A day of good deeds and a significant milestone

They do say what goes around, comes around and this is what happened with us today! A day of good deeds from us and to us.

On the way to the laguna above our village (Molinos), we saw an old man wating by the side of the road carrying four bags that looked rather heavy asking for a lift. This is not the first time we helped a hitchhiker (it is very common in South America) and so we thought we should help him out. The old man hoped in the car and on we went. Driving along, he told us he was carrying decorations for the Day of the Souls (Dia de los Almas) to put up in the local church. He explained that on that day, there is a special church service and festivities. 

Next, as we were getting into the mountains, we saw a lady at the side of the road trying to change her tire on her own. We stopped and Dan and the old man went to lend a hand. It took us some time but time was something we had on our side today. Soon, the spare wheel was on, the lady was grateful and thanked us and we were moving along again.

But then it was our turn to be 'helped' by others. Just before we left our hostel, the owner told us of a hot spring at the top of the mountain and suggested he gets in touch with a lady who lives at the nearest village to show us the way. We didn't really expect anything and couldn't understand how we would be able to spot this lady since we didn't know her name or where she lives. But as we approached the village, we saw a couple waiting on the side of the road waving at us as we passed. Initially, we thought they also needed a lift but it turned out that she was the lady the owner of our hostel was talking about. There, on the side of the road, she and her husband who had walked 6kms to the main road (because they didn't have a car) were waiting for us to guide us to the hot springs near their house. When we offered to pay them for their help, they refused to take any money and they said that they only wanted to show us (and other people) this amazing hot spring. Wasn't this a really kind thing to do?   

After we left them at their house, we walked for half an hour on the side of the mountain to reach the hot spring. 

The hot spring pool was brilliant and warm, in fact almost boiling, and you had to slowly ease yourself into the bubbling waters. Luckily, there were some other pools nearby which were a bit more refreshing after the hot, dusty hike!

If we find petrol for Chiquita (don't ask, there is shortage of petrol everywhere in Argentina at the moment), we will be driving down south tomorrow morning to a place with a swimming pool and two bunk beds. I can't wait!

P.s To celebrate Halloween, Dan and Ioanna got us some sweets! That was another very nice treat of the day and there were no tricks involved :)

Pps. We also reached 10.000kms - a quarter of our planned distance! So all in all, a quarter in terms of time (3 months) and a quarter in terms of distance. Woohooo!!!