Pansol

Baths

Life is simple, just add water. - Anonymous

Brrr... it's cold.

Hang in there. Today I’m going to keep us toasty by getting immersed in something warm. 

That’s right.

You and me.

Nothing but steamy baths going on around here, starting with the Pansol hot springs situated at the foot of Mount Makiling.

It was one of our usual haunts.

Actually, I don't remember a lot of details. How we got there, for example, because this thermal bath was all the way to Calamba, Laguna. By bus? Or Uncle Jorge's car? Did I go with my Mum and brothers? Did we pack a lunch? 

I can capture the day only in snatches. 

I just know that we would sometimes go on the weekends. It was all there was to do, really. There were no fairs, no game arcades. Come early morning, we would congregate, saunter around, and off we went.

I remember the outdoor pool - large. The water smelled of sulfur and it was warm.

But the real attraction for me was the one short end of the pool that turned the corner. It bumped against a mounded hill with an arched opening through which we could enter and follow the water.

Inside was a smallish cave.

I remember how I would stare at its gray nothingness. Nothing but a wall of blankness.

Mysterious.

And I would just stand there awhile, the bubbling water just about lapping up my toes, watching the water run past, quick and shallow.

Wondering where it came from.

And where it was going.