Dining in San Miguel
	The Santuario de Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco
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The last stop on our guided tour of San Miguel (after the city overlook, the Folk Art Gallery, and the Santuario de Jesus Nazareno de Atotonilco) was the La Gruta Spa. It was not a very big place, and our guide got is in just to look around without paying the $10 entry fee. The first two pictures were taken at the entry area:

This is the entry area for La Gruta.

And I thought this decorative display was colorful.

The La Gruta Spa is not so crowded as some of the other, better-known thermal spas in this area of Mexico, and so it is less noisy than most. But there is very good thermal water and lots of natural shade.

As with most attractions these days, there is a gift shop, and here at La Gruta one actually has to walk through it to get into the complex.

Lots of people make a day of their outing here, and bring coolers with drinks and food that they can consume in one of the three picnic areas. This one is just inside the complex.

Once in the complex, the actual pools are a hundred feet or so down some well-kept walkways.

The walkway makes a turn to the right in front of the sun sculpture. If you would like to see the sculpture in more detail, please click here.

Then we walked a hundred feet or so down a walkway to the first of the pools.

Just before we got to the first of the pools, we stopped so Fernando (our guide) could tell us a little about this spa and a bit about the geology of the area.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible) When we stopped to listen to Fernando, I took the opportunity to pan around the area of the spa grounds above the pools.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible) A bit further on, there were some steps down to the pools but also some steps up to a place where I could look down into one of the main pools and see the cave/tunnel that connects a couple of them.

The cave is man-made, of course, and inside it is like a sauna, with lots of steam and heat. It is about as tolerable as a normal sauna. Here are a couple of pictures taken from that overlook.

Apparently, La Gruta is thought by San Miguel residents as a great place for families to hang out and relax. While many people bring their own refreshments, the restaurant food here is thought to be quite good. And there are three or four of these tunnel-like stairway connectors between the various pools. My guess is that they are here to lend variety to the experience, and are probably something that kids like.

Although we didn't go in, of course, I can only imagine that the warm waters are very relaxing.

Here is a panoramic view of one of the larger pools at La Gruta. I found myself wishing we'd had the opportunity to sit in the pools for a while.

Some of the pools are quite hot, so there are areas like this where people can sit in a shaded area and cool down.

And all through the complex were walkways like these. I think the whole area was very clean and very well-kept.

Back near the entry we found one of the restaurants on the property, this one being more like a snack bar.

La Gruta was a really interesting place, and we could easily see why it is popular. Probably the nicest thing was that it wasn't overcrowded. (Fernando did say that once the spa has let in a certain number of people, there is a cutoff until some of those people leave.)

This was the last stop on our guided tour, so Fernando returned the four of us to Casa Pina.

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	Dining in San Miguel
	The Santuario de Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco
	Return to the Index for Our Mexico Trip