Los Banos Termales

One place I had on my list of things to do while in Peru this time was to make it up to Ancash/Pomabomba to get to see the part where Wilfredo and all of his siblings grew up. Unfortunately, I still will not get to check that one off the list this time around. After much debate, it was just too much of a time constraint and it is a lot of time in a bus. 

As a shorter alternative option, Wilfredo suggested we visit Churin, the city of many hot springs. We have been hearing about this place basically since we arrived. Prudencio LOVES this place and goes a few times a year - and that is a lot for a 5 hour trek with a family too! 

So, on Tuesday morning we headed to Churin with Wilfredo, Graciela, Rocio, and Consuelo. The bus ride was about 5 hours, but with a 30min stop for breakfast/bathroom and then another long delay where the road was closed. 

Eventually, we did get there! 

We were promptly swarmed by people trying to rent us rooms in their hostels, which we were in need of. We ended up breaking off for a bit to check out some options and then coming back together to decide on one. It was a way more complicated process than it needed to be, which is a theme for the weekend (the simple being made difficult and the difficult seemingly made simple). 

After taking a moment to get settled into our rooms, we headed to our first hot springs called Los Banos de Fierro. I've been to various hot springs before, but this is Peru, and I wasn't sure what to expect. We go in to see the water and it is the color of rust. Hahaha. Alllrrriiiiggghhhttt. If you say it has medicinals properties and healing effects, let's do it. While it looked gross, it didn't smell bad or feel gross. Supposedly, it was only 90F, but it felt a lot hotter. The instructions are to sit in the water for 10-15min, get out for a few minutes, then you can get back in, repeat. The first round I felt fine, the second round, I barely stayed in for the full time, then the last time I only stayed in for like 5 minutes. It was hot and my body was feeling depleted, so I drank some Sporade. Lesson learned, don't forget to hydrate! 

Check out that lovely reddish-brown water! 

After a respite, we went to check out the other baths, with even hotter water! I don't know what the temperature of it was, but there were very specific instructions for this bath. If you had heart problems or "suffered from pregnancy" you are not allowed to enter. If you enter, you can't be in the water for longer than 5 or 6 minutes. If you stay for longer than 6 minutes, you will start to lose touch with reality (I can't remember the exact wording, but something like that). After sitting in the hot water, you are to sit for 15 minutes. Sounds a little frightening, doesn't it? 

As soon as I put a toe in the water, I realized this was going to hurt, but I had to persevere and go for the full experience. So, I ease my way into the water and find that if I was just still, it didn't hurt so much. You know when your foot falls asleep and then it tingles when it is waking back up and kind of hurts? It basically felt like my whole body was in the waking up process and it was painful. As soon as nearly 5 minutes was up, I was OUT! Been there, done that, not doing it again. 

Emoliente!

That night, we had fried trout for dinner. It seems to be the thing to eat everywhere we go! I can't complain though, it is always delicious. This was no exception. Delicious. After dinner, we went to get emoliente. It is one of my favorite things to do in Peru. When I was here in 2011, everytime I went shopping with Carolina, we stopped to get emoliente from this lady that straight up looked like a witch. Such great times and I have been on the lookout for great emoliente since then. Emoliente is an herbal tea mixed with various natural sweeteners and other ingredients, such as alfalfa. It's really good and makes you sort of feel like a local. 

The next day, we got up early to head to Huancahuasi to check out some other hot springs. We were originally told we would leave at 7am, but then we didn't leave until 8am. Kind of frustrating and it was really cold while waiting..good thing all we did in Huancahuasi was sit in hot water to relax, calm down, and warm up. 

Having a good time :)

The hot springs there are done up pretty nicely as one of their previous presidents really enjoyed them. Originally, the hot springs were merely covered in adobe huts. Now, they are very nice stone buildings with a touch of Incan design to them. I think they are a positive thing now for the area, but there is a lot of bitterness as well as that president was very corrupt and I believe he is in jail now. As one person commented, Fujimori built bath houses instead of a school. Well, I hope the bath houses are helping the people now as they bring quite a bit of tourism to the area. 

At these bath houses, we followed around a tour group of about 15 senior citizens, or as they say in spanish, those of "tercer edad" (third age?). At the first pool, we watched them do some sort of cleansing ritual, which Graciela participated in. At the second pool, we helped them get into the pool as the water at the steps was very hot, so they wanted to get in on the other end without a step. At another pool, I helped Consuelo and Graciela get around as they can't swim and it was too deep for them to touch to walk around. Doing our community service - helping our fellow bathers in the pool. 

 

Water Aerobics // Water Rituals

After the second pool, Melissa didn't feel very well. Also, we were told the water at the 3rd pool was even hotter, which I didn't need. So, Melissa and I opted to go back to the first pool, while everyone else went on to the next place. It ended up being pretty great as we had the whole pool to ourselves for a little bit. Nice and quiet and relaxing. 

The next place we went to was farther down the road and had one pool that was sulfur water (and smelled great! not...) and one of colbalt water. I'm not really sure what the difference in minerals makes, other than sometimes the smell, but supposedly they do different things for your bones, or skin, or sicknesses, etc. When Melissa's friend came to visit, she was sick, and I ended up with it (which is odd, because out of everyone, I had the least contact with her, but whatever). I have had a cough, etc. for a week and now it seems to be pretty much gone. Everyone is convinced the water healed me. Who am I to dispute it? I'm just glad I feel better now. 

For lunch after the multitude of hot baths, we had to find more of the local flavor - trout! This time, I had chicharron de trucha. Usually, chicharron is a way they prepare pork, but they seem to chicharron everything. I'm not really sure what the method is, but it is dang good! The trout just melted in my mouth. The flavor was really rich and oh so delicious. I could have had 2! 

Trout all around!

Once we got back to Churin, we hopped in a 12 passenger van and headed back to Lima. The idea was that the van left at a better time and would get there faster. We did not think so much in the downsides. It ended up being crowded as there was no trunk, so we had to put our bags at our feet and there was not a lot of leg room. The van is not as well sealed as the bus, so I could barely breathe the first 2 hours we were driving down the very very dusty unpaved roads (I was very thankful to see pavement!). And it was really hot with all those people and no air conditioning. As I told Melissa, I think the van undid all the work the hot water had accomplished, but so it goes. We got back at 9pm, instead of 3am. I suppose that is the win. 

Also, in all the moving around, the rubber piece from my earbud fell off and ended up under my seat. The driver was very nice and let me take time to hunt for it and then when the impossible happened and I located it, he helped get it out. Yay for headphone recovery! They're my favorite set. 

Overall, I had a great time hanging out with Wilfredo, Rocio, Graciela, Consuelo, and Melissa in Churin and Huancahuasi. Get to know a little more of Peru and spend a little more time with some of my favorite Peruvians. 

~nos vemos~