Las Estacas Natural Reserve and Spa (Spanish: Balneario Las Estacas) is a mineral spring, day spa and natural reserve located in the town of Tlaltizapan, in the state of

Morelos Morelos (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Morelos ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Morelos), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 36 municipalities and its capital city is Cuer ...

, Mexico. The natural reserve is a protected area for plants and wildlife since 1998; the protected area has and harbors a first magnitude spring with a flow rate of 6,700 L/s.

History

In 1940, Julio Calderon Fuentes acquired Las Estacas from Hacienda of Temilpa. In 1941, Calderon opened Las Estacas to tourists as a spa day and country ranch. The name of Las Estacas derives from its history when the residents dug stakes in the shore of the river to control the water level and water their fields. The reserve has been a protected area since 1998.

Geography

The territory of the natural reserve and spa belongs to the Morelos-Guerrero Mesozoic basin which in the north adjoins with the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt and in the south, west and east is surrounded by the Sierra Madre del Sur. Las Estacas is in the town of Yautepec which is in the north central part of the state of Morelos, Mexico. The spring is in the valley of Yautepec, about 15 km in straight line to the SSW of the town of Yautepec and about 13 km to the south of Ticuman.

Climate

The normal temperature throughout the year is about 25 °C with a rainfall of 840 L/m^2. Subtropical and hot humid with winter not defined. The drought reaches its worst at the end of the autumn, the winter, and in the beginning of the spring. The rain season is in between the months of June and October.

Flora and fauna

Flora

Las Estacas has a great variety of flora and some of this are protected species such as cuachalate ('' Amphipterygium adstringens''), cazahuate (''

Ipomoea wolcottiana ''Ipomoea'' () is the largest genus in the plant family Convolvulaceae, with over 600 species. It is a large and diverse group, with common names including morning glory, water convolvulus or water spinach, sweet potato, bindweed, moonf ...

''), tepemezquite (''

Lysiloma divaricatum ''Lysiloma divaricatum'' is a flowering tree native to Mexico and Central America. Common names include mauto, quitaz, and tepemesquite in Mexico, quebracho in Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua, and quebracho negro, tepemisque, and yaje in El Salv ...

''), pochote ('' Ceiba aesculifolia''), pata de cabra (''

Wimmeria persicifolia ''Wimmeria'' is a genus of shrubs to small trees in the family Celastraceae. It is named after German botanist Christian Friedrich Heinrich Wimmer (1803–1868). Species :''This list may be incomplete.'' * ''Wimmeria acapulcensis'' Lundell ...

'', '' Bursera ariensis'', ''

Lysiloma tergemina ''Lysiloma'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. The genus is native to the Americas, and species range from Arizona and New Mexico through Mexico and Central America to Costa Rica, and in Florida, Cuba, Hispaniola, the Bahama ...

''), cuajiote amarillo (''

Bursera áptera ''Bursera'' is a genus with about 100 described species of flowering shrubs and trees varying in size up to high. It is the type genus for Burseraceae. The trees are native (often for many species endemic) to the Americas, from the southern Uni ...

''), copal ('' B. copallifera'') and cuajiote rojo ('' B. schlechtendalii'').

Fauna

There are 132 species of birds, 10 species of fish and 8 species of mammals. Some also are protected species such as White-tailed deer (''

Odocoileus virginianus The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to North America, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. It has also been introduced t ...

''), Mexican spiny-tailed iguana (''

Ctenosaura pectinata ''Ctenosaura pectinata'' is a species of moderately large lizard in the family Iguanidae. The species is native to western Mexico. The standardized English name is the western spiny-tailed iguana. Liner, Ernest A., and Gustavo Casas-Andreu (20 ...

''), chupaflor barbón ('' Calothyorax pulcher''), blue seedeater (''

Amaurospiza relicta The Cabanis's seedeater (''Amaurospiza concolor'') is a species of bird in the cardinal family Cardinalidae that the International Ornithological Committee (IOC) accepted as a species in 2015. (But see the taxonomy section below.) It is found ...

''), papamoscas pardooscuro ('' Xenotriccus mexicanus''), Molly (''

Poecilia maylani ''Poecilia'' is a genus of fishes in the family Poeciliidae of the order Cyprinodontiformes. These livebearers are native to fresh, brackish and salt water in the Americas, and some species in the genus are euryhaline. A few have adapted to liv ...

''), repotete (''

Heterandria bimaculata ''Heterandria'' is a genus of livebearing fishes within the family Poeciliidae. Most species occur in Guatemala and its surroundings, particularly Mexico, but the midget livebearer ('' H. formosa'') comes from the southeastern United States ...

''), sardine (''

Astyanax aeneus ''Astyanax aeneus'', the banded tetra, is a small species of fish native to southern Central America and northern South America. It can be found in a variety of environments, including lakes, rivers, ponds, and slightly brackish locales like lago ...

'') and crappie (''

Ilyodon whitei The Balsas splitfin (''Ilyodon whitei'') is a species of fish in the family Goodeidae. It is endemic to Mexico where it occurs in the states of Morelos and Michoacán. This fish was formally described as ''Goodea whitei'' by Seth Eugene Meek ...

'').

References

{{reflist Geography of Morelos