Mayan Ruins and Waterfalls

Continuing our tour of Chiapas state, we drove north from San Cristobal for a few hours to Agua Azul waterfall, where we hiked and swam before the big hoards of tourists showed up. We pressed on a bit further along the highway past impoverished families in the countryside who were holding strings across the road to stop cars and try to sell their bananas. But there are really only so many bananas that you can buy, and most of the time you´d have to honk loudly to get them to let you pass. Instead of bananas we opted for mangos, because we were in the midst of delicious mango season.

Dad eating a mango flower at Agua Azul

I really enjoyed swimming at our next stop, the waterfall Misol-Ha. After lounging there for a while and attempting to swim directly under the flow of the waterfall, we drove a few more miles into the town of Palenque. We arrived and quickly found the best hotel option with a pool, as the climate is very hot and humid there. When we came back to our hotel pool after dinner on the town´s main square, we found that it was filled with 500 unsupervised children who had come in off a tourist bus while we were out. But the temperature was hot enough to make us want to swim around them!  

Misol-Ha waterfall

The following day we drove southeast along the Guatemalan border to our first Mayan ruin, Bonampak. This was probably one of the most isolated places that I visited in Mexico to that point, as there were only small indigenous villages and jungle surrounding the site, on both sides of the border. there weren´t many other people there, but we did meet some Chiapaneco families on a day trip and local Lacandon people. On the way back to Palenque, we stopped at a beautiful set of cascadas for a picnic and refreshing swim. We were so lucky to find this spot, which was off the highways a ways, down a dirt road, and not well described in the guide book. This day trip was also the first time I tried out being behind the wheel of the rental car, and while I was over-cautious at times, I did minimal damage to the underside of the car when going over unmarked speed bumps! My dad was fairly disappointed that missionaries had saturated this remote corner of Mexico and most of the towns along the border highway were dry, so there was nothing refreshing for him to sip on while I drove home! After getting back to the hotel and enjoying the pool and AC quite a bit, I checked my email and found out that I´d been accepted into the University of Washington School of Medicine!! Best of all, I got to share my excitement with my dad, as we celebrated with a seafood feast and lots of hugs that night in Palenque!

Dad welcomes you to Bonampak, which we had almost to ourselves!

Bonampak murals that are incredibly well-preserved

The following day we saw Mayan sight number two...Palenque! We got an early start, but it was still plenty hot at the sight. We found the energy to climb almost all of the monuments and trek around through the jungle. This was a much anticipated day for us, and Palenque did not disappoint! The blue sky + green grass + black and white stonework made for a surreal setting, and we had fun exploring different passageways and thinking about Mayan times. After spending the morning walking through the palaces and patios of palenque, dad and I stopped by the museum briefly and then returned to our hotel to relax for a bit and enjoy the pool, sans young and wild hooligans! It was nice to have a relaxing afternoon and some down time, after we'd been going non-stop for the previous 2 weeks. Some shots of Palenque:

The next morning we headed out early and climbed back up into the mountains to the town of Ocosingo, which is about halfway between Palenque and San Cristobal. There we had some breakfast, bought incredible "doble crema" cheese that is specially made in the region and our usual daily supply of tortillas, which always consists of a hefty stack for 2-3 pesos. We drove a few miles outside of town to Tonina, another Mayan sight. While it is a bit more off the beaten path, and not as visited as Palenque, Chichen Itza or Tikal, we were informed in the parking lot by an overly confident tour guide that Tonina has The Best murals in the entire Mayan world, and those other ruins are crap by comparison! We had a good laugh over his persuasiveness, then decided not to pay him to give us a tour, as we sensed a little too much bitterness. He was indeed correct that Tonina was impressive and had nice stone carved murals. It was also a monster to hike up, with seven levels of pyramids running up the hill. On the way back down, we stopped at a snack shop, which was run by a Zapatista family. My dad was very excited to buy a t-shirt from them and we heard more about the Zapatista's current control of the area and what has occurred since their uprising in 1994. Later in the afternoon, when we were driving down the back roads to the town of Comitan, we passed through more Zapatista towns and were stopped on the road to pay a fee to locals who were repairing the road. The price was of course dependent on how you looked and what kind of car you were driving, but it was nice to have a landslide-free road!

Tonina

We arrived in Comitan in the afternoon and walked around town a bit to see the museum and house of Dr. Belisario Dominguez, a political reformer and medical doctor who lived in the city. While I don't think that Comitan really deserved it's distinction as a "pueblo mágico" or "magical city" like others that I've seen, the main attractions were the nearby natural wonders, including Lagunas de Montebello, where we went the next day. Our rental car really came in handy here, and we were able to see all of the sections of the national park and at least a dozen lakes, of so many different colors! We even went to one that was right on the border, half in Mexico and half in Guatemala! Our favorite was definitely Laguna Agua Tinta, where we swam all by ourselves in perhaps the clearest and cleanest lake I have ever been in!

 

One of the many Lagunas de Montebello 

On our last full day in Chiapas, dad and I packed up our stuff and drove to the final waterfall of the trip, Cascada El Chiflon. We were fortunate to arrive there early enough to avoid excessive heat and crowds, and I think it was one of the most beautiful places we went in Chiapas. The mist off of the largest "bridal veil" falls felt so good, and swimming in the lower falls was nice as well. From there we drove the backroads to a little town just south of San Cristobal for lunch, then we drove through San Cris to a hotel in Chiapa del Corzo, which put us within striking distance of the airport for the next morning. We decided to take it easy on our last afternoon and not drive up to the Cañon del Sumidero, or go on the boat ride into the canyon because my dad still has a fear of Mexican boats. Instead we went swimming (again!) and ate a fabulous final dinner of street tamales. We stacked up quite a few plates and it was the perfect way to end trip with my dad!

Cascada del Chiflon



 Mmmmmmmmmmango season!!!!