Roman Baths

                                 Still Working

     The city of Bath, England exists because of water. The city developed around the only hot springs in the country. The springs come from 10,000-feet below the ground and surface in several places. The springs located near the ancient Roman Road were discovered by the Romans in the first century. They established a town they called Aguae Sulis and drained the swampland  created by 125,000 gallons of water that bubbled up out of the ground each day.

     They built a temple to the goddess Minerva  and a sophisticated network of baths making full use of the mineral springs. Romans occupied the  area for 360 years, but in 410 suddenly abandoned it. As years passed water again overtook the area.

     The legend says that a Celtic chief with leprosy was forced to leave his people. During his travels he happened upon the hot springs. After bathing in them for some period of time he was cured and eventually returned to his people. He had a difficult time convincing his people who he really was.. When he did succeed he moved his people to the springs.

     In the 900s monks established the Bath Abbey. In the 1200s the City of Bath was built over the unknown  ruins of the  ancient Roman city, and the ancient ruins were not re-discovered until the 1800s.

    The old Roman lead lined pool is 5-feet deep and still water tight!  The original Roman drains, still in use,  drain excess water and carry it to the River Avon. However, no one uses the baths today, but the well-kept ruins are quite an attraction to visitors to the city.

    The water looked a bit murky and algae could be seen around the edges of the rocks. The lovely statuary around the pool was a delight. It was awesome to visit something so old and the inner workings were interesting.  Uneven footing  in places required a bit of caution when walking, but the baths were in remarkable condition after so many centuries!

Mud Bath

                                               Just like Kids

     I found the volcanic activity in Costa Rica of particular interest because of the hot springs. Arenal, dormant for 400 years, blew her top in 1968. The perfect cone shaped volcano is often hidden behind clouds, so it is quite common for visitors to actually not see it.

     On my first visit, our hotel was located directly across the street for a front-on-view of the volcano, and the weather was perfect. At night the fiery display of hot lava running down its side was spectacular as Arenal spit up her innards. It was like a fireworks display all night long. What a sight and were we lucky!

    At Tobacon Hot Springs, we went swimming in the pools, which ranged in size from small to large and with temperatures from temperate to quite hot. Several of the pools were hidden among tropical foliage. One pool even had a waterfall and the warm water felt so good on my shoulders and back.

    The day of our mud bath we started the day hiking through a lovely forest with howler monkeys  cheering us on. We wore bathing suits under our clothes. I don’t think howler monkeys are very cute like some monkeys are, and they can be  very noisy. In the forest I was fascinated watching a long line of leaf cutter ants march on to their nest. The ants are small and the leaf pieces are many times their size.

    Reaching a clearing we headed to  a sauna built over a natural steam vent. It was quite hot inside, but the guide kept telling us stories to occupy us while we stood and sweated. When we got so hot we couldn’t stand it any longer we left to get covered with warm mud. Standing spread eagle so the mud could dry, with our mud masks, we sure looked like a silly bunch of characters.

     It was a gorgeous warm day. As the mud dried you could feel your skin pulling. The dried mud was really hard to wash off under the showers, so we helped each other with our backs. After getting clean and the mud gone we relaxed in one of the hot pools.

    We were well relaxed, but eventually our stomachs told us it was lunch time.  After drying off we headed back to the hotel to dress before lunch. It had been a fun morning doing and seeing a few new things.