Hot Springs, and all that jazz ....
Trip Start
Jul 07, 2008
1
182
239
Trip End
May 27, 2010
Papallacta, Ecuador
Sunday, August 23, 2009
23 August 2009
Hostal Costura, Papallacta, Ecuador (18
usd)
The heater is on
Pifo - Papallacta (45 kms)
Today was nothing short of tortuous,
for me anyway. My body has spent the last 2 days rejecting food so
this morning (not having had to visit the bathroom during the night
was a real bonus) I began with pretty much no energy. But what were
we to do? not even I could bear the thought of yet another night in
Pifo, so we had to soldier on and on, and on. Up, actually, it was
up all the way to the 4000 metre pass and 28 kms. The gradients were
sometimes very steep and the road although better than the Pifo road,
was still a little bumpy. When we finally reached the summit, the
road definitely felt much worse, impeding any idea of a rapid
descent.
We stopped frequently, I even lay down
at one point to rest my weary bones. It was at the 3400 metre mark
we bumped into 2 Colombian mountain bikers (he had an altimeter) and
it was around that point I began to feel the altitude. My chest
became a little tight (difficult to know if it was the altitude or
the cold that is still building up in my system) and I found that if
I tried to do anything other than just breathe (coughing, taking a
drink, talking) I became a bit breathless. Strangely enough, this
feeling disappeared a bit further up the mountain, and when I reached
4000 metres I was absolutely fine.
The scenery was nice, hills all around,
not much on the road except for smelly buses and daytrippers. The
weather was lovely all day, and quite warm until an hour or so before
the summit. We had fantastic views of Volcano Antisana (5700 metres)
as we reached the summit, we even caught a long enough glimpse,
without cloud, to take a photograph. This morning, as we set off, we
could see Volcan Cotopaxi (5900 metres) as clear as day. Both
volcanoes were covered in snow and looking quite wonderful. Jaysuss,
I bet it's cold up there!
So the ride down from the top (no
marker, no cafe but there is a shrine) was a little disappointing
because of the surface. It's always nice to have a long, unhindered
descent after a climb like that, but instead I just bounced around,
making my head hurt even more than it did already.
The reason people come to Papallacta is
for the thermal springs. our guide book (lp) would have you believe
that there is only one spa, at the very expensive Thermas Hotel,
which you would have to pay 6 usd to use (2007 prices). Turns out
there are baths for the poor folks too, just on the edge of the lake,
before you hit town, there is a turning down a steep track to some
very nice pools. dave seems to think there are some more poor folk
baths in town too, but I didn't see them.
The turnoff for Papallacta takes you
down a dirt track, for several kms, and into the town. There doesn't
appear to be much here apart from the thermal baths. Just before you
start your descent into town properly there is a residencia, probably
cheaper than where we are staying, but when we found out the price
here we couldn't be arsed to cycle all the way back up. The price at
the Costura began at 12 usd each (15 with breakfast) but when we said
it was too much he dropped to 8 usd each. We are in a basement room
(not as nice as the original room he showed us, but fine for us) and
we have boiling hot water AND a plug in heater, luxury. The tv does
only have 1 channel though and dave has quickly tired of that, and
has turned it off, he's now listening to his iPod. I am going to
finish up here and read my book, Smiley's People, I've never read any
John le Carre and I'm enjoying it.
We've had something to eat at the
little place across the road, trout and chips, freshly cooked and
lovely, we treated ourselves to a beer each, all for 7 usd.
laters
