Blue Water and Beautiful Ruins, Chiapas Part 2

Following our monster day last Sunday, we decided we would be leaving Monday morning at around 6:45 for a day trip with one of the many local travel agencies that would take us to the Agua Azul (blue water) park, Misol-Ha waterfall, and Palenque Mayan ruins.







After hopping in an absolutely packed passenger van with an assorted group of Mexican couples and very interesting crowd of American grad students on Fulbright Grants who were working in Mexico City, we headed out for the day long trip.



The first drive to the Agua Azul was a bit interesting as the couple in row 2 proceeded to get motion sick and yak (first girlfriend then sympathetic boyfriend). Everyone else was very kind and offering to help except for some random Aussie in the back corner yelling "cut the weak links, let's run".





Nonetheless it was a beautiful drive through the mountains (but not as beautiful as Loftin Johnson), and though a bit behind schedule, we eventually made it.



The park has a nice wide path that runs along a river with a series of average size waterfalls and beautiful blue water due to a high mineral content.





Also lining the path are a variety of traditional and touristy Mexican clothing and food retailers set up in tents. After a very difficult decision, Dan and I settled on two shirts which officially represent our best Mexican purchases thus far.



We spent our 1.5 hours power walking along the river and then returned to the bus for the departure to our next destination Misol-Ha.



This was another waterfall and although we had thought we were all waterfalled out, this one was pretty cool since there was a smaller waterfall to the side that was fed by an underground stream housed within a cavern that you can walk/swim into.



After a brief stint here where we covered the entire area before team Fulbright had even gotten off the bus it seemed, we hopped back in bound for the grand finale, Palenque.





Palenque was a former Mayan city built in the 6th century deep within the jungle. It is regarded as one of the top two ruins sites along with Teotihuacan (previous trip with the huge pyramids) and while very different, was awesome.






It was awesome walking around since the entire park is within a mountainous jungle which created an incredible backdrop for the already impressive ruins. The whole time it seemed like the only noise was the howler monkeys screaming at the top of their lungs just beyond the border of the trees.






The central area which contains the royal palace and several enormous temples has been completely excavated from the jungle and is wide open, but there are also surrounding plazas that they have left more or less untouched which were also cool to see.







We stayed about 2 hours until the park closed and then grabbed a van down to the bus station in the actual town of Palenque. The park doesn't employ guides and instead people are welcome to come in and show people around. As a result all the guides are about 13 years old, but nonetheless know their stuff. We got to ride with Eduardo and Ricky on the way back and they were absolutely hilarious.





Once in the town we bought a bus ticket. We almost had a coronary when the woman told us the 10 hour drive would take 14 hours due to some stops, but were calmed down a bit when the driver said it would be 10.



12 hours later (got to love Mexico time) we arrived in Puebla well rested from another great night on the bus, absolutely in love with Chiapas, and ready for a big week of classes as everyone is piling on the work for the final stretch. Fortunately we are making some time for ourselves as tonight there will be another enormous party (and a good chance the Captain will be making an appearance) for the entire university at a new night club with a South African safari theme.

Taking it to the Limit in Chiapas Part 1

Last weekend was a long weekend so believe it or not, Dan and I decided to take a trip.



Our destination this time was the highly recommended state of Chiapas, located a brief 11 hours from Puebla.



We decided to leave Friday night at 11:30 and make the trip overnight on an upgraded bus line for lots of leg room and comfortable seats. After a bit of an ordeal with Dan (ACDC concert the night before) arriving on a bus from Mexico City at 11:28 and me arriving at 11:29 (after breaking into his room and packing 3 of every clothing article he owns) we drastically shortened the trip with about 10.5 hours sleeping.



We arrived in San Cristóbal (a beautiful and historical town of about 200,000 residents) which was supposedly the best place to spend the nights for the trip.





After randomly meeting up with Tom's "girlfriend" Elena (planning to meet up with Tom who was also in Chiapas but with a different group) from Spain Dan and I found a nice hotel with sweet courtyard, queen size beds, and monster shower for less than 20$ a night (despite our best efforts Elena insisted she would not be staying with us for the weekend).



From here we grabbed lunch, did a little looking around San Cristóbal (including seeing the awesome Church of Santo Domingo and Cathedral) and headed out for a tiny and very indigenous town called Chamula (in a van carrying boxes of live and very angry chickens right behind my seat).







There was a decent sized food market here which featured a lot of stands with almost no customers leaving us to wonder how they ever made a profit selling all these perishable foods. In addition nearly every stand was worked by a young child and it was pretty clear they would never know anything outside of Chamula which put things in perspective for Dan and I as we had traveled nearly every one of the last 8 weekends and were studying abroad in the first place.













