Dear Asher,
After a great sleep, breakfast and a morning nap, we set out to find Agua Termales, the hot springs 6km out of town. We asked some locals to point us in the right direction and set out on foot. For the first time in over a week, we had cloudless blue skies and the temperatures returned to the high twenties. The 2km to the highway was shaded by the tall colonial buildings lining the coble stone streets, but the highway was blistering hot. We decided to flag down a bus to take us to the cut off for the hot springs. We jumped off the short 2km bus ride and the driver insisted that we not pay for the ride. We know that it’s because they wanted to take care of the gringo baby walking in the full sun. The final 2km had us walking up and down hilly back roads, completely surrounded by lush, cloud tipped mountains and aside from a sole SUV, we had the hike all to ourselves.

Now sweating head to toe, we quickly stripped down to our bathing suits and jumped into the hot springs. Hot springs are usually designed with man-made pools of varying sizes and temperatures so there is always something for everyone. The largest pool was warmer than most swimming pools and the smallest one was about the temperature of a hot tub. Asher, we spent five hours getting in and out of the passively fed pools and you were in your glory. We met a nice family who emigrated from Honduras to the USA and had returned for a week to visit family. They were amazed to see that you were traveling at such a young age, especially overland on chicken buses. They generously bought us some lunch and you enjoyed your first taste of fried plantains. It wasn’t long before we were back in the pools, splashing around and making more friends. As we laid back looking out at the four tiered pools of emerald warm water, we talked about just how happy we were with our decision to spend such quality time together as a young family with minimal stress and maximum adventure.

The warm water rubberized our legs and saturated our stamina so we were not up for tackling the 6km hike back to Gracias. We asked the American-Hondurans to give us a ride to the main road in their SUV and they happily made room for us. 2km down. We then flagged down a pick-up truck of sugar cane farmers, jumped in the back and even you hung on to the railings, realizing there was a lot more wind than normal. They also refused to take Lempira from us. 4km down. You fell asleep on the final 2km walk back to our hotel and stayed that way for three hours. OUT COLD! As your mom and I walked hand in hand, we talked about what a trooper you have been throughout this trip and about just how much we love our water baby.

For dinner, we had our new kitchen-less favorite; tomato avocado sandwiches, then we spent the evening strolling around park central with you on my shoulders. We visited the large white Catholic Church, took pictures by the huge Christmas tree, rode the slide at the park, played with the hundreds of kids that swarmed the jungle gym and watched the pupusa lady whip up our favorite Latin American fare. Happily tired, we returned to our room and were asleep before our heads hit the pillow. Again, gracias, Gracias.