sneaky Canadians

One of the things I was looking forward to doing on this trip, was swimming in natural hot springs. I have, three times so far, but the first was definitely more appealing than the others, and most importantly - natural!

In Copan, we got a group of people together and sat on a bus for one hour to reach the hot springs 24 km out of town. The roads were winding, and the views spectacular - I love the landscape of Honduras - incredibly lush, rolling mountains, stray cows and horses roaming everywhere.

So we arrived at the hot springs to discover that what was accessible for $1 were two small spring-fed concrete pools (picture a public pool filled with warm water), and a river with run-off from the natural spring, that wasn't deep enough to cover your legs if you sat in it. It was more than disappointing, but we weren't going to pay the $10 (seriously, that is a lot of money for this trip) to access the natural springs, even if it came with a free massage.

Instead we decided to sneak in. I saw a path on one side of the river, guarded by a local wielding a machete. He agreed that the trail was public, and would lead to the ¨grande¨ hot springs. We followed the trail, which led where we expected it to, except the springs were guarded by security. He asked for our tickets, which we conveniently left by the other pools. He bought it, and we were in. Way too easy...

We made it down to a spring-fed jacuzzi (yeah, still not the natural wonder we were expecting, but it was a step up) and sat for about 30 seconds. The guard came down and told us that he'd meet us on the other side of the path after we were done, to see our tickets. We agreed, because we didn't know what else to say. He then told us the ticket should be yellow, and should have cost 10 times what we paid. ¨What?¨

So, we left the jacuzzi and followed the man up to a deck, where he called another guard who was to meet us and escort us back. I apologized and explained that the local dude told us the trail was public, and that we didn't know we needed a special ticket....his response? ¨lo siento? (I'm sorry?) yeah, right, no lo siento, you guys are sneaky! well, enjoy the view¨. Luckily he found it pretty amusing, and just asked to be careful when exiting the trail, so that other vistors wouldn't try to get up there too.

We are now in Gracias, Honduras, and one of the highlights of the area are hot springs an hour walk out of town. The place is a popular local hang-out, and basically another set of spring-fed pools. They were more appealing, given that the pools were made of rock, and were surrounded by trees. Janelle might have more to say about our adventures with the locals that day. For now, I have to go.

Actually, I will add one more thing. Janelle and I have parted ways with Mark, at least for the time being. We are now enjoying our vacation, conflict-free.

- Julia