Chiapas - the state where the mountains meet the jungle

After a few days relaxing on the beach we had another long night bus journey (17 hours this time!) to reach Chipas. We spent 10 nights here in total - 6 staying in the town of San Cristóbal de la Casas, and 4 in Palenque. 

Chiapas is our favourite state in Mexico so far - it has lots of beautiful nature; waterfalls, moutains, lakes, jungle. It’s also the region of Mexico which grows the most (and best!) coffee! 

San Cristóbal de las Casas

The town of San Cristóbal is small, quaint and picturesque - it’s surrounded by lovely green mountains. The streets here are all bright and colourful, and there’s a huge, busy local market. We enjoyed wandering the streets, sampling the food (and coffee!), and climbing the two viewpoints.

Canon de Sumidero

On our first day in Chiapas, we took a day trip to visit the nearby Canon de Sumidero, which was really beautiful. We visited some viewpoints in the mountains to look down on the river below, and then went on a two hour boat ride on the river through the canyon. We enjoyed the boat ride, and saw lots of wildlife (including 2 crocodiles - so no river swimming for us!). The boat ride ended in a small river town, Chiapa de Corzo, where we had some time to wander round and get a drink before heading back.  

Lagos de Montebello

The next day we went on another trip (our hostel had some good deals on trips!), this time to visit the Lagos de Montebello - a series of lakes on the border of Guatemala. On the way to the lakes we stopped off to see a waterfall - Cascada el Chiflon. Actually the waterfall was the highlight of the trip for us, we enjoyed the walk to the top viewpoint, and standing at the top was great fun - like being in the shower! 

After the waterfall we drove onto the lakes, which were really beautiful and blue. We spent some time walking and relaxing at the lakes, then went to the Guatemalan border. There is no border control here - just a welcome to Guatemala sign, so we spent some time walking back and forth between Mexico and Guatemala. 

There was a market on the Guatemalan side, so Ash went to investigate what the food and wares were like in Guatemala compared to Mexico. After 15 minutes or so he came back to the Mexican side, and said it was all the same as in Mexican markets!

More waterfalls!

Whilst we were in San Cristóbal, we spent time visiting more waterfalls - Agua Azul and Misol Ha. We enjoyed seeing the waterfalls, and I got to swim in Agua Azul which was great fun (Ash wasn’t so keen!). 

Palenque

The next stop on our trip was Palenque - a small town in the jungle famous for the ancient Mayan ruins of the same name (though they are actually called Lakamah by the Maya, meaning big water).

We spent an afternoon visiting the ruins, which we really enjoyed. We’ve seen lots of Mayan ruins in Mexico but Palenque was the most interesting and our favourite. In part this was because our guide, Rudi, was Mayan himself and shared some of his culture with us. He also talked to us about his thoughts and feelings as a descendent of the Mayans who lived here. Palenque was one of the biggest and most important Mayan cities in central america - and it was really interesting about the Mayan culture here. 

The Mayans lived immersed in nature - they used the stars, seasons and natural world to guide them and develop knowledge and technology. For example, Palenque is in the jungle and has a rainy season and dry season, and the Mayans developed a series of aqueducts to collect and direct water during the rainy season (so the city wasn’t flooded), and then store it to use in the drier seasons. Seeing and hearing about the water systems they developed here reminded us of the systems we saw earlier this year at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka, Sigiriya was a fortress built in the fifth century and used similar methods of water collection and storage, developed completely independently of the knowledge of the Mayans.  

Though the ruins were built in 200BC, they were only ‘discovered’ in 1950, because when the Mayans abandoned the city the jungle completely engulfed it. Today there are several temples and structures you can visit, but these are only 2% of what exists there, the other 98% are hidden in the jungle (and can’t be excavated as the jungle is now protected by environmental law). We enjoyed spending some time walking through the jungle looking for the tips of pyramids and temples, and finding Mayan pottery and artefacts in the soil!

After our visit to the ruins, we stayed in a hotel on the site of the Palenque ruins in the jungle. The hotel was pure luxury compared to the hostels we’ve been staying in - it even had a pool! We spent a few nights here, and really enjoyed relaxing in the jungle, watching the wildlife, and listening to the howler monkeys each morning and night. 

Ash was feeling a bit under the weather during our time here, so one day I went for a walk in the jungle by myself which was fun (and humid!). As our hotel was in the middle of the jungle, it was a great place for stargazing. It was really humbling and cool to look up at the stars at night knowing that the Mayans looked at the stars from the same place 4000 years ago, and used those stars to develop their calendar (which has 365 days just as our does).

Overall, we had an amazing time in Chiapas. We really enjoyed all the nature here, and it was very interesting to learn more about the Mayans and the knowledge that they developed using the natural world 4000 years ago. Ash said he had a great experience in Chipas, he really liked navigating the local markets in San Cristóbal and cooking food in the hostel.  

Our next stop: the Yucatán region