cosola

February 13, 2007

on sunday evening in guadalajara’s central plaza an orchestra gives a free concert.  there i ran into a family i had met at the hospicio campos the day before (fionna, keith, and their two kids rowan and findlay who live on pender island and thus are the ‘pender people’) and we all went out for dinner at a guadalajara institution called sandy’s.  it is funny how in a city of six million people you can run into people you have met but it happened twice during my stay there.

yesterday i went to the old bus station in guadalajara and took the bus to lake chapala as i had read about hot springs just past ajijic.  i was only going to stay for the day but have decided to spend another night.  i was up and in the pool by 9 am after a decent coffee.  so far today i have had a mud bath, a temaszcal steam, and a number of baths in the thermal pools.  i decided to take the bus to ajijic to look around and not get fried during the mid-day sun but i will be going back shortly.

tomorrow will be a long bus day as i am going to take the 730 pm bus from guadalajara to queretaro.  this bus arrives in time for me to get on the 2 am bus that goes directly to the mexico city airport.  my flight leaves DF at 7 am so i have to be at the airport by 5 am.  i will get into vancouver (through san francisco) at around 3 pm.  a long day! 

happy valentine’s day tomorrow (which is also guadalajara’s 465 birthday).

Harrison Hot Springs Facts

January 3, 2007

- were originally used by the Coast Salish Indians who revered them as a "healing place"

- there are two hot springs at the south end of Harrison Lake, the "Potash" which has a temperature of 40C and the "Sulphur" which has a temperature of 65C

- analysis of the hot springs indicates that there are 8 different minerals:  Potassium Chloride, Sodium Chloride, Sodium Sulphate, Magnesium Sulphate, Calcium Suphate, Calcium Bi-Carbonate, Iron Bi-Carbonate and Sulphurated Hydrogen; the waters average 1,300 parts per million of dissolved mineral solids, the highest concentrations of any mineral spring

hot springs - BC (url)

January 2, 2007

http://www.trails.com/toptrails.asp?area=10540