Waterfalls, lakes, Mayan ruins and a bat cave ......... just a typical week really

On Monday 4th July we left San Cristobal with the intention of travelling south to some waterfalls and lakes and then moving in an anti clockwise direction to see some Mayan ruins close to the border with Guatemala.

We arrived at the site of the Cascadas El Chiflon mid afternoon and then walked alongside the river, up and up past a series of increasingly impressive waterfalls until we reached the lookout to a huge waterfall which comes cascading over an escarpment. There is a great white crashing, continuous roar of the flow which falls pretty well unimpeded for 120 metres into a large splash pool and then goes on to the other waterfalls. We got very hot during the climb, so it was wonderful to stand on the viewpoint and have a shower in the spray and mist coming from the waterfall and even more wonderful to have a cold beer at a strategically placed cafe on the way back down.

Rio San Vicente leading to Cascada El Chiflon

The climb to the Cascada El Chiflon

Back at Footloose Lucy we deployed the tent in what was essentially the top end of the car park but we were the only ones there. We cooked supper, sat and drank a bottle of wine whilst we watched all the fireflies dancing about and the next morning we awoke to the sound of forest animals and birds and the distant song of the river.

Camping at El Chiflon

After de-camping on Tuesday morning we continued our way south to a very picturesque area called the Lagos de Montebello. There are apparently 59 lakes in total, although we only visited a few of them, and they are all different colours ranging from brilliant aquamarine, turquoise and sapphire to deep green. We found out later that they are all fed by underwater rivers which issue in the bed of the lakes. The colour of the water is to do with the minerals through which the underground rivers run and also the aquatic algae which are to be found in the lakes.

Laguna Agua Tinto, one of the many Lagos Montebello

Laguna Esmeralda

We eventually came to a lake at a village called Tziscao where we found a hotel which had an adjacent camping area. We set up camp right next to the edge of the lake, surrounded by pine trees, and we both agreed it is the nicest campsite we have stayed in so far.

Camping at Laguna Tziscao

Sunset from the campsite

As we were at quite a high altitude it got quite chilly as evening approached so Alan lit a campfire around which we sat until about 10 o'clock toasting our toes and putting the world to rights.

The hotel had a number of broken down sit on kayaks for hire and as one of us was feeling in need of some exercise we took one out on Wednesday. There was only one decent paddle, the other one was a home made wooden thing with parallel blades which was extremely heavy and uncomfortable to paddle. Sue did use the paddle but she got a blister rather quickly so it was decided that probably we would just give the old man a workout which he did for something over two hours around the western side of the lake.

Alan lit another fire in the evening and a very fine fire it was too but then the rain and the wind started. We sat by the fire until the rain became more persistent than intermittent and then we retired to bed. During the night the wind and the rain really got into their stride, we could feel the entire body of the tent whacking around and it seemed to us very likely at one stage that the whole lot was going to tear loose. We lay listening to the coming gusts as they moved through the trees and made their roaring noise which got closer and closer and then the tent got hit and started bouncing about. When we got up thankfully everything was intact, the struts were where they should be and Alan said that if he'd had a glass of wine in his hand (which he never would have at 8.30 in the morning) he would have raised it to the man who made the tent!

After everything was dried out we set off again on Thursday morning along the road which follows the Mexico/Guatemala border and which was peppered both with army check points and very large potholes. Also, thankfully one or two nice views.

Confluence of two rivers from top of gorge en route from Lagos Montebello to Frontera Corozal

We reached our destination of Forntera Corozal after a 6 hour long drive and set up camp at a place called Escudo Jaguar, basically a bunch of cabanas on the banks of the Rio Usunacinta which forms the international boundary between Mexico and Guatemala, our purpose being to see the Mayan ruins of Yaxchilan.

There we met up with another travelling couple and they suggested the best way to see Yaxchilan was to get out there first thing in the morning and, with a little reluctance, we did that, getting on the boat at 7 o'clock for the 40 minute trip to the ruins. This turned out to be an exceedingly good idea because when we got to the ruins there was no one else there apart from some very vocal howler monkeys.

