Oh my word, I don’t think I have ever been more relaxed in my LIFE!

I will start with Thursday. In the morning we had a girls day out with mich’s momma. She took us to the salon she usually goes to, and I got a manicure, pedicure, haircut AND hair blow out (what ever you call it haha) for $22 !!! It was unbelievable and super super cheap. If I lived here I am pretty sure I would go everyday haha. The afternoon was not so good- I got pretty bad altitude sickness. Since on wednesday we had driven from 0 feet above sealevel (the ocean) to 9000+ feet above sealevel (quito) my stomach kind of freaked out : ( i spent the whole afternoon feeling pretty nauseous.. luckily we watched almost an entire season of Gossip Girl, a fantastic TV show that we are just discovering, so I was pretty distracted. Since I was still feeling pretty sick still at night, Mr. Jokisch bought this SUPER strong antibiotic that would work in less than 30 minutes (he said it would “cure even my bad thoughts” haha), I started feeling better almost immediately. Mich and I went to one of the malls in Quito and just walked around for a while. PS. Quito has I think 4 malls, and the smallest is the size of Rivertown Crossings in MI. The one we went to on thursday had 4 floors! So crazy.

The next day we left around ten for Papallatca, a place about an hour away where they were hot springs. As usual, I had no idea what to expect. Mich said we would swim, and I figured it was kind of like a lake thing. I also was picturing “old faithful” from our national park days with the family. We pull up to a GIANT SPA and I think I about died. The Jokisches neglected to mention that this was a spa, and that we could get affordable massages and things like that. This spa is nestled between all the gorgeous mountains, and we had blue skies all day. I am having trouble finding the words to describe this place, but I will do my best. You walk in to reception and buy what massages or whatever you want to do. Mich and I got a couples deal (haha) which saved us a lot of money. The pools are free, and they are amazing. Papallatca is a place where a volcano used to be, and years ago they discovered these hot springs in the ground. This spa dug up this water, filtered it a bit, and sent it into 6 or so pools surrounding the spa. The water is PERFECT temperature, like almost as hot as a hot tub. The cool thing is the water is so naturally pure because of the sulfur from the mountains that there are no chemicals that need to clean the water, and its naturally the perfect temperature to swim in. They have jets and all sorts of cool things. So you wait to have your massage or whatever in these pools, and you can stay in the water seriously all day. Mich and I had a package, so we went to this cave/sauna for 20 minutes, then had a transitional period for 40 minutes in this other really cool relaxing room, then we had an HOUR massage. Best hour of my life haha, it was so relaxing. Then we went to the “cafeteria” which is really just like a super nice restaurant and I had red meat for the first time in a week and a half. I was so happy. Then we went out into the pools and floated around for a couple hours. Please look at the pictures, because I am really not doing this place any justice. I am pretty sure I want my honeymoon to stop there for a few days, because i have never been so relaxed in my life and I cannot imagine a prettier place to be.

Today (saturday) I think we are going to bum around and check out the city some more. I will write again soon!

xoxo,

ally y michelle

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