Day 21 –Hierve El Agua “hot” springs
My fever went down over night and I woke up with just an upset stomach. We had noticed a yoga studio next door “Prana Yoga” and went to the 8:30am-10am Ashtanga Yoga class. It was nice to move again after so long of being stationary in the van and the class was a comfortable five people. After yoga we had a tasty free breakfast of eggs, salsa, and beans and chatted to two of the workers there, Zachary (from Canada) and Elizabeth (from the US) who gave us some tips about our travels to come.
Originally, we were planning on doing a day hike to Llano Grande, but we asked for some recommendations and ended up being convinced that a better trip would be to Hierve El Agua, literally “boil the water”. So off we went, driving a couple hours with the last few kilometers on a knobbly gravel road that made us a bit uncomfortable.
The springs ended up not being hot, but were very scenic. Natural springs came up in a few spots and formed natural infinity pools, rimmed with colourful mineral deposits, giving a view off the cliffs to a valley floor below. We had a nice wash, took some photos, got ourselves a coconut, and went on a little hike to get some better views of the mineral deposits down the cliff. At night we paid 100 pesos to “camp”, which essentially just allowed us to be locked in to the gated area and feel a bit safer than if we parked on the other side.
Day 22 – Driving day to Juchitan
We woke up and were the only ones to go down to the pools and have a wash. It was a foggy morning and the pools had an eerie quality. Heading back up, we had breakfast with a French couple we had met the night before. The guy had just spent 10 months sailing from France to New York and they were now motorcycling through Mexico.
The drive to Juchitan was jungly and uneventful. The town is rather small and easily the most run down of any town we’ve stopped in so far. We checked out a few hotels and settled on one for 450 pesos ($25). Because both of us had somewhat upset stomachs still, we went to a nicer restaurant than normal, having Mediterranean food.
Back in our room it started to downpour and we found that the ceiling leaked rather substantially. I nearly slipped getting out of bed and stepping on the soaked ground. We told the receptionist and she said that we could either pay to switch to a bigger room or get a refund and find somewhere else, at 9:30pm. Viki got rather upset and after half an hour of arguing, she finally allowed us to switch to a room with three single beds.
Day 23 – El Aguacero waterfall
We had a nice lie in, as our room didn’t have a window, followed by breakfast of eggs in the hotel restaurant. We did a full backup of our photos as there was a surprisingly fast internet connection and then we started our four-hour drive to El Aguacero.
For the second day in a row it rained quite forcefully while we drove and I had to significantly slow down to be safe on the roads. The drive was very pretty, through cloud forests and jungle, with huge trees that had branches that spanned over the road.
We made it to El Aguacero just before closing, at 4:45pm and we’re now the only car here. Like with Hierve El Agua, we had to pay 100 pesos to “camp” ($5), but we have access to bathrooms and a shower and have the security of being along a gated road.
We had dinner of quesadillas at a tiny eatery that was just closing and proceeded to walk the 30 minutes down the canyon side to the waterfalls for a natural shower and some photos before sunset.
We’re now parked and writing this offline as there’s no phone reception and will post it tomorrow. It is very humid right now and we’re using our mosquito mesh with magnets around the front windows for the first time. We’re finding that 6 magnets per window isn’t really enough to form a tight seal, but we’re hoping that it will be good enough.
