Hot Springs!

Yesterday, while my children were doing good works (as outlined in the last post) I took off for La Gruta, a natural hot spring a few miles out of town. The area around San Miguel is dotted with hot springs, and there are about half a dozen that are developed and open to the public. "Developed" is still pretty funky in Mexico, so each hot spring has its own personality and advantages.

La Gruta has several pools and a long, underground tunnel that leads to a man-made cavern lit only by sunlight through a small opening in the ceiling. The water in the cavern is quite warm, so one tends to cycle from the cavern (or grotto, thus La Gruta) out to the outdoor pools.

The pools and grotto are fed directly from the hot spring. Because of this, there are no chemicals in the water. In addition, La Gruta has a restaurant and bar, plus table service. Always handy!

I went to La Gruta with four friends. I mention them as they are typical of the very interesting friends I have made during my time in San Miguel. Jody Feagan is the founder and director of the San Miguel Writers' Workshops, co-founder of the San Miguel Literary Society and produced the play we went to see last weekend. Her teenage son, Conor, also came with us. Debra Ehrhardt is both writer and performer of the play, Jamaica, Farewell. Although I had only met Debra this past weekend, her Jamaican exhuberence was infectious. JJ Anderson is a professional portrait and travel photographer who has lived in Jamaica and is married to a Jamaican. As with my friends from my Bi-Cultural Evening post, I have met each of these four in San Miguel.

After we were thoroughly soaked and relaxed, it was back to San Miguel for comida, tennis, Spanish study and an evening out at our favorite bar, La Azotea. But that will have to be another post.