Guatemala 8/5/2017

Saturday 8/5/2017 - Nangulvi Hot Springs in Intag

We had breakfast this morning with two tourists from Germany, Georg and Anna Luisa, who had arrived late last night. Breakfast was my favorite: crepes filled with blackberry jam, served with bread, juice, and coffee.

After breakfast, Georg and Luisa continued on their trip, and the rest of us took a camioneta pick up truck to Intag. It took us about one hour and 45 minutes to get there. It was mostly downhill via windy roads with hairpin turns. The vegetation changed as we lost over 1000 meters in altitude, and there were many areas where there had clearly been landslides along the way. We had to make three stops for car sick kids, but they soldiered on.

We stopped to view the "Inca Face," a natural feature in the side of a green cliff. We could easily make out the slit-like eyes, bridge of the nose, etc. It was very cool!

We continued on through Apuela, a small town in the Intag valley which consists of a main road, market, church, and a few small bodegas and restaurants. We proceeded to Nangulvi Hot Springs, situated on a river.

The ultimate irony of this excursion is that for 7 years, I have brought my bathing suit every time we have visited the equatorial highlands of Ecuador. I have never once needed it; the altitude of Morochos makes it way too cold to swim in Lake Cuicocha or any of the rivers without becoming hypothermic. So this time I decided to travel light and intentionally left my bathing suit in Guatemala. Little did I know that there are hot springs so close to Morochos, and that Antonio had planned to take us there. Luckily, Craig had an extra pair of shorts, so I wore them with a T-shirt.

We felt badly, because Paulina had not brought a bathing suit, and didn't really have any other clothes with her that were appropriate for swimming. Craig was so worried about this that he actually had nightmares about it last night! Luckily, there were bathing suits for sale for $12 at the hot springs, and she was able to purchase one.

Here at Nangulvi, there are several pools of different sizes temperatures. They are more like swimming pools and hot tubs than the more natural-looking pools we went to in Guatemala last week. The sun was shining, and we were in a valley surrounded by beautiful mountains. The water was nice and warm and did wonders for our travel-weary bodies. It was truly an idyllic location.

Sisa, Shina, and Yupanqui don't have much experience with swimming, so Rosa, Antonio, Rolando, and I helped them. Shina was especially happy; Rosa says that she is so eager to swim that she tries to swim around in their tiny washtub when she takes a bath. She was really excited to get to play in a real pool.

There was a cool short zip line that drops you into the water in the largest pool. I had thought that Eddy might want to try; he is a pretty good swimmer. But he was uncomfortable because of the depth, so he said no thank you. I am proud of him for being honest and not trying something that he didn't feel comfortable doing.

Craig was careful not to stay submerged in the hot water for too long, as it has the potential to aggravate his MS. Luckily, even the deeper pool had a shallow end where he could stand with his torso exposed to cool down a bit.

After about 90 minutes, we got out of the pools and changed back into dry clothes. We stopped at Cafe Rio Intag for lunch. It was a strange combination of local lunch counter, coffee shop, and local police station. As we entered, we saw Tom Orr on the TV above the bar, from The History Channel's "Mountain Men." It was great to see the local police watching it...they have much in common with homesteading in Idaho, but I bet they are astounded by the onscreen snow. However, as soon as a football game started, they quickly changed the channel.

Antonio ordered typical meal plates for everyone: chicken soup as well as pork chicharron, choclo corn, tomato and onion salad in lemon juice, fried plantain, baked potato, and cheese. It was served with lemon, and the family put salt on the lemon and ate it. We may be able to adapt to local traditions such as mayonnaise on pizza and hot sauce on pasta, but we will never get used to salted lemons!

Everyone got an ice cream novelty for dessert (it certainly was a novelty for us to get a Magnum bar for just $1.30!) I bought some fresh organic local organic Arabica coffee, a specialty the area due to the microclimate of the Intag valley. We have now bought coffee in three Latin American countries so far on this trip (Guatemala, El Salvador, and Ecuador). We will need to buy some at the Juan Valdez coffee shop in the Bogota airport on our way back to Guatemala...collect them all! Bob Dylan came to mind "One more cup of coffee 'fore I go to the valley below."

After a thoroughly satisfying day, with full bellies, we all dozed on the ride back to the house.

When we got back to the house, Paulina and Rosa chatted as they prepared dinner. Something is always on the stove here, be it soup for lunch or dinner, potatoes, etc. Food dominates the culture.

Eddy and Sisa challenged one another to a sopa de letras (word search) race. It was fun to see them get competitive and match wits with one another. Sisa was looking for the word cama, which means bed. "Cama, cama, donde esta cama?" she wondered aloud. Shina, remembering that Craig had told Eddy several days ago "Calm, calm" while making hand motions for him to settle down, spontaneously came up with the sound-alike "Calm," and waved her arms in the same way. It always amazes me how quickly she picks up English just from hearing it, and how well she remembers. With her vision problems, she is definitely an auditory learner.

Sisa and Eddy were all tied up with one word to go each. Tensions were high and no coaching was allowed. Eddy won by a single word, but in actuality we think it was a tie, because none of us 4 adults was able to find Sisa's final word either. I think it was a mistake in the book. There wasn't time for a rematch because dinner was ready.

We had soup, beef, mixed vegetables, rice, and mashed potatoes. At dinner Sisa asked "Achi Mama, como se dice no te vayas in Ingles?" (How do you say "don't go" in English?) The kids always beg us not to leave. They used to start mentioning it as soon as we arrived. This time it was delayed a bit. But we found it interesting that Sisa was trying to learn how to communicate it in English. She is at an age where she can start to understand the language barrier between us.

I think that she started to notice this more with visits from Aracely and Eddy. Here were two kids in her same general peer group who could speak both Spanish and English. If Craig and I don't understand something in Spanish, they attempt to describe the concept in English. She is beginning to see how powerful that is. Maybe if she could tell us not to go in our own language, we would understand and stay. Child development fascinates me, and getting clues into how children's minds work is always humbling.

Shina couldn't stop talking about the hot springs. She would chatter to herself and we could pick out the word "piscina" (pool). She had obviously really enjoyed herself, and we knew that we would take them back there in the future. Swimming is such an important survival skill, but it really is something which can be a direct result of your privelege (or lack thereof). The family here does not normally have access to swimming due to the climate; though they have lakes and rivers which pose a very real danger to anyone who does not know how to swim. Taking them to Nangulvi is not only fun, but also gives them practice in the water.

We said our goodnights after a busy day. As we walked back to our room, we noticed Cachupin the dog acting strangely. He was alternating between growling and whining, drawing our attention to the main bathroom. This bathroom is off the patio, accessible from outdoors, and does not have a proper door.

Cachupin seemed very afraid of something that was in there. Rosa turned on the bathroom light and there was a large, aggressive dog in there. Its muzzle was foamy and we were all worried that it might be rabid. Rosa sprang into action, swatting the dog with a broom handle and chasing it off the property while Rolando restrained Cachupin, who would have taken off after it if allowed. We were very impressed that Cachupin had alerted the family to the threat. He's generally a very mellow dog, but he proved that he is capable of protecting the family when necessary.

We saw that what the interloper had been doing was eating a bag of powdered laundry soap, hence its foamy muzzle. We breathed a sigh of relief that it wasn't rabies, as the dog was still roaming the community.

After that brief moment of excitement, we all proceeded to bed.

Nangulvi Hot Springs, Intag