Tolantongo part 1

This past weekend we headed to an area called Tolantongo in the state of Hidalgo with members of the newcomers group. There were about 70 of us who enjoyed the beautiful scenery and relaxing thermal water. After our three hour drive, we checked into our hotel and headed for the thermal river.

Once again, we were in the mountains for the weekend

A view of the thermal river from our hotel room

I never get tired of the amazing color, clarity,

and temperature of the thermal water!

We found some friends further down in the river, so James and the boys decided to brave the layers of rocks in between the sections...big mistake! Nolan had his floaties on and decided it was more fun to let the current take him than to put his feet down and walk. Well, a couple of times, the current took him straight over the rocks and James had to chase after him. Needless to say, they were both pretty scratched up after the journey down the river!

James and Nolan climbing over the last set of rocks

View from the river

At one point, we looked up and there was a rainbow ring around the sun. I got half of it in the picture. I have no idea what makes that happen, but it was very cool looking and I'm glad it showed up on my camera!

Some of our group enjoying the massaging

water as it flowed over the rocks!

Tony, Sarah, and Ryan

Lydia and Ethan...all of the kids LOVED the thermal river!

I had to hold on to Lydia a lot of the time because she wasn't

tall enough to touch the bottom and would just float away.

Nolan playing away...you can see one of his

"battle wounds" on his chest

Macy and Nolan. The kids were riding the rapids over

the rocks (even Lydia did it a couple of times)

Greg with Tara's Dad. He has two fake hips, but was able to enjoy

the water by sitting in the chair they brought in for him

Rebecca and Lydia holding hands on the way to the waterfall

A few of us made the hike to the waterfall, caves, and tunnel. The whole experience was amazing. The waterfall was beautiful and a little cooler, but the cave under the waterfall was warm, so you had cool water dripping on you in the warm water. We stayed in there for quite a while, enjoying the water.

Where the river begins

The waterfall!

Mya and Terri Lynn

The entrance into the cave

James and Nolan inside the cave...you can see

the water dripping down

Me and Lydia in the cave

James and Lydia heading toward a cave in the cave

Inside the cave in the cave

Family picture in front of the waterfall

Another view of the waterfall

There is a tunnel in the middle of the waterfall that you can walk into. Being a tunnel, I thought there would be an exit on the other side, but that wasn't the case. The boys wanted to go through, so I took both boys by myself. It was pitch black, very rocky (I have a big cut and bruise on my ankle to prove it), and, in the middle, there's a five foot drop off. Luckily, my camera is waterproof, so I was using the flash to see where we were going. Neither of the boys could touch in the drop off and it's not the easiest thing to get into and out of, but my friend, Sarah, took Ethan since she only had one kid at that time. Once we got to the end, it was so hot and steamy that it was hard to breath and I realized we had to go back the way we came...ugh! So, we made the trek back with Noaln jumping into the dropoff and me chasing after him. Fun times??

A picture of Nolan in the tunnel

Mountain view on the way back from the waterfall

Lydia loved playing in this fountain

On the way back to the river, there's a pool (filled with the thermal water of course) with two tall platforms. The boys wanted to jump off of the smaller one, which turned into the bigger one, which turned into 100 times each, so Lydia and I headed back to the room.

Nolan ready to jump off the smaller platform

There goes Ethan

James ready to save the boys

Weeee

Ethan ready to jump off the taller platform...I'm not

sure how tall it was, but I was nervous for them!

Nolan jumped off the taller one too. The whole pool was watching.

I know because, when he belly flopped, there was a very loud "ohhh!"

Side note: When we went to the waterfall, we got a locker so our things would stay dry. James had the wallet out to pay for the locker and threw it into the locker by itself. I was the one to empty the locker and didn't realize the wallet wasn't in the bag. Long story short, we lost the wallet with my license, our only Mexican ATM card, and all of our money we had for the trip. It was very stressful for a couple of hours, but we got the debit card canceled and borrowed some money...now I just need to work on the license from out of the country!