Cacheuta Hot Springs

Leaving Jerome, our next stop was a small town called Cacheuta that is famous for its hot springs.

Though Potrerillos and Chacheuta are very close to one another, by the time we left Jerome, stopped for lunch, found our way there, and got settled into a parking spot, it was already well after 4 pm and the springs were about to close at 6.

In our infinite wisdom we decided we’d wait until the following day, Wednesday, to visit the springs, so that we could get the most out of our $6.50 per person.

Wednesday came, and we set about our usual morning routine, not in any particular rush to get going, because the mornings were cold in the mountains and we’d have all day.

We noticed though, from the window of the camper, busload after busload of tourists heading to the springs. We would soon learn that Wednesday was apparently tour bus day at Cacheuta.

By the time we walked over around noon, a bold type sign on the gate read SOLO RESERVAS - Reservations Only. We tried to talk our way through, but we were behind a few other groups unsuccessfully attempting the same. Our foreign mystique did not help one bit.

We spent a bit of the day exploring Cacheuta, had a nice lunch at a local restaurant, did a bit of work, and worked on some camper projects. We wiped down the solar panels to see if that’d help them to charge the batteries faster, and I replaced an old USB-A outlet in the cab with one of the USB-C chargers I brought from home for that purpose. We also bought tickets to the springs for the next day.

Tickets notwithstanding, from time to time we walked by the gate to see if the Solo Reservas sign was still up. Earlier, the bouncer (which he effectively was) told us there was a chance they’d open things up later in the afternoon, but that didn’t happen until like 5 pm. We decided to pass, but Mike and Geneva decided to go in to use the showers.

Anticipation was high when our turn at the springs finally came on Thursday. The springs were fabulous, especially since it was a pretty quiet day there. We each spent a couple of hours there—in shifts it turns out—because Khalilah had an early call and I wanted to get a jump on my springing.

It was early afternoon when we finally reconnected with Mike and Geneva. They had some errands to run in Mendoza City and we wanted to visit some vineyards before heading to the city, so with much sadness it was finally time to split up the convoy.Read more