Hot Springs revisited

After our first attempt at going to the hot springs, we really wanted to go try them out. We recruited our friends Paul and Maureen and Maureen’s mom, Hetty, to go with us. First we went to La Desembocada to eat lunch. We were all stuffed after that big, delicious meal. I wanted to show them where the river crossing was where you would begin the hike to the natural hot springs. I expected to show them a pretty and peaceful setting. Well, that didn’t happen! First we saw 20 ATVs (4-wheelers) cross the river, obviously a tour group from Dona Engracia. After the ATVs went by, a yellow Vallarta Adventures truck came across the river. Next was a group of about 20 horses, followed a few minutes later by a group of 20 – 30 hikers. When we thought we had seen every possible form of tour, a group of mountain bikers came up!
We all agreed that a hike up to the hot springs was in order for the next trip and headed out to Las Palmas. As I mentioned before, the road to the hot springs is about wide enough for one car in many spots, and is a bumpy dirt road. After riding a while on the dirt road, Paul commented that the only reason he believed there was anything down that road, much less a hot springs, was because Harold said it was there.
We paid our 30 pesos each for admission, set up “camp” and tried out the water. After sticking a toe in the hottest spring, we were sorry we didn’t bring some potatoes to boil! That spring is super hot! We did see 2 people immerse themselves in the water. They both looked like langostinos (lobsters) when they came out. Harold put his feet in the hottest water about 3 minutes and it looked like he had on red socks!
The other pools are progressively cooler. We enjoyed the next-hottest pool and a couple of the cooler ones. The water has a slight sulfur smell and seems to be very soft. It felt good to lounge in the pools.
After we spent the afternoon relaxing, we dropped our friends off in Nuevo Vallarta and headed home. You wouldn’t think all that relaxing could wear you out, but we both laid down and took a nap when we got home.

So typically Mexican!

I told Harold today that we need to take a series of pictures of things that are so typically Mexican that you just don’t see in Hewitt, Texas. Soon we will have pictures and descriptions of things that now seem normal but have caught our interest. Stay tuned!