Tolantongo, from the Nahuatl Tonaltonko (home where it feels warm) is a paradise of natural caves, rivers, waterfalls and tunnels all flowed through by hot water situated in a
canyon surrounded by rock formations, desert and forest. The water temperature is between 30 and 40 °C and the water is colored by mineral salts. You can reach La Gloria,
another system of tunnels, canyons, waterfalls and recreational pools via crossing a little suspension bridge which crosses the river of Tolantongo. I was absolutely fascinated by this natural
beauty and it is definitely one of the most idyllic places I have ever visited.
I made two day trips from Ixmiquilpan to Tolantongo, the first one directly on the first full day I had in Ixmiquilpan. As Lorenzo, Araceli's brother, was going to install some drinking water
pipes in a village close to Tolantongo with some colleagues he offered me to give me a ride. On the loading area of a pick-up we started early in the morning with all the tools they needed
for the construction. Since it was at an early hour it was pretty cold and windy during the ride. Luckily I had bought a hot cup of atole before which heated me up. The last ten
kilometers which went down into the canyon in serpentines I got another ride from the first pick-up who was passing by. As it was a Wednesday and out of the holiday season there were hardly any
people. Some people had already crawled out of their tents or hotels, as there are also extensive overnight accommodations on site.
Before I entered any of the hot water pools, river, cave or tunnel I did some flights with my drone to capture the beauty of this place from an aerial view. Unfortunately I wanted to have the drone lifted off on a relatively narrow suspension bridge. In principle, this would not have been a problem had it not been for the wind. So it happened that the drone did not take off vertically, but flew straight sideways into the strong wire mesh fence of the bridge railing. The fence made short work of one of the propellers and the drone immediately went down again. Afterwards I tried again to let the drone rise down at the river, but this was a silly idea and it almost ended up in the river. As one propeller was damaged and therefore a little bit shorter than the other three this motor had to work far harder than the other and it heated up very fast. Inspite of all the sensors and stabilization measures the drone is equipped with it was barely controllable anymore. This was already the second little accident I caused with my drone as I cut myself one week ago I tried to catch it during its flight on the peak of a mountain when I had no other possibility to land it. So I put all my technical equipment in a locker and started to enjoy the beauty of the place with my own senses. I relaxed for some hours in the bubbles and currents of the blue river and I remembered that I had luck in misfortune with the drone. Looking back, I'm even very happy that these little accidents happened to me, because they show me that I'm not handling any children's toys here. It could have caused much more damage.
After being deeply relaxed I made my way towards the tunnel and the caves of Tolantongo and already late in the afternoon I crossed the bridge to see "La Gloria". I was so impressed by all the natural beauty that I completely forgot to eat and drink something the whole day. I finally had to hurry up to get the last public transport back to Ixmiquilpan which left at 5:30 pm.
Two days later I went a second time to Tolantongo with Araceli, Daniela and Andrés as I didn't discover all the aspects of this magical place within one day and I could probably spend weeks
within this recreational area without getting bored. With them I furthermore went to "Las Pozitas" (the little pools), another section of Tolantongo where you can relax in dozens of
pools of different sizes which are refilled continuously with fresh hot water which runs down the hill. The views you get from there are impressive! I tried to give you an idea of what it's
like in Tolantongo and La Gloria but to get a better impression I recommend to watch the video I created:
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