Day 17: Los Pozos de Caldera

We slept late, which was good because I'm still not feeling so hot. My throat is so sore I can hardly eat or drink. Definitely the worst strep throat I have ever had. Sleeping late, however, was not so good because we missed the late morning bus to Caldera and had to take a taxi. Los Pozos are so isolated that you actually can't drive there. You can get the taxi to take you closer than the bus, but the road is so terrible it costs you a bit more money, so we decided to walk. It was humid and sweltering hot, especially for being so high in the mountains but I'm not complaining, it's better than the rain that usually plagues this area this time of year. The walk was also very scenic, through pastureland and past rivers cloudy with minerals.

 When we finally arrived at Los Pozos we were greeted by a Central American Spider Monkey.

I thought she was trying to walk up and hit us or take something so I was scolding her when she grabbed my hand and started climbing my leg. So I picked her up and she just wrapped herself around me. I immediately began yelling at Leon to take a picture.

The owner of Los Pozos came out and charged us the $2 fee for using the hot springs and explained the monkey's name was Chita and that she was tame. We walked around the hot springs, Chita in my ams the whole time. I was in heaven.

She wouldn't go to Leon and when I tried to return her to the house so I could change, she refused to let go of me. You can't exactly explain to a monkey that you just want to put them down for a second so I ended up changing my clothes with a monkey on my head, quite the experience. Then we spent some time in the hot springs, which is pretty difficult to enjoy when it's already boiling hot outside. Chita spent her time jumping on our heads and trying to steal our belongings, interspersed with napping and being generally adorable.

After an hour we were exhausted by Chita and she was bored with us so she took up off a tree and we headed out for the long walk back to the bus stop. Seriously though, the best $2 I've ever spent, by far.