January 10, 2020
We did another stay at home day and I took the opportunity to catch up on my writing and repair our awning. Holly caught up on her Chinese Homeschooling.
Jan 11, 2020
After a day of resting we were energized to go out and so after lunch we drove Rover to the Xote Parque Acuatic a waterpark just outside of town. The GPS showed it was only 15 minutes drive away but it did not account for the two miles of unpaved rock road at the end so it took us almost a half hour to slowly bump our way there. From the outside the park didn’t look like much but once inside it was beautiful or as Holly liked to call it, like a “desert mirage”.
The entrance fee was quite reasonable at 160 pesos for adults and 80 pesos for kids and they were running a special that gave 25% of the entrance fees back in the form of coupons good for the restaurant or gift shop. As we entered we noticed that at 12:30 pm on a beautiful, warm Saturday the park was nearly deserted. The perfectly manicured leafy grounds were completely empty. The first pool we went to had a shallow area perfect for toddlers and a slightly deeper area for grown ups in front of a pretty wicked looking waterslide that had vertical initial drop AND a loop. There was one other family at the pool.
After a quick dip we explored a little. The park is built on a hill and we found that as we went up the hill the warmer the water in the pools were. We went past some empty playgrounds, some more lovely but deserted pools and even a full children’s water play area before we got to the top of the hill were we found four, count them three other families at a pair of pools at the top of the hill. There was a smaller pool and a huge, Olympic sized pool. Both had perfectly fine warm water but the smaller pool was the perfect bathwater warmth so most of the kids were in the small pool and Olivia promptly joined them.
Holly and I went into the small pool too and what can I say, it was perfect. Perfectly warm but not too hot. The water in the waterpark came from a hot spring but did not have any sulfur or chlorine smell. There was a big straight waterslide next to the pools which Olivia and I took advantage of a few times. With only maybe 15 guests in the area, there was no waiting no lines. Just grab your slide and go up as many times as you want.
Olivia lost no time making friends and we discovered most of the people in the pool spoke English. One couple with three kids were dual American/Mexican citizens from Colorado. We also met Oscar a lawyer from Ensenda who spoke almost perfect English who was there with his son. There was another local lady there who spoke English with two kids. Other than that it was just the staff and lifeguards who were having a very easy day just sitting around.
It was amazing, almost like we were some rich and famous celebrities who rented out a whole waterpark for the day. We could go on any waterslide we wanted as many times as we wanted, no wait. Some of the waterslides were turned off but the staff would turn them on when we requested. After a few hours everyone went over to the kids water play area and the staff turned on the water there for the kids to play. Everything was immaculately clean and all the slides except one were perfect for kids. Those with teenagers might not find this water park very exciting but all the kids there were 2 to 10 years old so it was just right.
Near the end of the day the setting sun inspired Holly to do an impromptu photo shoot. Enjoy!
The water park was so nice and empty that Holly was inspired to have a little photo shoot. 
Holly doing her impression of a beer ad. She doesn’t always drink beer, but when she does it is a Modela beer! 
Feeling thirsty yet? 
After a few hours I went to the empty restaurant and got four gorditas, soda and a beer for 139 pesos which after using the coupons came out to 39 pesos or $2. Refreshed we played on until closing. It was really the prefect day, 78 degrees, sunny, warm but not too hot. I would highly recommend anyone with kids coming to San Miguel to set aside a day to go to Xote Parque Acuatic waterpark. It would be easily accessible by Uber or Taxi from central San Miguel. They also offer camping and are open every day from 10 to 6.
Leaving the waterpark we went to the La Comer supermarket again as we were out of groceries. Olivia was entirely tuckered out so we stayed in Rover while Holly was a little enthusiastic stocking up on groceries spending over US$120. She even got a US$40 rack of lamb which she returned after I pointed out to her that 1. It was really expensive and 2. We didn’t have a good way of cooking a whole rack of lamb.
It was quite late by the time we got back to the RV Park and had dinner but we still managed to shower before putting Olivia to bed around 11 pm.