Howler monkey photographed from Rio Usumacinta

The ruins were quite amazing! The whole site is in an area of thick jungle, some parts of which have been cleared to allow access to visitors but much of the site retains the 'Tarzan in the jungle' feel to it. There were several dozen Mayan buildings which were apparently erected between about 300 and 800 AD, occupying a jungle site on a horseshoe bend in the river from where presumably they controlled the movement of the traffic up and down the river. There were winding steps going up through the jungle wrapped in strangler fig tree roots and a huge series of steps going up to the top of the biggest of the pyramids with intricate carvings recording the various victories of whoever happened to be top Mayan at the time. It was hugely atmospheric, the more so because of the musical accompaniment of the howler monkeys, the ever present proximity of the river and Guatemala on the other side.

Mayan ruin in the jungle at Yaxchilan

Jungle surrounding the Mayan ruins of Yaxchilan

Mayan chief having a crafty drag

More of the ruins at Yaxchitlan

After we got back we went for a stroll amongst absolute myriads of yellow butterflies down by the river.

Have you ever wondered what happened to Snow White?

..... or Tarzan?

On Saturday morning we packed up and headed north again to Palenque where there are yet more Mayan ruins. We found a nice campsite in the grounds of a very pleasant hotel with a lovely pool to cool off in, just half a kilometre from the site of the ruins.

Campsite at Palenque

We spent most of Sunday chilling out and Alan pottered off on his own for a couple of hours to see what he could find in the jungle. What he found was a bat cave! He had found a track going off from the road which very quickly ran out in some fairly thick jungle on the banks of a stream. He followed this stream for some distance, getting deeper into the jungle and then on rounding a corner he noticed what looked like a cave up ahead. This turned out to be a man made stone culvert and the water within it was approximately 3 feet deep. He knew that because it reached the parts that most streams don't get to.

Jungle stream near Palenque

Wriggling down into the culvert area he was amazed to see that it was inhabited by about 100 bats. They were hanging from the ceiling and as he got in and started taking flash photographs they became somewhat exercised and started flying around although quite a lot of them just came back and hung from the ceiling again. He returned unscathed and very pleased with his discovery, the only casualty of the trip being his mobile phone which got a good soaking and then refused to function.

Alan's discovery near Palenque - Mayan culvert complete with bats

Inside the bat cave: detail

Later on, as we sat eating our supper we watched as hundreds of fireflies came out and gave us the most wonderful show. It was just as if the stars had fallen to earth and were dancing on the grass.

We got up early on Monday morning to visit the ruins at Palenque as soon as the site opened at 8 am to avoid the crowds and try to keep cool.

Palenque is yet another of Mexico's World Heritage sites and we thought the ruins were amazing. You approach them through a jungle path and then come out into a great plaza with monolithic stepped buildings all around.

Mayan ruin at Palenque - Temple of the Inscriptions

Temple of the Skull at Palenque

View of the Palace with observation tower

Gallery at the Palace

Bas relief on the Temple of the Sun (within the Palace)

The Temple of the Cross

View of Palenque ruins from Temple of Inscriptions

As we were walking down from the main group there were a number of culverted streams and the designs of the culverts were pretty well identical to the little bat cave that Alan found about a mile away in the jungle, suggesting that the developed area of Palenque was far bigger than the site currently excavated. We crossed a stream with a wonderful series of pools which were described as the Queen's bathing pool.

Overgrown ruins at Palenque

Queen's swimming pool at Palenque

We got back in time for a nice lunch and a leisurely cool off in the hotel swimming pool, followed later in the day by another wonderful firefly display during supper.

Whilst we were packing up Footloose Lucy on Tuesday morning we were entertained, not to say disturbed, by a bunch of howler monkeys in a tree just next to where we were camping. We have been constantly aware of these monkeys the entire time we have been in this area due to the very loud howling noise they make but this was the first time they put on a good show for us, leaping around and orchestrating in their inimitable manner. The other great memories we will take away from Chiapas are the butterflies, dancing around in their hundreds by day, and the fireflies dancing around in their hundreds by night. Magical!

