the room for a bit.
Luis was waiting for us when we came back downstairs, and we were soon on our way to the hot springs. The drive to the hot springs took us into a different area of the Andes than we had seen the day before — although there was very little “seeing” considering how heavy the fog was. Luis drove carefully, cautioning us that sometimes people stopped on the highway, even on foggy days. At points where the fog cleared, we did our best to look for wildlife. There were signs everywhere warning us about bears and tapirs, but we were not fortunate enough to locate any.
As we approached the hot springs, the weather was drizzly and foggy. Luis suggested that we switch up the order of our itinerary and make our scheduled bird watching stop first. I assumed he was hoping for better weather for our swim, but the real reason for our schedule change soon revealed itself. Hummingbirds prefer overcast weather because it makes it hard for birds of prey to spot them.
The deck at the ecolodge we visited was buzzing with dozens of the little birds sipping from several feeders. The birdwatching blind was similarly crowded with birds — and birders. A group of birders armed with binoculars and fancy cameras were in the midst of trying to capture photos of the various hummingbird species. Although the group clearly took birding seriously, they welcomed P with open arms, offering him the opportunity to hold the little cup of nectar that was being used to lure the birds. P soon had the birds eating out of his hand. Then he took a few hundred photos of his new feathered friends.
We had to cajole P away from the birdwatchers in order to take a short hike to look for aquatic birds. Unfortunately, we did not locate any torrent ducks (our target species for the hike), but we did see some colorful songbirds. After the hike, we headed back to the lodge for more hummingbird watching. The lodge had a table with packaged snacks, coffee, and tea, and we were able to enjoy a small snack while we watched the hummers. Along with a cup of regular black tea, I tried a cup of coca tea. Whether it was all in my mind or not, the tea cleared the last vestiges of fog from my altitude-addled brain and I felt 100% for the first time since arriving in Quito.
After our snack and more birdwatching, we decided it was time for a swim. We made the short drive to the hot springs where Luis paid our entry fee and translated the safety instructions into English for us. We then headed for the locker room to put on our swimsuits. Then it was time for a relaxing dip in one of the many hot spring fed pools. We selected a small pool with no other guests and plopped into it. D and I enjoyed the beautiful views of the Andes for approximately 15 seconds; then P suggested that it was time to try another pool. This cycle repeated itself several more times until D finally snapped and told P that if he couldn’t sit still for 5 minutes, he was welcome to continue his madcap scramble to try every pool on his own. P begrudgingly confined himself to one pool for a while, until I agreed to accompany him to the largest of the pools. (He lasted just a few minutes in that pool before announcing that he could not swim and returning to one of the smaller pools).
The downside to rearranging our schedule was that I started to get hungry for lunch almost immediately. But I waited until we were suitably relaxed and prune-y before suggesting that we shower and find something to eat. We had lunch at the cute little restaurant at the hot springs, which resembled a little ski lodge. There were lots of lunch combo options, but they were mainly meat-centric, so we went with some a la carte options — cheese empanadas for D and cheese sandwiches for P and I. I was delighted that I was able to use some of my Duolingo Spanish to ask questions about the menu items, and the waitress either understood me or did a great job of humoring me by pretending I made sense.
After lunch, we met Luis outside the hot springs for a hike. By this point, P was starting to feel off and he was very vocal about not wanting to hike. But since I did not know he was feeling ill, I insisted that he take the walk. The entire hike was less than an hour and provided a nice opportunity to admire the mountain landscapes. P was angry that we saw no animals and his mood did not improve when he fell and scraped his knees. By the time we reached the halfway point of our hike and looped back towards the lodge, I was feeling great. (Breathing normally for the first time in several days was a pretty exciting feeling). I was chatting with Luis and taking in the views, oblivious to P and D struggling behind us. At some point I turned back and saw that they were practically running to keep up with us, and both of them looked positively miserable. I reduced my speed and we eventually all reconvened back at the car.
On the drive back home, I suggested to Luis that we stop for ice cream because I thought it would cheer P up. When we arrived at the planned stop, P was fast asleep. I woke him and attempted to entice him with a treat, but he was having none of it. I felt vaguely annoyed by his lack of cooperation, but we elected to continue on to the hotel without our snack. Our drive proceeded uneventfully until, on the outskirts of Quito, we were snapped out of our fog by a flurry of honking. I looked over to the offending car and a small child was frantically waving out the window. It turned out to be Luis’s wife and son headed to soccer practice. (Luis told us that this was his son’s one chance each week to socialize with children as he had not been to school since the pandemic began; we told him that P was more or less in the same boat, although we hadn’t been smart enough to suggest soccer).
We arrived at the Swissotel around 5 and started the unpleasant work of repacking our suitcases. Because everyone was tired, we decided on room service for dinner. We ordered a pizza, a veggie burger, some fruit, and a piece of cake. The burger caused a stir when it arrived because it looked freakishly meat-like — not what we were expecting based upon the menu description of a “lentil burger.” D called room service to confirm there had been no mix-up, but, despite assurances, we only nervously picked at the burger.
It was another early night for us. Everyone was in their PJs and reading or watching TV by 8. Unfortunately, it soon became clear that P’s malaise was more than fatigue. He started to exhibit symptoms of food poisoning and was ill through much of the night. Sometime during the night, D also succumbed to illness. We struggled to pinpoint the culprit because no one had eaten anything I hadn’t and I was perfectly fine. It was an unpleasant and restless night, fraught with worries about whether we would actually be able to make our flight to the Amazon the next morning. Poor P was convinced that his illness was his fault because he hadn’t exercised enough during the pandemic and he made many sobbed apologies throughout the night. But whether through good luck or sheer force of will, P and D both announced that they were well enough to fly in the wee hours of the morning. (Our best guess is that the culprit here was actually the lemonade at the hot springs. It was the only thing P and D had that I did not; we did not ask if it was made with filtered water before ordering it).
Travel Monkeys 