Terma Geometrica

Before we leave Villarrica, I wanted to describe the hot springs we went to yesterday. We had to catch a bus from Villarrica at the bottom of the hill where we are currently staying and take it to a small town called Lican Ray which is also on a beautiful lake. From there, we had to catch another bus to an even smaller town called Coñaripe, and from there a little van to the hot springs. Catching the buses weren´t too difficult. We just had to make sure it was going where we wanted to go. We liked Lican Ray, but we had to press on to Coñaripe, knowing that we would have time to stop for dinner at Lican Ray on the way home. Anyway, Coñaripe was not a tourist town at all. Most of everything was geared to Chileans´ needs with some small restaurants and a few vegetable/fruit stands, and a few beachy type stores. We had dragged another couple from Redmond, WA with us. They had checked into our hosteria just the night before and were interested in going to the hot springs with us. So, the four of us had to find a taxi or something to take us the remaining 17 kilometers to the actual hot springs. After talking with several taxi drivers and van drivers, we negotiated a price of $48.000 pesos which is about $12 dollars each for a ride up to the hot springs and return. He was willing to wait the 3 hours we thought we´d be there. When we got theree (after riding over an unpaved and really rocky road) we paid our fee to get in, took possession of our towels and locker keys, and proceeded up the wooden path to the springs. It was in a narrow valley which someone had decorated with small pools up the hillside, covered with wild fuchsia and vines. The pools were made with flagstone so they looked natural, but were obviously manmade. Beautiful. They varied from extremely hot (muy caliente the sign said) to very cold, water coming right out of the cascading river. It´s pretty clever how they had combined the cascading water with a hot spring to vary the temperatures. They had outdoor bathrooms with permanently running water into sinks in which to wash your hands. They were painted black. The changing rooms were painted red and were open on the rock cliff side. I took lots of photos of it because it was so unique.
We are off to Puerto Varas for the next leg. It is very influenced by German immigrants so we expect to see some familiar architecture and eat some food that we had many years ago.
Mom is doing well. We talk with her every day, she gets calls and visits from Holly, Terry´s sister Marge, and our friend Rachel, besides many of her own friends. Heather is scheduled to fly in on Wed., so we feel good about the hands she is in. Thank you to all who wrote with concerns. We appreciate you all and told Mom about you.
Will write soon from Puerto Varas.