las termas de cacheuta

today was hot springs day. i had wanted to go to cacheuta for awhile, but had never had a single empty day that i could commit to going. well, today was that day. after dropping off my finished (¡¡felicitaciones a miiii!!), crocheted baby blanket for a friend to bring to the hospital, we headed off from the bus terminal around 10:30am. we arrived at the termas around 12, immediately dropped our bags, and ran into the water.

james and emily

we camped out right next to the lazy river. easy access.

argentine version of "old faithful"

there were lots of old people, viejos, doing laps

me and emily

cacheuta has been a popular destination since the early 1900s. hotsprings are common in the foothills of the andes mountains, and cacheuta is said to have been founded on the base of some indian story about a chieftain trying to gather treasure to protect one of his tribe. the phenomenon of the hot water expelled by the tierra, or earth, is said to have scared and defeated the enemies. although i bit more touristy than i would have liked, cacheuta's parque de agua (they also have a hotel with spa services...although we did not see a hotel anywhere close) consisted of 9-10 different sized and temperature pools. the upper level had the warmer pools, the middle level were the tepid ones, and the lower level was the cool water and the lazy river track that snaked around the area.  there were also slides on the middle level that brought you down to the lower part, which i definitely took advantage of.

like i said, there were a lot of people (both argentinean and foreign) at the park, so it was pretty crowded even though we purposely came on a weekday. it was a nice break though, and so good to get out of my hot room for the day. we came back on a 3:45pm bus, not noticing we were so sunburnt! a few of us stopped to eat panchos (hotdogs, not the actually pancho) and empanadas before heading home. when i stepped out of the shower after my run, i noticed how sunburnt i was. the rays are strong in mendoza, even though i applied sunscreen!