On the way to the Jungle

So we decided it was time to leave Quito. So we headed over to the bus station. To get there we took a trolley. The trolley was easy once we found the station going the direction that we wanted to go.

Next up walking to bus station. First thing we see is an guy in army green carrying a big old rifle of some sort. Not sure what he was doing, but he looked official.

Anyway then we go inside the bus station, now if you have ever traveled in South America you know what bus stations can be like, well this bus station was no exception. Ecuador's bus stations were different than some of the other countries that I have been to in that all the buses have driver and then another guy who collects money and works to get you to ride his bus. They try so hard to get passengers you would think that it is life or death (maybe it is)

So you walk into the bus station and you just hear people yelling out all sorts of cities, sometimes you hear so many different cities that you have no clue what they are saying, most often they only yell out the larger cities even though they stop anywhere.

Then once they realize that you have a backpack on all you hear is Donde Va?, Rhiobamba, Banos, Quito or whatever other city they want you to go to. Once you tell them where you are headed then they lead you over to that bus, sometimes you are almost running thinking that bus is about to take off, then once you get on the bus it turns out is was no hurry and that they just wanted to get you on their bus.

You discover that sometimes it is better to just ignore everyone yelling at you and walk by the buses and see which one is going where and get on the one that looks the best, sometimes you just want to get there so you get on the one that approaches you first.

Anyway we find a bus that is going to Papallacta, a small little town where there are a bunch of hot springs, we decided that it would make a good stop over between quito and the jungle.

So we are riding the bus, which is stopping whenever someone wants off, sometimes in the middle of nowhere. I am hoping that the guy who took our money tells us when we are in papallacta since i have no clue where it is.

Yep he tells us, we get off (in a torrential downpour) with 2 other gringos (who don't speak English) anyway we dig out our raincoats and read in the guidebook that "that about 1.5 km before the village on the left as you approach from quito a signed dirt road leads up hill to the Termas de Papallacta"

We had read that earlier and decided to go to the village to get off the bus since we needed to buy some water. We get water and head up the main road thinking 1.5km thats not far at all. well we walk at least 2 km (the rd was marked) and haven't seen any roads, so since we figure that 2 guidebooks said that it should be here we keep walking, as we are walking we both comment on how this road looks pretty new, thinking they must have just resurfaced it. As we had been walking uphill for about 5km now we were just getting ready to turn around, when we find a road to the left, but it goes downhill. WTF!!! Then I notice a sign for a hostal and figure might as well see if this is the road. As we are walking down the road we realize that this is the old road and the one we were on before is new and the road has been rerouted (stupid guidebooks didn't mention that the road was being rebuilt) and way we get above the village that we had been in 1.5 hrs ago

Village of Papallacta

then it becomes obvious where the road we want is and yes it is well marked and there is a sign leading to where we wanted to go. and turns we were almost there when the bus dropped us off but we followed the guidebook. Only 3km uphill left to go!!!

Anyway we find a hostal and head up to where the hotsprings were boy did it feel good. there was hardly anyone there and there were like 25 pools all of different temps, by pools I guess I should say baths, some were big and like 3 feet deep and some where small and not so deep. Anyway we hung out there for quite awhile just relaxing and soaking after our adventurous hike.

Ssupposedly you can see a one of the many volcanoes found in Ecuador from these tubs, but it was to cloudy for us to see. It still was a cool view, but I didn't bring my camera for fear of it getting stolen when we were in the water

View of our hostal in the morning
(it poured all night long)

The muddy road and the cow across the street from the Hostal

In the morning we headed down the road and caught a bus that took us to a town on the edge of the jungle. Tena. We found a hostal the looks over the river and then walked around town a bit and found ourselves a 4 day jungle tour.

Aww finally sunny and warm weather

Pedestrian bridge over the river in Tena