Agua Caliente (Hot Water)

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Woke up to the sound of crickets and a facefull of my bug net. Not terrible though, I kind of like this camp style hostel in the middle of nowhere. We all had a late breakfast and decided to head to the hot spring falls. The weather was pleasent as we boated into town. Picking up lunches from a local diner, we jumped on our first chicken type bus! What an experience, there were 23 of us packed into a van suited for 11 max. The whole way Matt and Jeff were complaining about numb legs haha and I am pretty sure Matt was partially sitting on a lady who had a baby in one arm. It was a very cramped 45 minutes but we made it to the falls and began to hike in. The local kids surrounded us looking for money or food but we were ready and said no. They were very persistant though and James gave them a cookie to share and a few quetzals (8 quetzal to the dollar). Matt and I also got scammed by a little girl who took a quetzal from each of us for using a public washroom. The hotsprings were something else, a waterfall of boiling water cascading down a smooth rock face into a river below. We swam most of the day in the river, taking many photoes and exploring the area. A bat cave was nearby so we peaked our heads in but it was so packed with bats that we didn't enter. Justin found 2 huge toads larger than my spread hand that were chilling by the river as well. After the day at the river we realized we didn't have a ride back to town so we hitch hiked. Within 10 minutes we were picked up by a van and brought back to Rio Dulce. This is when it started to downpour on us. We ran into some shops quickly to buy some fake designer clothes then headed for our boat. Justin, Jeff, and I got into our swim stuff while Matt and James just stayed as. Hard to say who was better off, we got cold but they got wet clothes so... Back at the hostel the downpour continued well into the night so our evening was taken up by card games in the bar. The transmitter blew up at 7pm and it was candle light from then on. It is suposed to rain all night and tomorrow so we are thinking of staying here until it clears. Our next destination is a 2 hour boat ride out to the coast, to a town called Livingstone.

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