After my weekend in San Blas and Isla Isabel, I went to Guadalajara for “a series of work meetings.” Haha, a bit of a private joke there, but I did work some. I also had a really nice week relaxing and exploring a bit. The highlight of the week was the visit to the Bosque la Primavera. This is a protected area just outside the city where at least one volunteer has one of the best assignments. Fortunately, tours for other volunteers are freely and gladly given. Inside the protected area is an amazing geothermally heated river, the Rio Caliente, or Hot River and a beautiful array of plants – even in the dry season.
After swimming in a naturally occurring jacuzzi of sorts, we went around to a few different areas and walked up a much hotter part of the river to the Emerald Falls. I think the pictures will explain the name. Except for the biting flies which only seemed to attack me when I was swimming, the day was practically perfect. I want to go back during the rainy season when everything is really in bloom, but the orchids were already great, along with a variety of bromeliads, including a lot of epiphytes, or air plants, which are a type of bromeliad. The air plants love the humidity of the air around the steaming river, and so the trees arching over the river were completely fuzzy with them.
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The city of Guadalajara was also great, but I took only a few pictures as I walked around exploring. I’ll sprinkle those pictures in here and there in the future. While I was there I was editing the San Blas and Isla Isabel pictures and feeling a bit overwhelmed with photos, so I was very restrained.