Our first full day was an all day tour to Tolantongo Hot Springs and started at 530am for pick up. Our tour guide was Damian and our driver was CJ. The morning drive was an hour and a half to a restaurant for a breakfast buffet that was included with the tour cost.
Most of the food seemed pretty mediocre. I opted for the only thing that seemed fresh and enticing, which was the quesadilla station, made fresh to order. I got two mini quesadillas: one tierritas/queso and one queso. The tortillas were also made fresh from scratch too! She got the masa, smashed it and made it and added the ingredients. Omg this was so good, I ended up eating four total! The pork was crispy and crunchy like bacon bits. The queso cheese was very stretchy.
(Sorry no pictures because it came out blurry).
Gruto Tolantongo was very fun, relaxing and beautiful. The canyon of hot springs heated by the geysers is much bigger and deeper than I would imagine or in the pictures. We started at the top where the more pristine aesthetic tubs were. The bottom section has beautiful caves and waterfalls all around that fill more of the hot spring tubs. We learned that this area is privately owners by 116 men and only family can inherit the land. There is even a marble canyon they have been digging up and made a church 90% of marble. Most of the walkways are made of various types of marble from within the land.
For lunch, I had the grilled fish with garlic. I couldn’t take a picture with my camera because we were supposedly going to the caves right after and couldn’t bring anything with us. It didn’t look great but tasted better than it looked. It was decent. The red rice it came with was flavorful and tasty. Vince got the same fish but spicy version.
On the ride back, we made a bathroom stop that had an empanada stand our tour guide recommended called Pasteko La Mina De Los Pastes. It was a small orange stand by itself.
Esquiteko (elote, parmesano, chile piquin). This had a lot of corn and I surprisingly liked this one more. It wasn’t as salty as the other one and was juicy from the corn.
Choriqueso. This is a chorizo cheese empanada. It was savory, slightly salty and decent. It wasn’t as cheesy as I hoped. The bread was very crispy and crunchy. It was warm.
After a long ride back, we went back to Churreria El Molo because I found out they also serve horchata! I’ve been on a silent horchata kick if possible and while in Mexico City, why not end each night with horchata?
I convinced everyone to get one with me and they all loved it. This was like a tri-note with elements of milk, rice, dried coconut bits, some caramel and chocolate notes! It was delicious and we all wanna get it again tomorrow night!
A few more blocks and we hit a random taco stand with friendly vibes and bright lights. We got tacos!!! Finally and everyone was so excited and happy. The total bill came out to be $22 for 16 tacos.
Chuleta taco. It means pork chop taco. Tried it because it’s new. It’s pretty good. Juicy and soft and tender. Yum, yum!
Al Pastor taco. Came with fresh cut pineapple chunks, cilantro and onions. Delicious just as the picture shows.
Beefsteak taco with queso. This stand is unique because they offer queso cheese with the tacos. Usually tacos don’t come with cheese. And as a cheese lover, I’ll always opt in for cheese! Beef was tender and juicy. They totally loaded this with protein and cheese!
Tomorrow is pyramid day!
