June 26th – 3:39pm
So, today is officially Sarah’s birthday. We decided to go to the Hot Springs in Nangulvi to celebrate. We got really lucky and caught a ride with some foreigners who were already heading there. They seem to be two couples biking (at least the down hill bits) across South America. We got a ride with their Ecuadorian guide who might be the safest driver in all of Ecuador (this is rare!). We got to enjoy the views from the truck bed without being bounced around like popcorn. It was awesome. When we got to Apuela, we thought the jig was up and we’d have to hitch another ride, but the guide asked us where we were going and they happened to be going to the same place.
When we got to Nangulvi, we decided to eat lunch at the restaurant first. It was the strangest, but probably most authentic, Ecuadorian food ever. We got Tree Tomato juice, which was pretty tasty. It came with a soup that I still don’t quite know the contents and then the main meal was some kind of meat (not sure, because it seemed to be mostly fat) in a peanut butter-like sauce with potatoes, rice, and fried yellow plantains. It was really, really strange. But for $2.50, why the hell not? When in Ecuador… do as the Ecuadorians do.
During our lunch, it poured rain outside, so everyone at the pools left. When the rain finally stopped, we had them all to ourselves. I’m not sure if I liked or disliked the pools. Frankly, they didn’t seem very authentic. They were just tiled, heated pools. And some of them were really gross and dirty. We stayed out of those and stuck to the cleanest ones. Thank god.
After the pools, we went into the Gift Shop, which also operated as a internet service place. We took the opportunity and checked our e-mail. I also took some time to shop. They had all kinds of artisan stuff from Intag. I got some Rio Intag Free-Trade Coffee for my grandparents and bought a Cabuya Fiber bag. More on that later.
After that, we caught a ride back to Apuela, bought two boxes of wine, and then caught a ride back to Pucara.
To celebrate Sarah’s birthday, we had a special pizza dinner. This was really good. We also had birthday pie (yes, pie. not, cake.) which was made with Alpine blueberries. Pretty good but crammed with so many blueberries. Insane.
Then Dan built a birthday bonfire. We sat around for a couple hours talking and now, it’s bed time.
Love and Andean Bears,
Ashley
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