Popayan, day three, part three, frailejones and Termales San Juan

In riding through Purace I started to to notice more the hundreds of thousand if not millions of frailejones throughout the paramo.  The flower slightly resembles a sunflower but that is where the similarities end.  The flower is mounted on a tall, thick, dead looking stalk.  There are different varieties but this web picture shows the one I saw the most.

Eventually we reached a trailhead that lead to Termales San Juan.  The trail was paved my some stones which finally made the walking easier.  There was so much vegetation and such to observe along the way but by this point I was overloaded and focused more on walking to another unique site.

Termales San Juan contains sulpur pools that are a byproduct of a ring of nearby volcanoes.  Upon arriving you get a double dose of sight and smell.  Some of it looks apocalyptic and most of it smells like sulphur.  That's not to say it's repulsive, only strange.  The three of us came upon a large family from Cali and chatted and took pictures.  Talking with the young, energetic children who were fascinated with my iPhone re-energized me.
People actually used to wade into the bubbling pools but now that is prohibited for conservation's sake.  Here are two of my pictures.

As we took the mile or so walk back to the trailhead I realized I was about done.  We still had some more rough driving to do, I had to pay my entrance to the park, and then the long winding ride back to Popayan. 
I'd slipped a few times and was muddy, wet, and tired.  A warm shower and a nap in my stiff bed were starting to sound better than trudging around in this spectacular park that I'd somehow gotten used to in 6 short hours.  It was time to return to La Plazuela.