Another Hot Spring Adventure: Papallacta (April 15-17)

Since fall quarter I have heard about the beautiful area around the town of Papallacta, which is nestled into the eastern slopes of the Andes at about 10,000 ft. I took a bus straight there after work on Friday and made it to Papallacta at 4:30pm after about a 3 hour ride. While waiting for my friend Joe to come from Quito, I checked out the few hostel options and hiked about a mile up the dirt road to the fancy Termas de Papallacta resort where the best hot springs are located and where the trails up into the valley start. 
After I ate a sweet plate of grilled trout at a road-side stand, Joe came in off the bus from Quito and we checked into the really nice family-run Hotel Coturpa as their only guests for the night.
The next morning the family fed us breakfast and we headed up the road again, through the resort, and onto the hiking trails. We followed a dirt road up to the Ranger Station for the Cayambe-Coca Nature Reserve and kept climbing on 4-wheeler tracks until noon, when we lunched at Laguna de Anteojos. From there we went another mile or so, making it all the way up to the furthest lake located on the trail we were on, and ending at about 13,450 ft. 

View up the Río Papallacta Valley before the Nature Reserve 

Weird plant that looked like corn and quinoa and had a gooey coating

Laguna de Anteojos

Joe on the last knob we climbed up at our turn-around point

The highest and largest lake that we made it to (I can't remember the name!)

We headed back the way we came and made it all the way down to the hot springs at about 5:30 pm, having seen only 2 other groups of hikers the whole day! 
After grabbing some humitas for a snack, we went hot tubing in the best hot springs I have ever visited!! In the Termas de Papallacta, there were a variety of pools with interesting tiled designs, built in waterfalls and caves, lots of different temperatures and even a place to dip in the natural stream that flows by! It was paradise! We took a break at about 7:30 pm to share a plate of trout down the road, and then went back in the hot springs and stayed until about 10:30 pm. I'm pretty sure that we were actually the last ones to leave! 

The hot springs outside of the resort's cabins (only for guests)!

One of the many hot spring pools that we actually got to swim in! 

(Photo Credit: Termas de Papallacta website)

The next morning we weren't planning to stay for long, but we did make it up to the trailhead at Termas de Papallacta resort again, and this time we checked out some of their nicely maintained trails, which follow the lower part of the Papallacta River. Before heading back out on our respective buses at about 1pm, we grabbed some amazing empanadas and grilled bananas with cheese from a super jolly old lady on the side of the road. 

Lower Papallacta River within the Termas de Papallacta trail network