Swamp Ass & El Salto

We went to bed early last night, so we had a solid 10 hour sleep. The aircon in our room was pumping which I loved but I did need to put on a hoodie halfway through the night.

We woke up around 8 am but took the morning very easy.
Kaya did not sleep well and seemed really sick so Talia and I went to the grocery store for breakfast food and gatorade… The 3 mins walk to the grocery store, a quick shop, and walk home resulted in me having a full, sweat through my clothes kind of swamp ass.

I have NOT acclimatized to this humidity yet but I do wonder if I am “sweating out all the toxins” I have ever consumed. The health girlies would be pleased.

We were a tad worried Kaya had COVID but she perked up at 11am - noon ish just in time for Maddy to arrive and seemed to be back to normal the rest of the day! I think she was just run down from our day travelling and not getting a good sleep.

For late breakfast, I made hard boiled eggs and I had planned to make a quesadilla but it was a fail… The shredded cheese we bought turned out to be cheddar cheese product” …
What is that you ask….
We let me tell you.
Ingredients: Water, food starch, palm oil, etc.

That was the legit ingredient list. I didn’t even think to look at the bag because it looked totally normal but as I started cooking it some red flags popped up in my mind when it didn’t seem to be melting and then charred, cheese is not supposed to do that.

Once we were all reunited we head out to El Salto, a nearby watering hole with a rope swing. Ada a german girls came with our crew, she was a little awkward but I really respected her bravery to insert herself in a bigger group of friends. The walk was about 20 minutes in the heat but it went by quickly as we took in the view of the volcano and local farms.
I loved the rope swing! What a blast! The water was cool, there was shade from the big trees and it was busy but not so crowded that you felt cramped.

After we were all done rope swinging we saw a guy with a helmet and rope… I asked him what he was doing… “I am replacing the rope, look its broken” * points at the rope we’ve been swinging on * “It’s weak now”

LOOOL I could not believe the day we come to the rope swing is the day it gets replaced haha. It was fine and I always yank on it before swinging but JEEZ!

After an hour or two of El Salto we decided to grab some lunch at a “soda”, my (early) dinner cost $10 CAD all in, I had Arroz con pollo w/ fries, salad and a big smoothie like drink made of pineapple and papaya. I did not know that was included but it really brought be back to life after sweating all day.

The rest of the day we swam at the hostel pool, played pool, and just hung out. We spent some time chatting with a girl named Rachel who is from New York and Benton who is from USA but works out of Dubai designing roller coasters which is pretty cool.

We also sang Talia happy Birthday and Kaya and Maddy surprised her with these cool pastry things, I will get a photo from Kaya later to add to the post but it looked like a fish filled with custard, chocolate or caramel.

Tomorrow we are waking up really early to hike so we had another early night.

P.S It is also Mothers Day today! I am sad I am missing it with mom but she is spending that day with Annika in Toronto and getting high tea which is so lovely.

Ally OlsenMay 8, 2022