I got up early today to get to Hierve el Agua from Oaxaca City. First, I had to walk to the main road of Oaxaca City(highway 190) from my hostal to catch a collectivo to Mitla. Oaxaca is a colorful city with Spanish colonial vibe as you can see in the following pictures and it was a nice morning walk.
These Collectivos are just regular 4 door taxis where you share the ride with other travelers. I made the mistake of riding in the front seat. The driver will fit 2 people in the front passenger seat if they can pick up the fares. The ride cost me 40 pesos and took about an hour.
Once I got to Mitla, I had to take another Collectivo to the top of the mountain. This time, the ride is a pick up truck with a topper on the truck bed for passengers. The truck will not leave until they have enough passengers to fill up the cab and the bed so you might be waiting for a while. This ride cost 75 pesos and takes about 50mins.
On the way up the mountain, there will be some beautiful views to keep you entertained. There will likely be a road stop to charge everyone 15 pesos for "road maintenance" so be prepared to pay that. Also, it will cost 50 pesos for the entrance to the park.
Once you get to the park, it's a very short walk to the pools. But I recommend taking a hike down to check out the petrified waterfalls from the bottom. It's very cool how they have calcified and formed over thousands of years.
It was a very hot day so when I got back from the hike, it felt nice to take a dip into the pools. You would think that the water will be hot since it looks like it's boiling out of the ground but it's actually very cold. It took a bit of getting used to the temperature to get into the water.
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