Gratos of Tolantongo

We arrived here at dusk last night. Tolantongo is hours away from Mexico City along treacherous roads. Unknown even to most Mexicans, it is a natural hotspring. An underground river of the freshest toastiest water emerges from this mountain at the head of an incredible gorge. There is a hotel at the bottom of the gorge where we bedded down for the night. In the morning we explored the magistry of this place. The photos don’t even begin to show the beauty. The grato sits at the mouth of the river that snakes through the gorge. Behind kira, you can see opening of the grato. It is actually a huge cave with tunnels extending deep into the mountain. Some of the currents from those tunnels are so incredibly strong that ropes are strung along the walls of the cave. I was too chicken to bring my camera too near the water, so you will have to make due with these amazing scenes from a distance. We spent all day exploring both sides of the gorge. High up the far side we found a trail to a another hotspring pool. We had to swim to get there, so there was no hope of bringing a camera, but it was quite possibly the most beautiful place i’ve ever been. Warm currents from under the mountain met the cool waterfall from atop it to provide us with a very comfortable pool. Above us, two cliffs seemed to reach out to each other leaving a crevasse just large enough for the sun to pour through to illuminate each falling drop of the waterfall. Truly amazing. I was speechless. (if you can believe that after this very wordy entry)