Bother from Other Mothers

Top pool, too hot to soak.

Having landed in the rather dumpy second largest Guatemalan city of Xela (pronounced "shayla," short for Quetzaltenango, obviously), I found little to do than wonder why in this particular town most of the foreign travelers (read: whites) seem to ignore each other on the street, dodging eye contact or acknowledgment. I made it a game to stare hard at them while smiling as they passed. Didn't faze any of them.

Lower pool, fed by hot upper pool and cooled by another stream and Moms.

So I sought out of town entertainment, taking a morning bus tour up to Fuentes Georginas, the local hot springs that had suffered a mud slide last year but had recently reopened, largely rebuilt.

Reverse of lower pool, and tropical mountain forest beyond.

I knew that it was relatively quiet during the weekdays, though I had not been informed that it was Mother's Day in Guatemala, where they hold to the date of May 10th, with none of the Sunday guarantees that we American rely upon. So instead of sharing the pools with 8 other people, I had all the local Moms, their kids, and a fair smattering of Dads.

Series of tubes.