Hot Springs Trip

Yesterday we met at Garzon to buy food (hotdogs, arepas, crackers, nuts) for the hiking/camping trip to the hot springs. Well actually, hot spring. There was one natural hot spring situated in the side of a mountain. A little waterfall ran into the lagoon supplying it with hot water. Majestic! It had obviously been enhanced by humans, because there were steps made from the rocks leading into the hot spring. Otherwise, it was a great gift from mother nature. The rocks on the bottom of the lagoon were covered in algae. Here I was, sitting in a natural hot spring, nestled in the side of large mountain range; how beautiful! I took a mental image and promised myself I would never forget how serene and tranquil such a place could be.
We set up camp about 5 min away from the hot spring, so once it started to get dark we went back to camp for a fire. It really never got that dark though because we were closer to the moon, being at such a high altitude, that it provided enough light for us! (We were so high up that some clouds were below us.) While we were sitting around the fire we noticed that the shadow on the mountain next to us kept moving and realized that it was the moonlight casting a shadow from behind our mountain. So we actually took the time to sit and watch the moon peak out and rise from behind our mountain! When do you ever have the opportunity to do that? It looked like God was just shining a flashlight directly on us. My friends Brittany and Caitlin and I stepped away from the fire to look at the stars and found them to be actually twinkling in the sky. I don't think I have ever seen that before. We also sat and waited for the clouds below us to roll in and fill up the valley. Moments like these will stay with me forever. Whenever I get caught up in the stress of life with school or work or whatever...I know to just take a breath, relax and picture serenity. Life is too short for stress!
I didn't sleep to well last night; it was freezing! (Although we did have those really cool sleeping bags that completely fit to your body and mine was purple!) Without the sun warming me up, the temperature was comparable to Minnesota weather. This morning we woke up, packed up and left for the little tienda at the bottom of the hill. They had an actual toilet, instead of a tree; except that the man who owned the house had 40 chicks running amuck! He had sprinkled birdseed everywhere, including the bathroom. So I used the toilet with little baby chicks running around my feet. Funny!