On day 3, we left our hotel in Quito and drove to Parque Nacional Cayambe-Coca where we could see the Andes Mountains. It was pretty cold and drizzling so we all were bundled up in our raincoats. Luckily I wasn’t feeling any altitude sickness despite being 13,000 feet up. It definetly was harder to catch my breath when we were hiking up a small hill (though living on upper campus prepared me for this). The view was breathtaking (metaphorically and literally).
After shivering in the mountains, we stopped at the hot springs in Termas Papallacta. It was my favorite stop of the day because I love the water and needed to relax after a busy past few days. I don’t know if the water improved my skin or relieved bone pain as it was advertised to do, but it definetly lowered stress. It was so nice to be able to sit and stare up at the mountains. The water would get too hot if you sat in it for too long . But, they had a freezing cold pool that I would go in for a couple seconds to cool off and then go right back to the warm one. It also started drizzling when we were in the water which added it to the relaxation for me. We couldn’t spend all day there (though I could have) so we quickly changed to get back on the bus.
Our next stop was Guango Lodge which was a hummingbird reserve. Though it was a little muddy, I have never seen so many different types of hummingbirds in one place. The reserve had feeders filled with sugar water that the birds would flock to. I expected them to be scared of coming too close to us but even when we were right by the feeder, they’d still be there. If anything, I was scared of them at times. They fly crazy fast! I packed my sister’s $10 Hershey Gardens binoculars that actually worked pretty decently to see the birds when they were far away. According to the classification board at the reserve, there’s a white-sided flowerpiercer (I think) in the video below. They’re known to commonly visit the feeders.
Our last main stop of the day was the cloud forest. It was very VERY muddy and I made the mistake of wearing my white converse rather than hiking shoes. But, the view was worth it! We were completely surrounded by tall trees and the cloudy sky. I was looking down for most of it so I wouldn’t slip and fall in the dirt. When I did look up though, I felt like I was a real explorer going through the jungle. This is a good precursor on what the rainforest will be like but you’ll read about that soon.
After a jam-packed day, we headed to the Iyarina Lodge near the Rio Napo. It was pitch black when we got here and everyone was ready to sleep. But not before we got a mosquito net to put around the bed!
