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DAY THREE ~ The SPA at Papallacta, a full day

We made it down for breakfast at 5:00, and Byron showed up to pick us up before 6:00 AM. It's a good thing I'm used to getting up early anyway. Pete found it a little difficult, but he was a good sport about it. We were the only two people in the breakfast room at that hour, but the coffee was hot, and that's what gets Pete's engine running.

Byron drove us through the city, and down that winding road to the valley, following in the footsteps of Francisco de Orellana. The traffic was very light, and we made good time. Byron did not have breakfast yet, but he knew of a gas station on the edge of the city that had a restaurant where he could stop for something to eat. However, he did not realize that it would not be open at such an early hour. He made a breakfast of a soda pop and a couple of candy bars. We were able to top off the gas tank though for the long drive through the mountains. We drove for quite a while, and the scenery began to be rather nice. We were steadily gain in altitude, and at one point we stopped to stretch or legs and take a few photos.

At this point we were entering the Antisana Ecological Reserve. My Spanish isn't very good, but I
believe the rest of the sign reads: Pollution is destroying the habitat. Maintain our radiant habitat.

Byron's car had a GPS, and at this crossing of the mountains it showed that we were at
4,077 meters. No wonder I was finding it a little difficult to breath. That's 13,376 feet.

This turned out to be the summit, and from here on we would be going down in elevation, but not by much.

There was a monument to the Virgin Mary. Don't ask me what "Paramo" is, but she's the queen of it.

As you can see, we were pretty much in the clouds. The day had not yet begun to warm up.

We finally arrive at the SPA, at 8:30 AM. It didn't even open until 9:00 AM. So we decide to take a walk around.

The grounds were beautifully landscaped, and obviously well cared for.

The thatched roofs gave it more of a Polynesian or perhaps a Japanese appearance.

I spent three years in Japan, and was living in Iwakuni on Southern Honshu during 1958-1960. I was in the Navy at that time. Most of the homes there had thatched roofs. It was primarily a farming community, and they used night soil to fertilize their crops.

Iwakuni was formerly the castle town of the Iwakuna han, which was formed by Lord Hiroie Kikkawa after he was banished there for supporting the defeated shogun. You can faintly see his castle atop the hill on the right.

One of my favorite memories was attending a Sakura Festival one spring in Kikko Park, just across the Nashiki River.

The famous Kintai Bridge was first constructed in 1673. It spans the Nashiki River.

I checked out a bicycle from the motor pool on base. I was stationed at the Marine Corp Air Base in Iwakuni, and was assigned to a cloak-and-dagger squadron, VQ-1, or FAIRECONRON ONE, for Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron One.

Can you imagine riding this bicycle across the Kintai Bridge?

I spent the day riding through the beautiful countryside, and taking photographs as I went. I had just purchased a big old Canon 35 mm SLR camera, which I still have. I keep it for sentimental reasons. The Marine Base had a great hobby shop, with a darkroom for photographic work.

I was by myself on this excursion, so I used a tripod to take these pictures.

I was able to create this effect by holding a piece of paper with a hole in it over the paper when I exposed it to the negative.

As you can see, I was a real amateur at the art of photography. But it was fun experimenting with different effects in the dark room when I was off duty. You'll have to forgive this brief historical aside, but these scenes at the Papallacta SPA brought back some really great memories, from the year 1958. Now, back to the business at hand.

It was still cold enough, from the high altitude, that the steaming water looked really inviting.

There were many pools at different elevations and with different temperatures. It was quite an interesting place.

There were some very unusual plants. The pale petals of this plant felt like velvet

This tree is called the paper tree. The bark pealed off and was as thin as a sheet of paper

As we climbed up the path to higher pools we crossed a bridge over this beautiful stream

As we walked higher up, we discovered that hotel guests were already using the higher pools, even before
the rest of the SPA was open to the public. I was becoming eager to get into that steaming water.

I finally got my wish. Boy, did this feel great. For some reason they had us wear caps. I suppose it keeps
your hair from clogging up the filters. Who knows? I did notice that none if the hotel guests wore them.

Pete was in heaven. We had purchased a package which included a body wrap, a high pressure water jet, which was a fire hose blasting our bodies, and a one hour massage. We were both in heaven. It was a nice way to begin a vacation.

After we spent an hour or so in the hot pools we went for a body wrap. First they spread some black gunk all over my body, then wrapped me in the biggest sheet of Saran Wrap I've ever seen. They covered me with this thermal blanket and let me cook for about 25 minutes. And cook I did. It must have been the gunk they coated my body with having some sort of a chemical reaction.

After stewing in the body wrap I was told to shower off, and it wasn't easy getting all that black gunk off. After that I was led to a shower room that looked more like a miniature version of the extermination chambers you see in holocaust movies. There was a small window through which the attendant inserted an actual fire hose nozzle. There were diagrams on the wall showing the various positions I was to assume. She started blasting me in the chest with the fire hose. When I just about thought that I could take no more, she indicated that I should assume the second position. There were six positions in all. By the time I got to position six I was absolutely certain that I would never pay anyone to do this water treatment to me EVER again. LOL

My reward for this torture of the fire hose was an hour massage, followed by 20
minutes of blissful rest in a very quiet room, with soothing music and herbal tea.

Our day at the SPA ended with a pleasant lunch in their cafe. Byron gives Pete a thumbs up,
congratulating us for our survival. I think he had done the fire hose thing himself before.

That night we were given a SPECIAL DINNER, compliments of Haugan Cruises, the owners of our ship the Athala, at the Theatrum Restaurant. There was some misunderstanding at the hotel and we missed our pickup. We waited for half an hour before I went to the desk in the lobby and asked about our ride to the restaurant. The desk clerk said; "Oh yes, he was here, but he could not find you." We were in the lobby well before the pickup time, and I actually went up to a guy who was obviously waiting for someone, and gave him my name, but he apparently didn't understand, and just shook his head no. The clerk called the restaurant and they sent another driver. When we arrived we were taken to a small table for just the two of us. The rest of the restaurant was filled with long tables for large groups of 30 or 40, and they were mid way through their meals. We ordered some sort of House Special for our appetizer and their special salad.

I'm sure that this will turn a lot of peoples stomach, but believe me, it was the
most wonderful octopus we'd ever eaten. So tender it melted in your mouth.

The salads were HUGE, and excellent. It was their version of a Caesar Salad, but so much more.

It was a good thing that the appetizer and salads were so good, because that compensated nicely for
the lack luster main courses. Neither were remarkable, except to say they were typical tourist fare

We can't even remember what these dishes were, not even looking closely
at the photos. LOL But all we had to pay for was the bottle of wine.

After dinner we were taken back to our hotel and began packing for our 8:00 AM departure the next morning for the Galapagos Islands. I will pick up there in Chapter Three.