Chile: Termas (Day 5)

 So far, this is more of a “vacation” than a “bike tour”.  I had a spacious couple solo days in a busy lake beach town before my buddy arrived; there was a quad-killer hike up 3,000 ft for a pilgrimage to sacred Araucania trees, a scary ride on excruciatingly-trafficked roads and then my chain broke, and strolls around the bustling town. One short “bike tour” day was yesterday, from Lago Villarrica to Lago Calafquèn. 

Then today forecasted over an inch of rain (like, enough rain for cars to hydroplane maybe), and given the painfully narrow shoulders and impressively non-stop traffic post-morning, I did not want us to be dodging vehicles on slippery asphalt while being sleuced by trucks with maybe broken windshield wipers. All while squinting pinched-face against water driving into our faces. 

I write this nesting in a giant fluffy blanket, next to a wood stove, while rain drives against our little tree-house-like accommodation. It rained so hard over a couple minutes the ground was frothy. 

To use our rainy day, we decided to embrace Wet by doing a short ride out and back to a Terma (“thermal bath”; see, Volcanos) for a hot soak. A fancy spa-like Terma was advertised in town, with 50,000 CLP entrance fee (~$50), but we went to the no-frills locals spot instead. Amazingly, our little ride there was cloudy but not rainy, and the moment we stripped down to step into the warm pools, the rain began. We were the only non-locals, and the only boney skinny folks, save for two pre-teen boys. We must have been wildly weird looking to everyone else, but nobody gave us awkward stares or made us feel unwelcome. We were just pleasantly part of the situation. 

And what a sweet situation indeed. This was Family Time. People of all ages sat around the perimeter of a warm-water pool under a little roof from the rain. Kids and teens paddled about in the middle. Couples young and old held each other in the water, and mothers bobbed their children with many kisses. One mama had her baby-toddler encased in a full-body-floaty-table and was sliding him back and forth in the water with utmost gentleness. “That is a child that will one day be totally fine with swim lessons”, I said to Jen. (Who knows if they even do that here). The little boy had a face of utmost relaxation, like he wasn’t even aware of where he was. Half an hour later, dribbling occurred over our heads and I realized mama was carrying said boy, in nearly the same flat position, out of the pool and he was raining. 

Then another older boy paddled over and positioned himself in front of us, round-faced and dimpled with huge wet eyelashes. He said to Jen in Spanish, “do you have time to talk to me?”  Of course! He named correctly we were from Estados Unidos (he’d been scoping us out earlier) and said he himself was from Chile, from south of here. “Vacaciones?” Jen asked. “4 dias,” he said. He was hard to understand because he kept babbling in and out of the water and sliding his wet hand across his face. He was supremely interested to talk to us and very attentive. Eventually the little connection came to a close, he waved bye-bye from 1 foot away, said “ciao”, and dabbled away. 

What a sweet way to spend a day, even if not doing much biking.