A GUIDE TO VISITING HIEVRE EL AGUA, OAXACA

If you’re planning a trip to Oaxaca, Mexico any time soon then I have no doubt that Hierve El Agua is on your list of ‘must see places’ and rightly so! This trip was one of the highlights of my entire time spent in Mexico because it truly was like nothing I’ve ever seen before! The landscape reminded me of something straight out of Jurassic Park and the natural water pools were simply beautiful. The most fascinating thing though was ‘the waterfalls’ which were actually in fact, not waterfalls at all, but petrified rock formations, basically an overflow of mineral water reacting with the rock to create these beautiful displays of waterfall like beauty! Amazing! There are two waterfalls to see, one you can easily see from the natural water pools, the other you’ll need to hike to (do this by taking the path to the right of the pools!)

HOW DO YOU GET THERE?

I’ve read a lot of articles about getting to Hierve El Agua without a tour but I honestly don’t think that’s necessary, I personally preferred to avoid the hassle of finding our own way there when you can just get a tour that took us straight there! (Actually that’s not 100% true, we did stop at Mont Alban first, an incredible ruin site but that’s a post for another time!) I know it’s more expensive to do this of course but I really do think it’s still cheap for the experience you get! Plus, once we arrived at Hierve El Agua our guide left us to do our thing the moment he dropped us off so we still had own freedom the moment we were! If you do want to get your own way there then this article has a handy section on the different buses you’ll need to catch!

CAN YOU SWIM THERE?

You can sure can baby and I highly recommend it! For you Spanish speakers you may be thinking hierve el agua? Doesn’t that mean boiling water? Why yes yes it does, so the water must be boiling hot right? NO. NOT IT IS NOT. In fact, it is pretty damn cold, there’s no denying it! But you really can’t pass up the opportunity to swim in these beautiful pools of water so get that swimsuit and get your butt in that water! Besides the views are so amazing from the lower pool!

HOW MUCH IS IT?

Ok so this depends heavily on if you take the tour, or if you find your own way there (again, I was told this is kind of difficult though) Our tour had several stops, as I mentioned before we visited a ruin site first, then hierve el agua and then a mezcal factory afterwards with mezcal tasting, that entire tour cost us roughly 500 pesos, which is roughly £25. However, if you go solo Hierve el Agua charge an entrance fee of 25 MXN (like £1) to gain access to it plus 50 MXN (£2) to park your vehicle. You’ll want to factor bus/taxi/vehicle hire into those prices too though!

WHAT TO PACK

Suncream, there really isn’t a lot of shade at Hierve el Agua so make sure that you’re protecting your skin.
Water, gotta keep hydrated in the Mexican heat ya’ll!
A towel, because once you swim in that water you’ll need to dry off, and actually once I got out I was pretty cold haha so I was using the towel for extra warmth!
I would advice wearing trainers too, just because the floor is quite uneven in places and you’ll want a shoe with a bit of grip on the bottom!
Cash in case you want to buy any snacks on the way in!
Your camera/your phone, I mean OBVIOUSLY you’re going to want to take photos of this incredible place!

FINAL TIPS

We were advised not to buy any of the fresh fruit from the stalls on the way in, just because the area isn’t the most sanitary and the water the fruit would have been washed in probably wasn’t the cleanest, so avoid this if you don’t have a strong stomach haha
Do get yourself a nice coconut though! They chop them open right in front of you and you just can’t beat fresh coconut water baby!
Make sure you bring some small change for the toilets as they charge a fee to use them
Opening times of Hierve el Agua are 08:00am – 18:00pm

I’m going to be sharing a lot more about my trip to Mexico over the next couple of months, so if you plan on visiting that beautiful country soon be sure to check back for more travel guides, info and tips! In the mean time you can check out our other travel guides here and be sure to pin the below image to save this piece for later! xx