MEXICO
Oaxaca City 2023 - Day 3 - Hierve El Agua
There’s a woman-owned tour company in Oaxaca called Zapotec Travel By Lily. I heard about it from a coworker and was interested based on the fact it’s owned by a local woman and strives for sustainability and authenticity.
So we checked what tours they had in the week we’d be in Oaxaca and decided on the Hierve El Agua trip. The only trick was we would need to wake up at 6 AM. Thankfully our guide, Karen, met us outside with a taxi driver, Francisco, who would take us out.
The an hour and a half drive out is really gorgeous although the latter section is on broken up or gravelly mountain roads. If you’re driving yourself, there are two stops to pay tolls, one for a community that the road passes through and another to get into the park itself.
A local guide at the park took us on a short hike to see the actual petrified falls and Karen tagged along to translate. He was very knowledgeable about the local plants and trees. The hike is short but does involve descending a decent number of steps.
Hierve El Agua translates to “Boil the Water”, so named because the spring water bubbles and froths when it comes up out of the ground, not because it’s hot or actually boiling.
The actual falls are 300 feet tall and are incredibly colorful. The water from the springs deposits minerals on the hillside, causing the fins.
I suppose the closest thing I’ve seen like it would’ve been in Texas at Colorado Bend State Park.
We headed back up to the top to get some more panoramic views and take a dip in the pools. So pack a swimsuit and towel!
This one is man-managed but a bit cleaner. Also, colder!
It was lunch time at this point. The tour includes a lunch at a food stall at the little tourist market at the top of the park. The stall in particular was run by the wife and daughter of our local guide!
We had tlayudas (also known as tostadas) with meat, cheese, avocado and tomato. They are LARGE and so delicious. I managed to finish my tostada but not the rest of the meal.
We said our thank-yous and goodbyes and headed back to the waiting cab, feeling pretty full and satisfied.
From there we had two brief tours of local artisans’ workshops in Teotitlan. This is a town that pops up quite a lot when researching things to do around Oaxaca.
We met with local weavers and learned about wool spinning, dying and weaving. We even got a chance to try to weave a row on a big wooden pedal loom. We walked away with a new wool rug for back home!
Then we met with a local candlemaker and learned about how to form beeswax into pedals for a flower candle and how candles are used in traditional Mexican events like weddings and funerals.
It’s also pretty interesting being in one of their households where there will be three or more apartments sharing a courtyard. All the implements of the various crafts are in the courtyard. Typically an extended family would live together in such a compound.
Finally Karen and Francisco dropped us back off at home. We were so exhausted we ordered in dinner from Tacos Arabes and called it.