One day, while the wife was toiling away on the computer for hours and hours working to better their hotel operations, the manboy got whiney... He was bored and wanted to do something fun. He pouted at his wife to stop working and to go to their favorite hot springs with him. After much begging and pleading, his amazing wife agreed.
AND THEN THEY BARELY MADE IT HOME ALIVE.
Okay, not really... But man, what were we thinking driving up the mountain to Nuevo Ixtlan during rainy season?! Dummies. We knew it could be "iffy" driving up there because you have to drive through several river beds along the way (they're dry most of the year)... But we hadn't gotten any huge thunderstorms in like a week, so it was probably fine, right?
WRONG.
There are two ways to get to the Nuevo Ixtlan Aguas Termales... One is cutting across the point to Sayulita and going through San Pancho and Lo de Marcos all the way up to Lima de Abajo traveling along the coast. You turn off the highway at a mile marker onto dirt roads for the rest of the way, which we have only done once...the other way is going through Bucerias to San Juan de Abajo, El Colomo, Portuna de Vallejo, etc. They both take 90+ minutes to get there, but we like the second route better. We go through lots of small, authentic towns and drive through lush greenery while listening to our favorite songs and (poorly) singing at the tops of our lungs.
Fun fact: We actually have no idea the names of any of the streets we need to take to get there, we only know the directions by sight and certain landmarks. "Turn left where we asked that guy for directions that one time"... "Go straight where those ladies sell coconuts", etc. We even have a "landmark" we named "guy in chair." (There's a super old man who sits in his chair leaned up against a house and he has been in the same exact spot every time we've gone to the springs.)
Yesterday, we drove up our usual way and we did have to cross a few creeks in the mini van as we suspected we might have to. But no big deal.
One of the creeks...
We also got stuck in a Mexican traffic jam... Just another Thursday!
The springs... ahhh. (Not my picture, obviously.)
We tie these two derps together when we're out and about and they haven't figured out that they're not really tied up yet.... Nerds.
Well, while we were enjoying our beloved hot springs... it started to rain. "Ahhhh, how romantic! Hot springs in the rain!" And then.... it started to rain harder. "Uh-oh." Even though there's a lot of canopy coverage overhead, all of our stuff was getting soaked, the dogs were starting to get wet and antsy (they're afraid of the thunder, understandably.) So, after a while we decided to head back out... We were worried what the rain was doing to our small creek crossings, so we decided to drive back through Lima de Abajo instead of our usual route because we thought we remembered it having less dirt roads and more highway. "Yeah, that'll be safer!!" Dummies.
We weren't driving for very long when we approach a RAGING RIVER where the ROAD IS SUPPOSED TO BE. Um, nope. I was trying to convince Ty to turn the hell around and go back the other way, but there was a 10-year old Mexican kid standing in the river/road trying to wave us through. Like he put himself in charge of river traffic for their tiny town or something. I very calmly sat in the van and totally was not panicking at all while Ty waded out in the river to check the depth for himself. The kid was telling him, "Muy facile, no problemas!" right as Ty lost both of his flip flops and helplessly watched them float on down the road. He trekked back up to the van soaking wet and barefoot and said, "We're gonna go for it." To which I replied, "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!"
The kid walked back up to his house on the corner and watched our Gringo-ness from his window. I looked at him just before we pretended we were driving a Jeep and not a Dodge Caravan and he gave me a big smile and a thumbs up. After we had safely made it across the raging rapids of nope-ness, I gave him a big wave out the window and yelled, "Muchas gracias!" Locals are the best.
Twenty minutes later we were still on dirt roads with sections of slippery cobblestone, and we were wondering how much further until the highway when we came upon a truck that couldn't make it up the slippery rocks. An older Mexican woman was (pointlessly) trying to push the truck from behind while her husband laid on the gas. (Sounds like something Ty would do to me.) Without even thinking or speaking, we parked our pretend Jeep and hopped out in the pouring rain (Ty was still barefoot, mind you) to help the woman push the truck up the cobblestone hill. And then I became the little kid in the window and gave her a big smile and a thumbs up as she schlepped up the wet road trying to catch up with her husband in the truck. (Also sounds like something Ty would do to me.) Never a dull moment.
We drove back the rest of the way without much incident, both sitting on soaking wet seats, totally drenched from head to toe. The temperature dropped into the 70s while it was raining and we actually had to turn on the heat in the van! That was a first.
We made it back before dark, but being too mentally exhausted (on my part, of course... Ty loved all the excitement) to think about what we should do for dinner, we decided to drop the dogs off at the house, get Ty some replacement flip flops and then head to Tacos on the Street, where we recounted the hilarity of the day's events. I have to admit... The day's "adventures" were pretty fun...but I don't think we'll be going back to Las Aguas Termales until at least October after all that!! I mean... what if we really couldn't make it back?? What if we had to camp in the van in the woods with two dogs and no food or water or cell service until the rains let up?? No thanks! Gringo lesson learned.
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