Ellen C.
Yelp
You guys, we endured an eight hour, round-trip car ride to waddle around in the warm water for under two hours. And I'm not even mad about it! Background - I hate looong car rides and I'm not the biggest fan of lakes, rivers, oceans, etc. so not being mad about this, is sort of a huge thing for me!
So my lovely friend did all the grunt work in terms of coordinating our transportation to this "Amusement Park" (not sure that's an accurate categorization, but we'll go with it). I believe there may be shuttle buses to and fro from Mexico City (where we were staying), but it's not exactly clear, so my friend found a personal driver service through a travel agency. It ended up being $100 USD per person, for an estimated three and half hour drive, not bad if you ask me. Well, except the car ride ended up being a little over four hours each way, and required a lot of interesting backroads driving, because of the road closures (I assume because of the recent earthquake?), but hey, gotta roll with the punches. Try not to over-hydrate and require frequent restroom trips because there are long stretches completely devoid of gas stations.
My Spanish is pretty awful (in that I know like twelve words) and so my friend's husband, six year old and I relied pretty heavily on my friend to clarify and translate. Fortunately, most of the attendants and tourist park employees knew a small amount of English to direct us around. There's also a couple of maps here and there and if you visit the official website beforehand (which you should because cell phone service is awful once you arrive at the park). You can't bring any bags into the park water attractions (towels and shoes are okay), so be sure to have 100 pesos (50 for deposit, 50 to use) handy to store any of your belongings in a locker.
Also before I forget, BRING WATER SHOES. I stupidly neglected to do this and just used my regular shoes, although there is a stand within the park that sells water shoes (for around $7 USD). I observed a few people foregoing their water shoes at the river portion of the park as most of the immersed stones have had their rough edges smoothed out, but if you're planning on trekking up to the cave or tunnel, shoes will be immensely helpful. One last helpful tip - you might also want to consider bringing your own toilet paper, but don't actually flush the toilet paper (as with many places in Mexico - the sewage system isn't as robust there from what I understand) - that's what the waste baskets are for.
We started out at the tunnel, hoping to access the thermal pools (I think that's how you access the pools at least), but we quickly aborted that mission when we encountered a large group retreating - they warned us that it was actually quite dark (bring a waterproof flashlight or a waterproof case for your cell phone) and deep in the tunnel My friend's husband then attempted to advance into the cave and he confirmed that it was a tad too murky, even for him to comfortably cross through. Now, I did notice a handful of people living it up in the thermal pools, so maybe we were just being overly cautious. We weren't willing to chance it with a small child and honestly, the tunnel almost felt suffocating with the thick stem and narrow passage way - so the claustrophobic within me sighed with relief.
Fortunately the cave/grotto was pretty delightful and comfortably warm. There's a pretty intense waterfall that empties into the grotto, providing the warmest source of water and it seemed to provide a coveted backdrop for touristy photos. Initially, we, along with a couple of PDA teenagers, were the only ones in the grotto, but it soon filled up with a fair amount of people, screaming and having a jolly good time. It was really quite lovely and soothing and the warm water was awesome contrasted with the coldness outside of the water.
We decided to take a break at some point, and nourished ourselves with some hand cut french fries (they took FOREVER to prepare and fry, but they legitimately started with a unpeeled potato) from the nearby casual outdoor food stall.
Then we attempted the river portion and holy heck, the currents were hella strong, stronger than we anticipated. There seemed to be some camping situation occurring with several families along the river (not sure how you go about arranging that), so the river was a little less relaxing and also in the path of direct sunlight.
At this point, we decided it would be best to leave, given the extended car ride. The park contained several other points of interest, such as hiking and waterfalls, but we didn't want to be driving back in the dark because the winding, varying elevation roads here . . . wooo they are a doozy and a half.
I feel this place may still be "off the radar" for international tourists, so get in before this place because overrun with people! And hey look, my review is almost as long as the car ride!