Luna Jaguar Hot Springs

I have many more adventure from Guatemala that I hope to write about at some point, but this blog will not be chronological and for now I have moved on.

 I am in Copan in South Western Honduras.  It is a cute town of cobbled streets, with many good cafes and a nice town square, the usual Parque Central that many Central American towns and cities seem to be based around.  It is quite a touristy town, but charming none the less and the usual point of visiting is the Mayan ruins of the same name.  

I went to visit the ruins my first full day in town.  They are impressive and I joined a guided tour to get the most out of the visit.  (In the end I didn´t have to pay as the group of four said they had adopted me and had already paid the guide well - nice!) While they are not as tall as the temples in Tikal, the community in Copan was either a much more creatively thriving city, or the carvings have just been preserved better.  Certainly the figures are impressive, as is the hieroglyphic staircase that is still being restored.

Yesterday I went to Luna Jaguar Hotsprings with Stacie (my newest friend).  We got a local bus, which when we got on the road took just over an hour out a dirt road to get us to the hot springs.  There are cheaper hot pools (like swimming pools) on the road side of the river, however we paid our $10 which got us across the swinging wooden bridge into the magical world of a well designed and beautifully contructed spa hot springs.  We managed to arrange a lift back with some people who arrived later on in the day, so ended up spending 4 and a half hours in the pools.  Yes, we were quite pruney!  The cool day and drizzling rain meant the steam from the hot spring that ran by the pools was more visible, mingling with the trees to create an ethereal sense of place.  Hot pools, warm pools, cold plunge pool, mineral mud and pool to wash off in, foot massage pool, waterfall shoulder massage and a series of 6 pools that started cooler and you worked you way up to the hottest one at the top which was 40 degrees!  As we keep saying to each other..."What a great day!"