Las Estacas

The Yautepec river is born like a magic trick at Las Estacas: a single spring boil - el borbollon - pushes thousands of litres a second out of the rock, and a full-grown river simply begins, running glass-clear and cool through a kilometre of palms, ahuehuetes and lawns before leaving the park. The water is the whole attraction and needs no improvement: visitors drift the length with mask and snorkel over waving ribbon-grass and schools of mojarra, launch from rope swings and low diving boards, and walk back up the bank to do it again. The surrounding balneario - a Morelos institution since the 1940s, and a film location whenever Hollywood needs a jungle river - adds pools, gardens, restaurants, camping and a small hotel, all shaded by a botanical collection of palms. Midweek it approaches paradise; weekends it becomes the well-loved, well-populated family classic it has always been.

What you actually see

• El borbollon - the spring boil where the river is born.
• The drift - a kilometre of snorkel-clear water under palms.
• The rope swings - the park's cheerful adrenaline ration.
• The gardens - lawns and palm groves built for hammocks.

When to go

Weekdays outside school holidays for the river at its emptiest; mornings before 11 for the clearest water everywhere. The spring holds its temperature year-round.

Honest expectations

It is a managed water park around a natural wonder - expect entry lines, rules and Saturday crowds. Biodegradable sunscreen only; the river's clarity is policed. Bring water shoes for the stony put-ins.

Nearby

Tlaltizapan's zocalo, the sugar country of southern Morelos and Cuernavaca's palaces fill the return road.