Travelog from the Past: Part III

Continued from 6/01/04

That evening before dinner, a scheduled late dinner, we go to a hot springs. Once just a public hot stream, the area had been manipulated, pools built, restrooms and changing rooms added etc. Full moon tonight and had circumstances been different the springs would have had the possibility of being quite transformative. There are deeper pools for soaking and shallow places where the hot water dances and swirls with whoever is there. As chaperon it is my job to be sure behavior is all on the up and up. This is not always easy and in the dark, in the water, with kids in bathing suits, the skills required are super human. Not that there was anything more than tops or bottoms coming off or the distinct possibility of same, but that was, yes, inappropriate. Chaperons could use with some high tech equipment. Time to leave and all our charges are putting on clothes in their respective dressing rooms, I gather some abandoned towels and walk them out to the bus. Walking through the parking lot I hear a tap, tap, tapping. Stopping and looking, a small rounded form emerges from the darkness, an Armadillo. His long claws being the tap, tap, tapping. We look at each other and look at the moon, then go our separate ways. It is one of those "Ah, this is why we travel" moments.

For dinner, pizza and salad. The pizza crust is truly great. I have a wave of being really tired of the kids and their "ugly American" attitudes. There are a couple more food throwing incidents and while Zack gives them another lecture I wander into the bar area and watch the news on the TV. Then I wander outside to get some quiet and am asked by one of the waiters to come back in because it is dark. Later I realize he was concerned I might be kidnapped. Returning to the table I eat one more piece of excellent pizza, the best I have had. The girls with only one or two exceptions are wearing skimpy outfits and some are still in bathing suits because they didn't bring clothes to change into. And yes, they were told repeatedly to do so. Everyone is noisy and self absorbed. On leaving one of the girls tells the waiter that she thinks he is cute, then she flees the restaurant shrieking with giggles. I am embarrassed.