El Río de las Animas is born in the Primavera Forest and flows past the town of Tala, eventually emptying into Lake La Vega
I used to call it “The River of Souls” until I learned that there are two words for soul in Spanish: alma and ánima. The former refers to the souls of living persons as well as those who have made it to heaven or that other place. An “anima,” however, has not yet reached its final destination. This word covers the souls in Purgatory as well as the ones you find wandering about cemeteries, haunted houses and the new Teuchitlán Interactive Museum (where the night guards have spotted dozens of ánimas, perhaps once belonging to the skeletons unearthed while digging the building’s foundation).
So, I am calling it The River of Ghosts, a name it might possibly have received long ago by someone who noticed the bizarrely shaped rocks found along its banks. Geologists say these rocks were formed around 25,000 years ago by gases rising up through a slowly cooling pyroclastic flow. Certain of these formations are known as Fossil Fumaroles, typically shaped like long columns which could be mistaken for petrified tree trunks.
You reach this river by passing through Tala and continuing east through the never-developed housing project of Villa Felicidad. Four kilometers from the edge of Tala, you come to el Río de las Animas. From this point, if you head upstream, you’ll quickly reach a spring where clean, warm water gushes out of the hillside and cascades over a small fall into the river. Three hundred meters upstream from here, there’s a small, natural bathing pool next to a wide meadow perfect for camping. Just north of here, you’ll find several Fossil Fumaroles of extraordinary size. One we measured at 1.2 meters in diameter, not the biggest example of such formations found on our planet, but pretty close.
If you are adventurous, you can keep following this river northwards along a rough trail, for kilometers, and you’ll never see a human being. Of course, you may run into a few animas, in fact, just next to this river we discovered a shelter cave housing a large, curvaceous, pure white column which I named La Reina de las Animas – the Queen of the Ghosts.
Because there are several never-registered obsidian deposits along the river, we invited archaeologist Rodrigo Esparza to have a look. He says, “Along the river I found rainbow obsidian – which is rather rare – and a new color of obsidian (amber) which I’ve never seen before.”
If you head downstream, you’ll find that the river winds its way among tall spires of volcanic rock (too soft for climbers, unfortunately) and a curious cliff face etched with hundreds of smooth, round openings which I suggest might be called “The Balconies of the Banshees.”
Six hundred meters downstream from the “wide meadow” mentioned above, you can actually dive into picturesque Mario’s Pool, where a simple dam has been constructed by local people. Because the River of Ghosts has flat meadows and clean, potable water, it seems like a perfect site for camping, but you might do well to get permission from La Reina de las Animas before you pitch your tent.
How to get there
Warning: during the rainy season you need a high vehicle to negotiate the dirt road east of Tala! From Guadalajara: Take Avenida Vallarta and then highway 15 (Nogales and Tepic) west for 25 kilometers to highway 70 which heads southwest towards Ameca. Now go about 18 kilometers and you’ll come to an overpass and turnoff to Tala. Drive about 1.8 kilometers SE till you come to a Pemex gas station and a stoplight. Here drive into Tala on Morelos street. Go east 1.6 kilometers and turn left (north). Drive 320 meters and you will hopefully be on Calle Luis Rojas. Now drive east, out of Tala and through Villa Felicidad for four kilometers to a fork in the road. 200 meters SE of this spot you can park (at N20 39.307 W103 39.426). Now, walk 423 meters down a no-longer-drivable road and you will reach the River of Ghosts (N20 39.245 W103 39.264). Tala is also easily reached from Lake Chapala via Cajititlán and Tlajomulco. Driving time to the Río de la Animas from either Guadalajara or the lake is about 75 minutes.