Aguas Termales near Copan, Honduras

Aguas Termales

While in Copan, Honduras with kids we went to the Agua Termalas.  Otherwise known as hot springs.  I was not looking forward to going, because it was more expensive than some of the other activities and I know what I think of when I hear hot springs.  It was $100 for our family of five.  This included transportation, entry fees, a private cabana, and a bbq dinner.  It was by far worth every dime to go.  This entire excursion was awesome.

After driving about an hour from Copan we arrived at the hot springs and were guided to a private area.  To get there we had to cross a hanging wooden bridge.  It was raining and the wood was slick, plus it looks to be 100 years old!  This picture does not do justice to how scary it was.  Once we crossed the bridge we went through a cave.

And because that is not a dramatic enough entry we then had to cross over water on these stones. 

You could walk through the forest to one hot spring after another. 
This is the hot spring next to our cabana. 

Private cabana

Here you can see where one hot springs has a water fall that flows into another pool and then another. 
Here is our bbq chef preparing our feast on this random outdoor grill at a public park.  Now, does this look like something we should eat.  The food was delicious until the next day!  We should have stuck to restaurants!  Remember that bus ride from hell I mentioned we took to get to Copan.  Well, there were no miracles happening on the way back.  Our oldest threw up on the bus.  Oh well!

Like all the activities we did in Copan, this one too was arranged by Mr. Banana. Just ask your hotel and they will get him to meet with you and plan your activities.

What Happens When your property gets stolen in Vegas

Recently, my wedding ring was stolen from my purse, in my parent's hotel room at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas.  Here's what happened.  I decided to take the kids swimming that day, so we headed down to Caesar's Palace where my parents were staying.  When I got there the room had already been made up.  Seeing this gave me the false belief that no one else would come into the room.  I hung all my jewelry on a bracelet and placed it in my purse.  We then headed to the pool.  3 hours later I came back to the room to change and go eat.  I immediately noticed my jewelry was no longer on my bracelet and my wedding ring was gone.  I called security. 

Here are some of the things I've learned (these are also helpful other cities):

Hotel Security
1. They will not call the police!  You must do this yourself.
2.  They will not investigate.
3.  You need to insist they run a check of who keyed into your room that day.
4.  You have to fill out the report yourself.
5.  Once they have left your room with the report they will refuse to speak to you again and give you
     no further information. 
6.  They then turn the incident over to a 3rd party - Their insurance company.
7.  They do not have the property covered in cameras. 

3rd Party Insurance Company
1.  They send out a standard form that says the hotel has determined it has done nothing wrong. 
2.  You only have a certain amount of days to call and protest. 
3.  They do not investigate until you call and protest. 
4.  They are not investigating who did what.  They are investigating if the hotel should compensate you for your lose.

Police
1. You must call the police yourself.  The hotel will not do it. 
2.  They will fill out some sort of report after asking you questions.  You will not be given a copy. 
3.  They will give you a generic form with an event number on it. 
4.  The police officer files this and puts in a description with pawn detail.
5.  A week later they will assign a detective to your case.

Pawn Detail
1.  Pawn detail is some sort of part of the Vegas police system.
2.  When your item is stolen and reported it is put on to the pawn detail list.
3.  You need to call and confirm the description the police officer gives to pawn detail.  (in my case    
     the description was generic, despite showing the officer a picture)
4.  Give them the most specific description possible, they will refuse to look at a picture.
5.  Each time a pawn shop takes in an item they must hold it for a certain amount of days and list it in
     the pawn detail registry.
6.  The workers in pawn detail search through these items looking for items that have matching      
     descriptions. 

Detective
1.  About a week after filing a report you can expect your case to be assigned to a detective.
2.  You must follow up and find out who this person is.  If you don't, they are not legally obligated to  
     follow up. 
3.  The detective knows what he/she is doing and a much better source than the previously mentioned
     groups.     
     (The detective blew me away by locating my ring and arresting the person who took it with in two 
     days of being assigned my case.)

Fall Book List 2011

Now that my four year old is going to preschool I have a little more time to do the things I enjoy.  I love to read  and picked up quite a few books to read this fall.  Here is a list of what I am planning to read.

I've already read the first to books in the Confessions of a Shopaholic series and I am planning to read the next two.
 I've been reading this book off and on for the last several months and I hope to get through another 100 pages this fall.  This is a long book and tough to read at times, but the material is absolutely fascinating!



I loved the Secret Life of Bees, so I decided to read another one of her books.  This is one that she wrote with her daughter.  I'm two chapters in and it is already good.








What are you planning to read this fall?