Diving, Las Estacas, Mexico - Aug 2004
Las Estacas is a "Natural Park" a couple of hours drive outside of Mexico city in the direction of Acapulco close to Cuernavaca.
The main atraction to me for this visit was to use a bend in the spring fed river as a practice pool for diving. It didn't work out so well for diving, but Las Estacas is well worth a visit simply becasue its such a nice place.
Entry is bit pricy though at 180 pesos per person (USD 17)
Two sets of doubles and the rest of the gear were tricky to manage with the distances involved. However there are porters available with trollys in the carpark that for 10 to 20 pesos will help you out.
Map of the Las Estacas site, showing how the spring waters wend there way through the site.
The carpark is outside of the site and so all the gear has to be carried in. In this picture you can see me with one of the porters. With single tanks you might be OK on your own, with doubles it's impossible.
This is the river bend we used for our diving practice. 15ft deep and clear it promised to be excellent. The only problem we had was the current that circulates. If you let it take you out of the pool, there is no return!
The upstream stretch of the river from where we were diving and a top spot to hang out in the shade afterwards.
Liliana on one of the many rope bridges that connect the two sides of the river.
There is a lot of life in the river. Plenty of fish and even more crayfish.
Some rafters drifting down the river Ginnie Springs style.
This is the place most divers start out on their drift down the river. You can see an OW class in the background. The other kind of divers are an obvious hazard!
The gardens at Las Estacas are also pretty impressive
I really liked Las Estacas. Even though there are quite big crowds, it still retains a very pleasant tranquility.
One of two open air swiming pools on the site.
