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!"

  

A procession along the way.

We were stopped at a small town that seemed to be a main node where buses coming from different destinations converged and passed passengers like parcels. They then headed  onwards to their various destinations.  I was on a shuttle bus from Antigua and we had to wait for about half an hour for the two people who were joining us for the rest of the trip to Xela (Quetzaltenango).  It explained why our driver had been driving uncharacteristically slowly too up to this point.

I wandered a short ways and perused the market wares, though did not buy.  As we were standing there we could hear some music.  Up the road came a procession.  I thought perhaps it was another fiesta, as there seemed to have been one most days since I had been in Guatemala.  However it was instead a funeral procession.  The coffin was being carried by some of the mourners, many of whom were in sombre colours.  The music however was respectfully upbeat.  The procession passed by us and turned to head up a hill the snaked between some buildings and up I presume to a cemetery.  We headed on our way. in the opposite direction.

Sunrise over Lake Atitlan

I have been here in San Marcos on Lake Atitlan for going on a week.  My last day of classes is tomorrow.  Because of limited internet access in this small sleepy town I will probably backdate pictures and memories from other places at a later point.  However with my San Marcos friend Lisa, we made the good decision to start the day early and watch the sunset.  We sat and took some inadequate pictures to capture the moment and enjoyed the couple hours we sat absorbing the beauty.

The following is an extract from my journal from this time:

"Thu 3 Feb
Left at 5.20 to come and watch the sunrise with Lisa.  The stars were still bright, the night dark, the trees of the jungle merged and sleeping in a monochrome rest. Even some of the dogs were still asleep.  We nestled in to a rock ledge and our eyes adjusted to the inky shapes of rocks, trees and lake.  We had rejected the loud music of the next bay for the rising chorus of pre dawn roosters and arythmic dogs in our bay.
The colours started to seep into the blue black ink of the sky behind a volcanic foreground.  Soft peach and mandarin orange emphasizing the depth of the blues above.  As the colours bled further into sky, the sepia shapes of the branches and rocks around us started to emerge, their form focusing in the rising dawn.  We laugh as we try to capture the ineffable with our little magic boxes, while also imprinting the moments in the sensory bank of memories.  

A sliver of cloud above a section of hills starts to glow as the sun climbs closer to greeting our day. Silhouetted against the brightening day, the volcanoes emerge in soft shades of deepening blue.  We are delighted by the burst of smoke which erupts from the cone of a still active volcano, and disperses gently into the sky catching the warmth of the morning sun.
The glow on the horizon intensifies as the light leads a path like a flower girl, for the imminent glory of the morning sun.  A final swelling moment like the tension of liquid in an overfull glass and then the sun spills into the day bringing warmth and light.  The trees burst into green.  The fishermen in their boats look to the sun and row through a path of shimmering light.  The tangled branches of the leafless tree bursts into a busy song, with the morning chatter of a dozen birds of cheerful yellow and gold.
The sun rises.  The pace of life lifts.  Morning is here.  The day has begun."