Paipa

Today we went to some natural hot springs in a little town called Paipa. It was about an hour away and we took some TINY dirt roads to avoid paying the toll. It was pretty scenic, ridiculously bumpy, and kinda cool to see all of these little farms completely outside of the big city of Tunja. Plus, I saw cute pigs. At one point there was a cow in the road, and to give you an idea of how tiny I am talking, there wasn´t room for the cow and the car. Hilarious.

Once we got to the springs, Lali informed me that there was a volcano crater (this picture being it) at the entrance of the park. It wasn´t what I imagined, still very cool, but it was enclosed by this rock wall and had tons of algae in it. It was bubbling too, that was cool.

Inside the Park there were three main pools to swim in. An Olympic sized pool, and sorta baby pool just to sit in, and then a splash pool (freakin freezing) that this fun slide shot you out into. I only did the slide once because it was like 60 degrees and I swear the water wasn´t much warmer. I sprinted so fast jump back into the hot springs! The cold water had taken my breath away. AH. The springs were salty because of all the minerals that were in it. Lali said she thought the water came from the volcano crater and was just diluted so it didn´t kill us. haha. When I got out for the first time I had salt visibly dried all over me. We stayed there almost all day and goodness...I am fried. Go figure. I didn´t realize we were going to be there for so long and it has rained every second I have been here so I didn´t think twice about it. Of course today was sunny and decently warm haha. Overall Paipa was a cool little town and the springs were a neat experience.

Last night...good gosh, some of Lali´s friends came over...really drunk, and they decided to seranade us until mmm midnight. We were exhausted and in our pjs and in bed when they showed up. We had met them at a little club earlier and had a beer...when they found out my birthday was coming up they ordered me the birthday special. A flaming shot of amaretto and rum. Sweet. It came with a straw and I had to suck it down as fast as possible as to not burn myself. Luckily it was TINY (no Dad, I´m not just saying that) and tasted alright. Anyway...so they sang until midnight when we kicked them out. I have some of the most classic videos of everyone singing. You all will have to wait til I get home but GREAT stuff.

We leave tomorrow for Bogotá again and then will catch a flight to Cartagena Friday morning. Sixish days in Cartagena, two in the colonial town of Santa Marta, three in the BEAUTIFUL Parque Tayrona (camping in a tiny tent and eating nothing but canned tuna score) where we will hike like fifty miles to three different beaches. The Tayrona has the highest seaside mountain range in the world, I have been told, so I am stoked about the vistas there! From Tayrona to Barranquilla (where Shakira is from ha), Barranquilla to Bucaramanga which is TEN HOURS on a bus over night, Bucaramanga to San Gil, San Gil back to Tunja on the 25th. Then home five days later. So thats the trip. (the picture of the flowers is just cuz i felt like it)

oh, and I am getting all kinds of receipes so I can come home and actually cook good food!!! YES
I am going to go take some more advil for this sunburn.

p.s my eyes look like that bc the hat was pulling them so hard i got a headache!!

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chao chao y que estén bien