Baja&Back - 10-18-2005 at 11:52 PM
Can anyone describe the Agua Caliente hotspring west of Santiago in Baja Sur?
Can you drive right to it?
How far from paved road?
How far to walk?
Developed or natural?
GPS coords, maybe?
Much thanks.
Barry
bajajudy - 10-19-2005 at 06:26 AM
There are actually 2 hot springs near Santiago. The reason I mention this is that if you ask for aqua calientes you could get directions to either
and then if you ask again the same thing. In other words you could be going back and forth trying to follow directions to two different places
One you can drive to but all that is there is a concrete box that you can put your legs in. Unless you want to walk up the river quite a ways. This
is the one that you start at the zoo to get to.
The other is run by a nice Mexican man...he charges $5/person and it is a hike of about 5 minutes to get to. There is a little bit of rock climbing
involved. He has built a wall around the springs. I would guess that 10 or 12 people could be in the pool
comfortably. After heating up in the spring,s you can jump in the river which is cool, sometimes cold
This is past experience....2 years ago. Perhaps someone has been there more recently.
daveB - 10-19-2005 at 03:16 PM
Barry,
The pool at Agua Caliente is very small, as BajaJudy noted. It does offer a great hiking canyon upstream and, if they're still doing it, a bat
show in the late afternoon that would seem completely out of character (but amazing) for these little "pilots" as hundreds fly back and forth in a
frenzy for 20 minutes. Five years ago we went in with an older class A motor home, at the time the road looked very iffy for us.
Bigger are the Hot Springs of Santa Rita, probably the second Spring in Bajajudy's post. Ask for directions in Santiago. We turned just before
the Zoo, and made them in about half an hour, passing through a tiny settlement, turning right, arriving to where the road follows a canyon, the road
going up on the left side with a switchback or two, finally reaching a plateau with the track soon ending in a rancher's yard. Pay him 50 pesos per
car (the tip then, 5 years ago) and he will lead you down to the springs which are in a very nice setting, quite expansive and, in January, about 85
to 90 degrees. The hike up the canyon is also interesting.
Hot Springs
TomS - 10-19-2005 at 04:18 PM
Stop and ask at the "Palamar Restaurant" in Santigo for directions to the different sets of hot springs.
As far as the hot springs and hiking to the wonderfull cool pools above, be carefull with the choice of roads from the town of Agua Caliente (I seem
to recall "the beaten track" and "off the beaten track") The wrong road will take you to Miraflores the correct road will cross a small stream. There
are a few camping spots at the springs. There is the small concrete hot bathtub near the Dam. On the other side of the Dam usually a tarp is dug into
the sand and usually hot water comes out of the rock wall. The real treat is hiking up the bolder canyon and diving into the cool pools above.
The Santiago Zoo is admission by donation and much better than I thought it would be.