Thursday, July 19, 2012

Fuentes Georgina's Hot Springs in Chichicastenango State of Guatemala.

-Grandpa Ray Auxillou at the hottest pool in Fuentes Georgina's volcanic hotsprings, near the agriculture town of Zunil, on Zunil Volcano, Chichicastenango, Guatemala.

-This is the big pool, with water fresh from the Volcano.  It is so hot, you cannot swim in it.  Only sit on the steps and take 20 minutes easing yourself into the water.  Your skin turns pink, like a boiled lobster.

-  Having a beer at the restaurant.  Cold up there in those State of Chichicastenango mountains. It took us 24 hours of traveling continuously from Hillview, Belize, to Fuentes Georginas Hotsprings.  We took Fuentes del Norte bus line out of the border town of Melchor de Menchos to Guatemala City, then switched to Linear Dorada in Guatemala City.  We thought the latter ( Linear Dorada ) a better class of PULLMAN bus coach and used them to make the return trip. It was like riding in an airplane, but with lots of leg room, movies, reclining seats to sleep in and soft too.  They had a toilet on board too and served a small lunch.  We had to travel to XELA and ended up getting a taxi for the 30 miles to Zunil and eventually Fuentes Georgina's hotsprings in a volcano gorge.  Beautiful scenery enroute.

-This is our own private hot spring tub in the bungalow we rented.  Same water and what you see is clouds, or water vapor from the heat, in the otherwise cold bungalow.  Very nice rustic accomodations.

- My wife Silvia standing on the left hand side.  Early morning shot, before the sun came up.

-This was our rented bungalow.  Very nice, but cold in them altitudes, for tropical lowland people like us.  Filling the hot tub with scalding volcano water came the place warm though.  They had a fireplace, which we didn't know enough to get working.  Slept very good though.

-  This is the path from the car park entrance, to the hotsprings, which you walk.

-  They have three pools to bath in, with different temperatures.  The place is packed on weekends with locals.  You can make a day trip there from Xela.  During gringo tourist high season, hard to book a bungalow.

-Local mountain scenery around Zunil.

-Me on the right watching 3 Marimba players in the park at Zone 1 of Guatemala City.  Lots of restaurants along this pedestrian only boulevard.  We stayed at the Centential Hotel,
$32 usa a night.  Nice enough and next door to the Presidents Palace.

- When you come from the sea level tropics, one forgets how cold it can get at high altitudes.  We were mostly between 8000 and 11,000 feet in the mountains of Chichicastenango.  I was darned glad to get back home, believe me.  As I got diagnosed with a tumor at the HOMEOPATHIC CLINIC in Guatemala City, wrapped around a lymph node in my neck and which has had me in pain for past 18 months, I think this is the last vacation I probably will have.  Supposed to reach 75 years in mid November this year, if I make it.

No comments: