Grutas Tolantongo

Another early wake up, this time I had to be at the Angel of Independence at 6am. About a 20 minute Uber at that hour through dark streets.

We boarded the bus, kind of a sprinter van style. It was cramped, and I was very aware this was a long trip but I settled in. Immediately a sweet girl next to me made conversation. Her name was Cameron, easy to remember! She was from Cleveland, and I couldn’t help but wonder if she’d ever run into the Kelce brothers. The rest of my bus mates were all from the US from what I gathered. The solo travellers all situated themselves at the back of the bus and we made small talk, mostly about travelling, as we made our way north.

First stop was for breakfast, and while giving us instructions Lalo shouted, “where is my vegan? Ah ah, this is what you can have!” He outed me from the get go! Those who know me know I used to have a 3-5 date rule before I outed myself as a vegan. Those days are long gone thank goodness, now I am out and proud!

One of the options was a mushroom that I was recommended yesterday, the huitacolche mushroom, which is local to Mexico. It was simple - mushrooms, tortilla, and salsa. Both options of salsa were delicious and tolerable. Everyone has warned me about the heat levels of the food here and I haven’t found that yet!

I went back for seconds, and the cook walked me through the other vegan taco options, confirming again, “Sin queso?” I had a spinach one, a pepper/veggie one, and another huitacolche. Delicious! Alongside papaya, cantaloupe unlike I’ve ever had in Canada, watermelon, and black coffee, I was satisfied. I tried to get “leche vegetal” for my coffee but despite the young server letting me look through his bar fridge, the didn’t have any.

The next part of the drive was filled with small towns, amusement parks, lots of little shops along the side of the road. Had it not been for many speed bumps our driver would have kept to a cool 130 the whole drive. The van was perhaps lacking in stabilizers as we felt every bump and every turn. I retold the story about getting actual air on the long bus ride from Kenya to Uganda. Usually I try to forget that story but it was relevant to tell here!

Another stop was for this stunning view of the rockies.

After this we headed down the mountain. The bus driver had clearly driven this route before, and this is what I kept reassuring the other passengers with. It was a lot of switching back and forth, speeding up then breaking hard around the corners. A wild trip! We stopped for sunscreen application and to strip down. The tour gave us little backpacks with all we needed for the day including tissue for the toilets. I forgot to mention that yesterday - the toilet situation on the road is something you must prepare for. We headed down to the man-made pools of Tolantongo! Stunning views, warm water, and instagrammable photos were what we were here for.

We got an hour and a half to chill in the pools. I stuck with new friends Cam, and Annalise from New York. We spoke about travel and food and it was nice to feel at home with strangers.

After our time in the pools we met up with the rest of the group and took an open air bus down to the riverside. This part is more natural, following the canyon floor. The river water is a little soapy, and my skin still feels lovely from the effects of it.

We started here with lunch which we preordered. Our guide, Lalo, handed out our food by name, but I was called, “Extra, extra vegan kelsey” which was honestly hilarious. I was really hungry so even my plain Mexican rice and black bean sopes were really delicious. I added the salsa and topped up with the avocado and tomato I had brought along. I was stuffed by the end! I washed it down with a delicious beer which was recommended by our tour guide. I was too hungry to take photos of this part.

Next we relaxed in the river for maybe an hour, chatting as a group and enjoying the water.

After this we boarded our bus and drove up to the entrances of the caves. This part seemed like an after thought on the tour’s information but it was truly a highlight. On the walk up we were introduced to different types of cacti by our charming host. We noticed hot spring pools on the other side of the river, our host called these the VIP pools.

The waterfall! Absolutely gorgeous and a mix of warm and cool water coming down.

We entered the caves and swam to “the room”. We had to use some ropes to attack the current, the water was almost too deep to touch, and once we got in the cave it was really loud from the water coming down through the openings. The water temperature was perfectly warm. It was surreal!

Once we exiting this natural cave we were guided to a man made one. The water in this cave was warmer than the last and the air was like a sauna. It was also very loud due to the water coming from the ceiling of the cave. We turned off our headlamps here for a few minutes and enjoyed the acoustics of the cave.

As a group we felt ready to get back on the road and so we hit the road towards Mexico City. There were a few stops along the way to return our gear and stop for pastes, which I didn’t partake in. I did distract this dog so I could remove cactus needles from his legs. Poor guy would wag his tail for food but flinch if I touched him. He still let me get to remove the needles.

On the way home conversations continued and I dozed off for a few minutes, which was difficult to do in such a fast moving bus. The running joke was that we wouldn’t make it home to give our tour guide a good review. But we did! The group of solo travellers were heading out to dinner but I couldn’t be bothered to join in. In fact the conversations with some of the folks on the bus made me really miss home, and miss my very conscious circle of people and workplace. One person in particular had overused the phrase “being a little bitch” or “bitched out” all day long and I couldn’t stand to hear more of it. There was negative talk about animals, about women, about how many boyfriends Taylor Swift has had and how without them she probably wouldn’t even be talented, about how unfathomable it would be for someone he knows to be on Only Fans, and just general anti-women talk. This person also said “blacklisted” maybe 4 times on the ride, and as I was sitting next to many people of colour I thought this was highly insensitive. He’ll probably never realize the language he chooses to use matters.

On the ride home we stopped for Lalo to ask a question about some plants he noticed. Of course my tour mates ooed and awed over these cute sheep and babies. There were many shops along the drive advertising barbacoa and using photos of the whole lamb. Will they make the connection? You can’t think these lamb are so cute and then eat them.

As we approached the drop off spot Lalo gave us as peach about how he wants to be more than just a tour guide, but also an ambassador for city and country of Mexico. He said he wants to change the perceptions about Mexico that the media like Fox News might have influenced us to believe. “Fuck Fox News!” I said. We got off the bus around 8:15 we all said goodbye.

I walked about half an hour to Por Siempre Vegana, an all vegan taco stand. It was busy! Maybe 8-9 people waiting for their tacos. The menu wasn’t descriptive, so I picked 4 tacos to try and was not disappointed. They were all delicious! Two were absolute standouts but I couldn’t tell you what they were!

After tacos I walked across the street to Yeccan Cervecería and had the best beer of the trip yet. This was true, high level craft beer and the choices were endless. They didn’t do flights so I settled for 3 of the smaller sizes. I had an imperial sour, a hazy IPA called “Chill Pill” and a lavender hazy IPA. All delicious! I called Chris over wifi and we chatted for the first time since I’ve been away.

It was the perfect way to end the day. I meant to be back home around 9, but instead I got an Uber when the Cervecería closed at 11.