Aguas Termales!

Cconnoc

The week before last Oscar and I headed out to the Cconoc Hot Springs for a day away from Cusco. Actually, I had no idea where I was heading just that it had the words aguas termales in it and that was sufficient. We rented a taxi and headed down into the warm, humid valley away from the cold mountains of Cusco. It was, by far, the most gorgeous trip of my stay here - rolling hills, green fields, tiny adobe houses, cows all over the road, sun setting...gorgeous. Our taxi also picked up 4 other people (yes, that is 7 people in one taxi) but we ended up being the odd-men out so to speak as no one else wanted to stop in Cconoc. So instead of being $5 US per person it was now $80 soles (which, in the grand scheme of things, is only $25-30 US but it is all relative - 80 soles always sounds like a lot, and more importantly, he was price gauging). Oscar and I found ourselves dropped off on a deserted road in the middle of nowhere forestland in pitch black country darkness. Our taxista pointed at a trail, the beginning of which we could just make out by the light of the brakes, and said he had to just follow that trail. And then he drove away. Fortunately both of us have a healthy sense of humor and flashlights too. We skidded our way down a very steep and twisty dirt trail surrounded by cacti and trees with thorns, and I think I nearly drove Oscar, who is already scared of things like mice and spiders, over the edge with my questions about bears and mountain lions living in the valleys and mountains of Peru. After a half-hour we finally saw some lights and came upon the hot springs. The next day I discovered that this little resort is right on the side of the biggest river I have ever seen outside of the Columbia. It is gorgeous, surrounded by mountains, exotic plants, warm sun, and my favorite, mosquito-like bugs. Although when they bit it didn't hurt and I thought I got away with murder the next day when they STILL didn't itch. Unfortunately, 10 days later, they are still driving me insane!! We left later that morning by walking back up the killer, this time with 90F heat and mosquitoes. I was happy to see a rock slab of a seat sitting in the shade and promptly laid down on it to revive myself. But then a bus came by, a saving grace I know not, except there wasn't any room on it which meant we had to stand most of the 3 hour bus ride back to Cusco. There is nothing like a giant bus filled with people who don't use deoderant or even shower that much in the height of a humid summer up and down twisty mountain roads when you are already exhausted and overheated and just finished all your water. Mind you, most of the people on the bus were young men, but it was a woman in her 50's who finally took pity on me and let me have her seat for awhile, and later when enough people left that I had my own seat, I promptly fell asleep for a nap and some kid outside threw a water balloon at my window which woke both me and my seat partner.

I spent Valentine's Day at an English pub, the same one I had Christmas dinner and Thanksgiving dinner at, and had a delicious cheese and, later, chocolate fondue. One American and two Irish male friends surprised us all by leaping into the restaurant in full-on homemade cupid/devil costumes complete with horns, wings, red underwear, red soccer socks, and shooting rubber bows and arrows. All three very single cupids were very happy to see 5 angels in full on white dresses and feathery white wings slugging back a few hard drinks at the bar. Ahhh amor!