Tolantongo

I had an exciting weekend! Starting on Saturday morning, I got up early (5:00), taxied to tec, hopped on a bus with a bunch of foreign kids, headed east, and arrived at paradise.

As far as the pictures are concerned, I really don't know how to make them flow so they are slightly out of order.

Paradise happened to be a place called Tolantongo in the state of Hidalgo (the Mexican state, not the horse). It is famous for its hot springs.

We started the trip out by eating a delicious breakfast. All the fruit was fresh and the orange juice was legitimately fresh squeezed oranges. In a word--awesome. Top that off with some delicious coffee and chilaquiles verdes (spelled wrong but is basically fried tortilla, chicken, and green salsa).

We then trekked down to the launch pad for the zip line. It was my first time and it was awesome! Notice the picture with all the zipline get-up.

There were two main caves that the hot water came from. The top one was dark, hot, and reminded me a lot of a temascal. We only lacked a chaman and a whole lot more heat. It was great. The other cave was bigger and had another cave inside it. There was a current that you could jump into and get spit out 15 feet later. It was really cool.

After that, it rained and we ate lunch. I thought it was that much cooler for the rain but there were a lot of whiners on the trip. We swam in the river (warm water), sat in its waterfalls, etc.

After that, team games were planned (we were in teams based upon our bandanna color. (I usually don't wear a yellow bandanna around my neck.) But we skipped game time to chill in a series of pools that cascaded down into the other ones. It was glorious.

We had a bonfire minus smores (huge downer) and then went to bed. Sunday, we went to another hot springs. It was a pool about 20 feet deep. We spent our time climbing up on the rock wall and jumping in from various heights with water skill we possessed. I actually ranked in the top 3 for aerial tricks. It felt good to be good at something--I should spend more time with these people.

We walked some more, ate some more, and then got shipped back to Queretaro.

Good weekend!