Casey
Copyright© 2025 by A Bad Attitude
Chapter 6: Rio de las Aguas Termales
We rode all day alongside the river until we arrived at a big meadow about 3pm.
“We should stop here and make camp. It will get dark early and we don’t want to be setting up in the dark.”
She agreed so we began unloading the mules. I found the hobbles and began hobbling them as Christie set up the dome tent. When all the mules and my horse were hobbled, I handed the last hobble to Christie.
“I trained the mules and my horse to handle the hobbles but Diabla has never been hobbled. I’ll leave that job to you.”
Christie grinned and took the hobble. She walked over to Diabla, rubbed her nose while talking softly to her. Then she bent down and attached the hobble to her front legs. Diabla started grazing and acted like she had worn hobbles her entire life!
“It always amazes me watching you do that! If you could teach that there would be a line around the stable!”
We made camp then Christie heated some bottled water over our camp stove. She took two small bags out of a pack, opened one and filled it with the hot water. She handed it to me saying, “Dad calls these MRE’s or meals ready to eat. You want the Chinese chicken or the beef stew?”
I chose the chicken. It was good and filling. We washed up then checked the horses. They were grazing peacefully so we retired to the tent. Christie had zipped our two sleeping bags together into one big bag. After making love we slept naked in that big bag.
The next two days were about the same, we broke camp after breakfast, rode all day, eating jerky and drinking bottled water for lunch, made camp around 3pm, washed up in the river and made love in the tent. The morning of the 4th day we came to a small creek. Christie dismounted and put her hand in the water. While not hot, it was a lot warmer than the river it flowed into.
“We’ll camp here. Tomorrow I want to follow this creek up the mountain to its headwaters.”
The next morning, we hiked for about an hour up the mountain to where there was a rock pool of hot water. We stripped off and I waded out to some big rocks at the far side. I sat on a rock in water that was up to my chest and watched as Christie walked around in the pool. It had a sand bottom with big rocks sitting in a circle.
“Looks to me as if somebody long ago used this pool. Those rock seats look placed to me.” I said as I ducked my head into the water.