Los Banos del Carmen

Since the adventure in Palenque, I've been somewhat attached at the hip with Aurelie, the French teacher, and Lalo, her friend and now mine from Mexico City. We have a lot of laughs, get along well and enjoy the same adventures. On top of that, they don't speak English so I'm accomplishing my #1 goal here in Mexico, improving my Spanish.

We spent a relaxing weekend about an hour and a half southeast of Tuxtla in a small pueblo with hot springs called Los Banos del Carmen where we camped and bathed in incredibly warm water loaded with sulfur. I found out what happens when you immerse silver in sulfur for hours; all of my jewelry turned brown! Thankfully, after a few days, the color rubbed off.

We arrived on Saturday just in time for a delicious dinner of freshly caught mojarra (tilapia). As they prepared it, we watched a man fish to restock their reserves. It was delicious and came with a lot of vegetables, which isn't the norm here in Mexico.

After dinner, we found a nice spot close to the river and under a tree to set up our tent. We were the only campers and we spent the rest of the evening sitting around a fogata (campfire) that we built, but unfortunately not without a little environmental poisoning. We didn't have newspaper and the villagers gave us plastic - yes, plastic to start a fire. I guess it coats the logs and helps the fire burn. That wasn't enough, so Lalo tossed some oil that he had in his car on the logs and it burned for the remainder of the night. I'm not much of a Girl Scout, I guess!

We drank Corona and chatted under a star-filled sky, crashing just after midnight.

Breakfast consisted of fresh, tasty prawns and coffee. Afterwards, we submerged ourselves in the hot springs for a few hours, relaxing and Aurelie and I even enjoyed a mud mask facial from a local villager. Our skin felt smooth and healthy so we bought a bag of the local barro (mud) for 20 pesos ($2).

On the drive back to Tuxtla, Aurelie and I fell asleep while Lalo safelty returned us to the city. He's an excellent driver; it's refreshing to know that not all the drivers in Mexico are crazy-dangerous.