A dusty town that sees few tourists, Gracias boasts beautiful colonial churches, hot springs, and proximity to Parque Nacional Celaque as its main draws.

In some places, the term "colonial town" conveys images of a pretty place with cobblestone streets and European architecture. But with its cobblestones coated thickly in dirt, streets lined with concrete sidewalks and plain boxy buildings, Gracias didn't quite live up to "pretty" on first glance.

The walk up to Hotel Guancascos was as steep as the swarming taxi drivers had promised, but I really couldn't imagine paying to ride the 4 blocks from the bus station. As I trudged up the hill, I passed the stinky man from the bus thoughtfully urinating on the dirt road...I certainly wouldn't have wanted to speed by that.

At $13, the hotel cost more than I usually prefer but was worth every penny. Situated high up a steep flight of steps with a great view of the town, the hotel offered a luxuriously large room and comfortable bed with the best shower I had in Honduras. Satellite TV solved the problem of how to fill the nights while traveling alone to small towns in countries where darkness falls early.

Once the colonial capital of Central America, Gracias was established in its current location in 1539. The legend goes that the conquistadors had so much difficulty finding a spot to settle down in the mountains that they immediately thanked God for providing the flat land. The town was moved twice since the original founding for strategic reasons due to battles with colonists, and is currently not particularly "flat."

My first morning was dedicated to finding the aguas termales. It was supposed to be a 5k walk out of town, but what should have been a pleasant hourlong walk turned into 2 sweaty hours of being lost.

I started late due to the comfort of my room and the charm of eating breakfast in Guancascos' open-air restaurant. The mid-day sun was extremely hot. Inexplicably, while leaving town I noted the bridge to the left that should have led to the path, but chose to double-confirm with a local. The local guy pointed me to another path on the right.

Lovely back road to the hot springs
I sensed something was off by the time I'd crossed the second extremely rickety bridge on the narrow dirt path, because I had a feeling I should have been on a road. I ended up wandering through people's backyards, surprising them as they bathed and piqueing the interest of various children and dogs. The walk was lovely but I had to stop for directions constantly and the directions given often conflicted. Eventually a couple kids had to walk with me until I spotted the main road.

Finally at the springs, I needed to cool off inside first; I downed a bag of water (bags seemed more popular than bottles in Honduras) and a Fanta before diving into the cold pool. Including these drinks, I paid 32 lemps for entrance.

The only other visitors in this set of pools were a bunch of cheerful kids with their mother and grandmother. A short walk away through the woods was a different set of springs, which had more facilities and more visitors, and even hotter pools. I moved from the hot pools to the cool pools for hours, feeling I had earned this relaxation, and really not looking forward to the walk back.

<   previous      •      next   >