Chamula also has 2 churches, one being the ruins of the burned down Church of San Sebastián and the other being the Church of San Juan which features thousands of candles and incense which are put out and burned only to be swept and scraped up every day.







After Chamula we headed back to San Cristóbal and climbed a series of steps to the San Cristóbal church situated on a hill overlooking the entire town of San Cristóbal in the valley below.





We took in the view for a bit then went back down for margaritas at a restaurant on the Zocalo and proceeded to hand Elena off to Tom (though I am almost positive she was dying to stay with us studs) as he passed through on their way to a different destination.



Next we headed across town to another temple situated atop a large hill where a wedding was taking place. A beautiful sunset and discussion on the benefits of being single ensued.





From here the two of us grabbed dinner at yet another candle lit restaurant with live piano music and no other tables without a girl. Fortunately we made up for it by ordering a huge plate of assorted meats.



After some recommendations we made our way out to a couple of the local bars and stopped by a concert which was taking place in the Zocalo before heading back for bed.



Sunday morning came a bit early, but after having had 3 travel agencies tell us (despite some classic arguments in Spanish) the day before that it would be impossible to visit both the Chiflón waterfall and the Sumidero Canyon in the same day, we had planned our route and knew what we had to do.



After Dan had sufficiently frightened a variety of small children and mothers around town with his ghastly morning "shouldn't have gone for that last drink" appearance which he seems to have mastered we grabbed a 7 AM collectivo bus headed in the direction of the waterfall.



After a transfer and another ride we arrived to the park and as luck would have it, got to take a "took took" up to the trail.



We walked through the forest and along the river about 20 minutes which allowed a couple peaks of what was ahead before finally everything opened up onto the tallest most magnificent waterfall I have ever seen.

We had an unbelievable look around from the several observatories and got absolutely drenched from all the spray coming up despite being well above the river below which was actually more of a small canyon with us looking over from one side.



Next we noticed there was a zip line crossing both ways over the canyon. I had never done one before and figured there was no time like the present, though Dan had already cruised a "2k canyon" and felt it was a bit of child's play. Little did he know how interesting I would make it.

After climbing the tower the man started dressing me with the harnesses. Per the usual I was blabbering in Spanish so he decided to give me the instructions including the part about the wooden hand held brake in Spanish which didn't quite register. Nonetheless I figured it was a simple enough process and took the plunge.



After a rather slow descent I found myself stuck in the very center of the rope dangling over the canyon. I couldn't figure out what the heck was the problem and continued to hang there for quite a bit as various instructions were yelled to me in some language not resembling anything I speak from guys on the other tower.



Once I started registering some serious pain in the groin and surrounding regions I realized I needed to let go of the wooden break and after doing so slowly cruised down.

After walking from the landing tower to the other launch tower I was clipped back and ready to go. This time I caught the guy saying that to go faster I just needed to let go of the break...not quite. I jumped off again and did this and what do you know, I zoomed across the canyon.



Crossing over I got a great view of the waterfall and everything was great until I realized the landing tower was approaching way too fast. The man was waving his arms all over the place and yelling but when I reached for my brake it was dangling below me and useless so I had to take my leather gloved hand and grab the rope until I slowed just before crashing into the tower.

Having stared death in the face or so it seemed to me I descended back to my tierra firma on shaky legs as a decent sized group laughed and pointed at the dumb white guy.



After a thorough verbal lashing on my ineptitudes as an adventure sportsman from Dan we headed out bound for the canyon.

3 hours of van time later we were in Tuxtla Gutierrez the largest city in Chiapas and managed to catch the finale of one of the most beautiful games of football ever played as the Bengals, on the road toppled the defending champ Steelers in Pittsburgh.



From here we asked around and got a ride out to a beautiful small town outside Tuxtla called Chiapa de Corzo where there are several water front restaurants, live music, and boat companies on the river which eventually flows into the Sumidero Canyon.





We got tickets for the last boat ride of the day and then got a 2 hour tour through the canyon from end to end.



It felt absolutely surreal with how enormous the cliffs on either side were (at 1 point being 1 kilometer above the water) and to date was the coolest thing I have seen in Mexico.





Almost everyone on the boat was absolutely enraptured with the magnificence.



We got back just as the sunset was finishing up and headed back to San Cristóbal.



Though we had big plans, we didn't end up making it past the appetizers stage and after a quick walk around headed back to the hotel for the conclusion of the Colts Patriots game (sweet Bill Belichick) and then an early night to bed.



The next day (which will be the next blog) we had plans for taking a tour to the famous historical ruins of Palenque with stops at two more waterfalls along the way. With over half our trip down, we were worn out, blown away by what we had seen, thankful to still be alive (or at least I was), and very excited for what lay ahead.