Hot Springs

On Saturday, we took a trip to the hot springs close to Musui. My Venezuelan friend Jose told me that this one was totally better than the one I couldn't go to the previous weekend because I was sick.  So I was like cool!  He also said that there would be a little walk, maybe a half hour up hill, a half hour flat.  And I was like ok, I can probably do that.

So I get up at 6 am cause Jose likes early mornings.  I met up with people in our group at the bus station and then proceeded to take a bus for an hour up to the mountains.  I remembered a little of it from our first excursion to the mountains.  Then we stopped at this tiny little village, got a pastel for breakfast, and then all crammed into the back of an off-road truck to get to the road. There were 12 of us in the back of this van. Luckily it was only like 15 minutes or so.  When we got to the place, it was all mountain scenery.  We started walking down the path we thought we were supposed to take.  This is my before picture.

As it turns out, altitude is not my friend.  While I was not having the headaches or nausea that others were having, I was not able to really catch my breath, and any kind of effort I put out took immense amounts of energy.  Luckily it was not a very long climb, so I made it up there eventually. But I was exhausted and mildly light-headed.  We had to walk a tiny path along the side of the mountain for like another 20 minutes, but we finally reached the hot spring.  It was amazing.  It looks like cold lake water, but what it actually is is a natural hot tub.  So we just hung out here for most of the day, while the steam blew off the water from time and again. Here are some pictures of it, of us, and of the view.

(This photo is actually courtesy of one of my friends, whose parents got her an indestructible camera.)

I did mention that the first photo was the before photo, and with every before, there must be an after.  After we were done with the springs, the trip back was still challenging, as we had forgotten how exhausted our bodies were because of the altitude and of the climb.  I did not manage to take an after picture, but if I had, I imagine it would look something like this.

(converse shoes and all.)

But I was very proud of myself for doing it. Afterward I was like yeah, exercise!! Maybe if I ever get courage and a group with a ton of patience, I'll do it again before I leave.  But here's a picture of the group that went.

Due to increasingly frequent electricity and internet outages, I don't think I'll be able to post as often as I have in the past.  I've been working on this one all week.  Don't freak out.