In spite of the bees, and mosquitoes, and killer fireflies, I still manage to make us a way through another gate. I was sure we had followed the instructions. It should have been the last gate to the temple, but we must have gotten lost at some point, because instead we walked into a clearing circled by high walls. And in the middle, a natural pond that was built around who knows how long ago.
“I do know,” Hannah said, pulling the guide she borrowed from our friend at the inn. “These are the royal baths! It means we’re not too far away from the hidden temple, but we definitely took a wrong turn.”
“So you mean we can actually bathe in it?”
We were tired and our muscles had started to hurt from the hike and the strain. The waters, though green and full of algae, were still fresh and impossibly inviting.
We jumped right in.
Hannah and I got a chance to relax and talk. She told me her plans for the whole week, everything she wanted to do, how excited she was about everything she had seen, and I listened. I couldn’t have been happier.
We swam some laps together as the sun set.
The sky turned pink with a Selvadoradan twilight, and the royal baths were flooded in a purple, soft hue. It felt like the last gate we had crossed had brought us to an entirely new world after all.
The beauty of the scenery and the magic of the Royal Baths made Hannah beam with joy, and the dark cloud above her head dissolved, replaced by a golden aura.
Her happiness broke the curse.
And not only that; her curse turned into a blessing, a constant beam of sunshine that followed her around.
This trip would be perfect after all.
But as the sun disappears behind the canopy, I start to realize we haven’t eaten anything since the platanos fritos of breakfast; or in my case, since the plane.
It’s time to get out of the pond.
Especially since we don’t know what dangers dwell in the jungle at night.
The Stewarts Family (and other shenanigans) 