A tiredness I need | a weekend in the foothills of the Ilinzas volcano

This weekend I was in the moors of the city of Latacunga, Ecuador, in a sector known as the foothills of the Ilinizas volcano. I planned my visit with the idea of finding hot springs and a waterfall so I renew my energies. The journey was quite an adventure, I walked for about 4 hours, very tiring, of course, but I really needed it.

On Sunday morning the alarm went off, I thought about turning it off and continue sleeping, but seeing that the day was radiant, made me get up in a jump and make the decision to prepare for an extreme Sunday. When the weather cooperates with your plans, it's perfect, so I didn't want to waste any time. So with my traveling companion we headed to the foothills of this volcano, when we arrived at the town we had to rent a van to take us to the hot springs site, with a price of $10 dollars. He dropped us off where the road was accessible to go by private transport, the rest we had to walk.

Once we were there, I had the impression that I would not make it, the road seemed to go on forever and it was hard to breathe going uphill towards a volcano where the atmospheric pressure decreases every time, however, the first hours of the journey I did not plan to give up and it did not matter if it took me longer than it should. But as time went by I remembered the indications that the ranger had given us, which said: "You must return at 3 pm because after that time thunderstorms and hail fall", these words made me uneasy because of the lack of energy I had while walking, since it was 12 am and we were still half way.

Several people left us behind on the road, I thought that the time to see the waterfall was over, I feared that my plan had failed, when there was nothing more to think about, I heard the sound of a car approaching. At that moment I did not hesitate to raise my hand and smile, I did not have time to analyze what happened, I just held on to the place where I was. Now I can analyze that without that help maybe we would have turned back in the middle of the road as some people did.

After this second car brought us closer to the place we had to walk for an hour on a small trail, each time we felt that vibration of being close to the waterfall and the hot springs. I lost count of the breaks I took along the way, without them I would never have reached the finish line. The waterfall was spectacular, it is known as the golden waterfall because of its background color, but it is only a kind of yellowish mud that is produced by the minerals contained in the water that emerges from the volcano.

The next and last stop was the hot springs, being there was like arriving at the oasis in the desert, and no, no, I exaggerate I had the time to relax in that pool with hot water, natural and with a magical view, then there makes sense the fatigue and pain I felt after all. The return we did it faster as it was downhill, it took us about 2 hours, here I had the time and energy to capture some pictures of the landscape.

I enjoyed it a lot, although it may not seem like it by the way I described it, I was even thinking of returning soon, despite everything ah some of us like the physical abuse that is obtained by going to places like volcanoes or mountains, so that the heart rests and recharges with that good vibe that nature offers us.