Caves of Tolantongo

Today I want to tell you about a short trip right in the middle of nature to the Grutas de Tolantongo. These are the thermal springs of a river in the mountains in the state of Hidalgo, about 200 km northeast of Mexico City. The water temperature is a pleasant 34 to 38 degrees Celsius. The valley itself is quite isolated and the only road is not fully paved. For the only two hotels, it's first come first serve (so no reservations) and cash only. That's why I took off Friday so that we could leave early in the morning. Fortunately, we arrived on time and got a room. The view from our balcony looked like this:

The river was quite shallow but had a strong current, so it wasn't always easy to relax in the warm spring water.

Looking up.

After testing the water for the first time, it quickly became dark and we went to bed early after a nice dinner. The starry sky was extremely spectacular here, but unfortunately I don't have any good photos of it.

Early the next morning, we headed upstream towards the source. Through the dense forest, we came closer and closer to the destination.

The river became narrower and narrower.

Here you can already see the source/waterfall in the background.

And there we are.

In addition to the main cave, there are numerous other openings and tunnels, the entrance to one of them can be seen on the left in the picture.

And that's what the narrow tunnel looked like from the inside. It seems to go quite deep into the mountain. However, at some point, you couldn't see anything without a flashlight, so we turned back.

Because the actual main attraction - La Gruta de Tolantongo - is the cave filled with water behind the waterfall. This is the view from immediately behind the waterfall.

And this is the same view from a little further away.

In the cave, there are holes everywhere from which water flows. This was the largest one.

Here's proof that I was really there.

This is what the walls looked like, as you can see, water was coming from everywhere.

In the valley, there were other places where water came from the mountains. Right next to the other hotel, people have built or carved countless small pools directly into the mountain. This was the way there.

This is what the walls looked like in some places.

As you can see, water is really everywhere.

Unfortunately, it got more and more crowded (it was already Saturday afternoon and all the locals came, all hotel rooms were gone by then). We had a drink and enjoyed the view. By the way, you can see beautifully here how the sun affects the vegetation. On the left, mainly agaves and cacti grew, while on the right side, there was dense forest.

This is what it looked like from above on the way back. Turning left would take you back to the cave, and on the right, you can see the canyon that the river has formed through the mountains. Also, note the complete absence of people.

Well, maybe there was someone nearby after all.

I had a really great time and I won't forget this trip anytime soon. I hope you enjoyed reading it too, and until next time, greetings!