We have fallen in love with the hot springs at El Carrizal. The kids love swinging over the rushing (scary!) river on the rope swing; swinging and jumping off the “lawsuit in the making” structure in the pools and floating on the hot water in the lower pools in the evening. The other day we drove and drove and drove and drove from 10am until 8pm, from the balneario up to Xalapa (stopped at Costco for ORGANIC MILK and other stuff) to Coatepec the Very Long Way (which we realized later, coming BACK to Xalapa the RIGHT way) and out to Xico to the Texolo waterfall and back through Coatepec, to Xalapa the correct (short) way and through the hair-raising neblina (fog) to the balneario. I don’t think there is one person reading who knows where any of those towns are. 
Maybe I’ll edit later with links…
Driving through Coatepec, Jamie and I about died from coffee roasting perfume happiness. About every block through the center of town boasted either a toasting (roasting) business, a cafe or a coffee selling business. This is the town of much coffee happiness. On the way, through El Grande, we were treated to the sight of “cherries” – the red berry of a ripe bean is called a cherry – drying in the sun. I almost held up a semi doble remolque (hmmm…do we have these in the states? a kind of semi train; two long trailers hitched together with a semi cab?) getting a picture of the drying “cherries”.
Fortunately for our pocket books and the sanity of our children (who were not enjoying the coffee experience nearly as much as their parents but were happy listening to audio books) there was so much traffic in town and so little (nay, NO) parking, that we were completely unable to stop and check out the wares. But we’ll be back. Off we headed to Xico and the marvelous Texolo waterfall. Finally the kids had a chance to get out and run and annoy each other. We had a marvelous conversation with the ice cream vendor (everyone except Jamie tried the maracuya flavor and LOVED it) and smelled his beans. The entire cobblestone route to the waterfall was surrounded by coffee plants and Pike managed to pick quite a few cherries at the falls themselves. I don’t believe these were private plants but actually federal plants. So I’m pretty sure we didn’t steal someone’s livelihood.
Today we took in the amazing Anthropological Museum in Xalapa after the kids spent the morning (until 2pm) at the balneario. I was shocked at how much they enjoyed it. It really only deals with Veracruz culture and with 3000+ years of culture to cover, they did an amazing job. It is the most beautiful and impressive museum we’ve been to.
True hedonists, we returned to a sticky evening, bathed first in the cooler pools and then spent evening floating on the warm and hot waters, staring at the half moon and many stars, listening to the cows lowing and the donkeys softly braying across the gurgling river while very many Mexican families, blissed out on the hot water and flowing cerveza softly sang and talked. I’ve never been in such a tranquil spot anywhere in Mexico. Everyone must be so stoned on the hot waters that the need for amplification of life simply does not exist.
