The Agua Caliente! A.K.A. the Hot Spring Waterfall River

Posted by Christopher

So yesterday, we decided we’d go to the “ Agua Caliente” which is essentially a hot springs just below a waterfall with some caves and stuff. The only question was our means of getting there.

Our boat has been lifted out of the water (as I’m sure you’ve read) and so we’re staying in a very socially empty area filled with boats. Although, we have made friends of some of the only other people here. There is an 11 year old boy named Brendan, whom Alexander and I have been hanging out with lately, and a 9 year old girl named Beth, who Katie has befriended.

Guatemalan bus stop

So they told us that we had two choices: Either we could do a big tour trip that was really expensive and we ended up with a tour guide. Or we could go on the local shuttle up there. So naturally with us being “experienced world travelers” we decided to take the local bus.

I was in this position for an hour total.  There and back.  Notice the arms of the people hanging on outside the bus.  There were people on the roof, too.

The next thing I knew I was sweating in the back of a broken down van, surrounded by half tourists, and half local Guatemalans. Also my attention was fully drawn to several people who were holding on to the side of the bus and standing in the door at 60 km/h because we couldn’t physically fit anyone else inside. As well as all that good stuff, I was getting progressively more car sick, considering that they had seated me facing backward on an insanely winding road.

This seems safe.  Although it is hard to make a seatbelt work out there.

Finally after what was probably about half an hour I heard Mom say “this is our stop” so I tumbled out and tried to settle my stomach. We needed to walk for a little while after that up a wide path but we finally reached the Agua Caliente.

Katie went rock climbing!

Our friends knew of a spot where we could jump off of the waterfall and some caves that you could swim and slide through. So we set up a blanket and made a small sort of picnic area, before Brendan showed us up the climb/path to the top of the waterfall it was about 6 meters high and was a very intimidating jump. But as soon as we got to the top of the waterfall looking down in to the pool of water below people started to move out of the way.

Get out of the way!  I think the crazy gringos might jump!

I jumped off and out with the wind rushing by me and landed with a big splash. It was not the highest thing I’ve jumped off all year but it was pretty awesome. Then we went to the caves where we crawled and squirmed through a little circuit, making my way to the other end, in fact we even got Mom to go through.

Katie flings herself off of a waterfall in style!

Probably not the best time to start wondering if the water under me is deep enough.

Inside the caves.  I half expected Gollum to sneak up behind me.

Credit for the cave and jumping pictures goes to Alexander.

For lunch (which I had minimal amounts of) we had picked up some deep fried chicken at a restaurant called Pollo Campero, only because it’s the most common restaurant in Guatemala (you can find a crowded one every couple blocks). But It was so awful that I could barely stomach it, knowing about the car ride that I would need to go back with, so I ate maybe one wing. It was essentially kentucky fried chicken with a Guatemalan health rating.

Eventually we needed to go back, and so we packed up and got picked up in a shuttle bus. The ride home was just as bad as coming there, needless to say, It was unfathomably cramped.

I took a picture of these kids on our digital camera and showed them themselves.  They were amazed!