So, we bid farewell to the Chiapas region on Tuesday and arrived in Campeche after a 6 hour drive. We are very much looking forward to our next few days here.

PS - Whilst writing this post we have read the news that Theresa May is the new UK Prime Minister which we very much welcome!

Round and Round the Blockades

We left Catemaco early on Sunday 26th June to make the 300 km journey to Chiapa de Orzo and arrived there late afternoon on Tuesday 28th June. You may well wonder why it took us 3 days to get there. Not this time because of winding mountain roads or mechanical failure but because of road blocks made by the protesting teachers. We spent most of Sunday in heavy traffic jams and lengthy diversions caused by a major road closure, making slow progress to an entirely unmemorable industrial town near an oil refinery where we stayed for the night.

We were reasonably certain that we would make it to Chiapa in one jump on Monday and we actually made good progress until we got to Tuxtla Gutierrez, a city just 12 km east of Chiapa, which we managed to get into via a back road as all the main roads were blocked. However, once in we could not get out again. The protesters were somewhat bolshy and not prepared to say when or if the road block would be lifted so, like it or not, we were stuck in Tuxtla for the night. We did, however, take advantage of our incarceration and had Footloose Lucy's brake fluid renewed at an auto repair workshop (see footnote). We also went to a very nice restaurant where there was live Marimba music and colourful traditional Chiapas dancing.

Thin blue line between the police and protesters at Tuxtla Gutierrez

Marimba players in restaurant at Tuxtla

We set off again on Tuesday morning and took a bit of a chance on some back roads, as all the road blocks in and out of the city were still in place. We soon found ourselves assisted by some locals who were standing at every junction, pointing out the correct piece of dirt track that we should be going along. But, of course, one of them had his hand out and it cost us 20 pesos to get round the road block along the dirt tracks and back doubles out onto the correct piece of road again, but we felt that this was good private enterprise and we didn't mind paying a quid to get out of Tuxtla.

We took a 50 km detour to avoid the main road but, even then, we were entertained by another road block on a little minor road. This road block was of a more friendly variety and, as we drove up, they said we couldn't go through but we might be able to in an hour or so.

With typical British aplomb we took out the camp chairs and table, deployed Lucy's awning and Sue proceeded to make ham sandwiches which we sat and ate under our awning, washed down with a can of cold beer, much to the amusement of the protesters. True to their word, they did let us through and we finally arrived in Chiapa de Corzo at 3.30 pm, having left Tuxtla at 10 am!

Making the best of a road block: Sue preparing lunch

The cupola in the plaza at Chiapa de Corzo

Flamboyant tree in the plaza at Chiapa

Fountain in the centre of the cupola

Chiapa de Corzo is a nice little town located next to a river. Our principle reason for stopping there was to visit the Canon del Sumidero, a spectacular gorge which you reach by launch from the town. Alan spent most of Wednesday morning trying to get the transformer fixed after it blew up (this is what we have been using to convert the 110 volt supply to 240 volts so we can use the battery charger) We then went along to the embarkation point for the launch and stayed there for two hours during which time several people came and went but there was never the sufficient number of passengers to persuade the boatmen to take us up the river.

We tried again on Thursday morning and we sat in the queuing area, for want of a better word, for about an hour and nothing happened. Given that they wanted a minimum of 15 people to fill a boat to go up to the gorge it was fairly clear that this was not going to come to pass. Somebody then had the bright idea that we might like to hire a special boat, specially expensive that is. Generally speaking the cost of a trip is 190 pesos but that's together with another 20 odd people. We however paid 2,500 pesos for an exclusive boat all of our own.

As for the gorge, it was absolutely everything that we hoped it might be. This is a an area that has been flooded to form a large lake except that it's a very long thin lake and it has a hydro electric dam at the end of it. The river winds its way through the rocky canyon and in places the walls tower a kilometre above you. Clinging to the walls of the canyon is vegetation and every crack in the rock seems to have a tree forcing its way out of it.

