The bus ride was waaaayyyy less than pleasant. Despite the abundance of limes to help with motion sickness, 2 girls still threw up on the bus…including the one sitting next to me. THANK THE LORD that I was not covered, but the stench was enough to make all the girls around me feel queasy. What a great way to spend the last 40 minutes of our ride.
We finally arrived at Aguas Calientes and I was completely blown away at how much bigger it was than our local one! Pools, piscinas termales (hot tubs), saunas, restaurants, and even a mini zoo! How awesome was this afternoon going to be! We all gathered around the woman in charge to hear a “briefing” on the rules of the pools.
1. Everyone needs to shower before getting into the water to rinse themselves off.
Ok, that seems fair.
2. ONLY bathing suits can be worn in any of the pools at any times – that means no underwear, no shirts, pants, jackets, towels, sarongs. ONLY bathing suits.
…more on this one below…
3. You cannot even ENTER the pool area if you are not planning on swimming and do not show the lifeguards that you have a bathing suit that you are going to be changing into.
Wait, seriously? So if I don’t want to go swimming I can’t even ENTER the pool area to watch the children I came with swim safely? For real?
Now, in the states Rule #2 might not pose a problem. But coming from a home for children, where at least 75% of the kids don’t have their own bathing suits, nor did they KNOW the rules beforehand, only about 10 of our 60 kids actually brought suits with them to the pool. The rest had been planning on literally going in fully clothed and then changing afterwards. Yet even after explaining our situation to the people in charge, they refused to budge. We were then left, sitting outside of the pool area, with a LOT of very upset children, who only wanted to go swimming with their friends, yet who couldn’t do what we had just driven 2 ½ hours to do. Great planning. Excellent.
After sitting around for a solid 30 minutes, most of the kids bored out of their minds while about 7 swam, someone finally got in touch with one of the directors at our home to explain the situation. The solution? Buy everyone who didn’t have one and wanted one a bathing suit. Not the most fiscally responsible solution, but a solution nonetheless. All the kids quickly changed and, proud of their brand new bathing suits, splashed in the water with the rest of the lot. After a LOT of thinking it over, a bunch of us volunteers also decided to join in, and even though the water was freezing cold, it was a ton of fun to splash around with all the kids and watch them laugh and smile with their friends.
Around 1 pm we gathered at the barbeque pits and ate a delicious lunch of grilled pork, rice, tortillas, and radishes and cucumbers. Afterwards, all the kids were treated to yummy American style ice pops, before we clambered back on to the buses for another 2 ½ hour ride home. While the day started off rocky and grim, it ended up being a great day for the kids and volunteers alike.
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