Canon de Sumidero

We saw numerous pelicans and later on we came across a bunch of croc sitting on a sand bank. One of them had its mouth open and a butterfly was living very dangerously by fluttering in and out of its mouth and perching on its nose. 

Brown pelican in the canyon

Butterfly living dangerously in the canyon

Crocodile nursery

We decided that our 2,500 pesos was money well spent, particularly as we were unable to vist two other sites, a 160 metre wide sinkhole and a waterfall, due to their location near Tuxtla, cut off by the road blocks.

We left Chiapa de Corzo on Friday morning to drive the 50 km ascent to the highland city of San Cristobal de las Casas.

Our initial impression of San Cristobal was that it is not quite our sort of place. It is clearly a popular travellers' destination and there are a lot of shaggy bearded, barefoot kaftan wearing gringos shuffling around the place, inclined to gather in cafes and the place has a slightly dishevelled backpackers feel about it. That said, it has grown on us over the couple of days we have been here, there are some lovely old colonial buildings and the plaza comes to life on a Saturday night, as it does in so many places we have visited.

Cathedral in the plaza at San Cristobal

Steps up to Cerro de Guadalupe, hilltop viewpoint

View from Cerro de Guadalupe over San Cristobal

Traditional Mayan figures of owl and toucan

Yesterday, Saturday, we went to visit some caves nearby known as the Grutas de San Cristobal. They are in limestone and they vary in width from a passage between rocks where you have to go through sideways to ampitheatres the size of a cathedral. There's about 500 metres of them including the last part where you have to have a guide and put a hard hat on. They have a myriad of stalactites and stalagmites and frozen waterfalls and columns where stalagmite and stalactite have joined, some of these things 3 or 4 metres high and half a metre across. We were very glad to have visited as these caves are the most impressive that either of us has ever seen.

Stalactite column in Las Grutas de San Cristobal

Today we visited a couple of nearby villages which are home to the Tzotziles indigenous people but the two villages were each very different in character to the other. We were advised that these peoples can be very suspicious of outsiders and that we should not take photographs in certain places and of certain occurances like religious ceremonies so Alan had to behave himself and repress his normal photographic tendencies a little.

On the way we came across a couple of road hazards which are quite common in this part of the world.

Every day driving hazard on a mountain road (landslip)

Rock fall close to land slip

The first village we came to was called Zinacantan and seemed a very traditional and a rather proud sort of place where the people in the markets were wearing the traditional costume and much of what they were selling was the elaborately embroidered clothing that they were wearing. The people were courteous but really couldn't have cared whether we were there or not. There were no tourists there at all, apart from us, and the market was entirely of goods and items being sold by and bought by the local people.

Market place at Zinacantan

Sue buying bracelets (3 for 10 pesos or 50 pence!)

Children from Zinacantan village

In contrast, the second village, Chamula, had a lot of tourists milling around. The market there was huge and had some local handicrafts but most of the stuff there seemed to be angled towards the tourists.

At Chumala market

Market scene at Chumala

Chillies for sale, Chumala market

Market scene at Chumala

Whilst there was a considerable aversion to being photographed in both villages, in Chamula we came across a group of senior men all wearing traditional hairy jerkins and being entertained by a band who were in Spanish musician type costume. We watched for a bit and then Alan asked the chap who seemed to be the master of ceremonies (that conclusion reached because he was busy passing around a large bottle of tequila) whether he could take some photographs. He spoke to the most senior of the men who were seated and, after a certan amount of thought, the senior guy told the master of ceremonies to give Alan a slug of tequila which he duly sank to the approval of the elders. He was then given consent to take photographs, thanked the elders politely and everyone seemed happy with the encounter.

Musicians entertaining village elders

Tomorrow morning is Saturday 4th July and we will be leaving San Cristobal and heading to lakes and rainforest to the south of here.

Footnote - Following our last post we received some helpful comments from a number of friends about our brakes failing, for which we are very grateful. One of the suggestions was to completely renew all the brake fluid which we have now done.