The Usumacinta River forms part of the border between Guatemala and Mexico. Yaxchilan is a ruin along the river that you can only get to by boat from the Mexican border town of Frontera Corozal.
Yaxchilan
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Monthly Archives: January 2018
Guacamaya
The road to Guacamaya took us through some of the most spectacular jungle we have ever driven through. The wide valley below us was cultivated, every inch covered in a different colour of green. Above us the cliffs became almost vertical but were dripping with an astounding variety of vegetation…palms, vines, plants with leaves the size of beach umbrellas… At one point I looked below us to see a scarlet macaw soaring, silhouetted against the vibrant green of the valley below. It was breath taking. And we only have theses pictures, as we had an epic dash cam fail that day…very disappointed. I didn’t take photos in the most pristine places we drove through, foolishly relying on the dash cam, so these photos really do not do it justice, but it gives you a bit of an idea of what we were seeing.
Montebello and Las Nubes
We headed along a highway, toward the border of Mexico and Guatemala, to Parques Nacional de Lagunas de Montebello. There are a series of lakes here. On a sunny day each lake has its own remarkable shade of blue or green, sometimes both. But when we arrived, it was raining, so we made our way to where we were going to camp for the night and thought we would drive to visit the various lakes the next day.
El Chiflon
El Chiflon is one of many sites in Chiapas that are run by an indigenous cooperative group called Paraisos Indigenas (Indigenous Paradises). We arrived at the falls later in the day with the plan of sleeping in the parking lot, but when we got there, we were once again enticed to book a cabin for the night (600 pesos, about $40).
Punta Arista
We stayed a night in the small town of Punta Arista to break up the drive into the state of Chiapas. Someone had recommended a campground called Jose’s, so we had checked in to the campground and cabanas. The owners’ were nice and welcoming but the campground had probably seen better days…maybe it had been hit hard by recent tropical storms? There was quite a bit of debris everywhere, many of the brick grilling stations were beat up and broken down and the cabins didn’t even come close to enticing us out of our little camper for the evening. The showers and toilets were however well maintained and clean.
Huatulco
The few restaurants that made up the town along the beach at Huatulco are bordered by a national park of the same name. We were able to camp within the gates of a newly built restaurant called El Capi’s, with access to the clean, new washroom throughout the night and slow to average WIFI, all for 150 pesos per night, about $10 Canadian. The food in the restaurant was good, there were hammocks to swing in, and shady palapas if we needed to get out of the sun.
Zipolite Beach
Zipolite Beach is a beach in the town of Puerto Angel of which we had heard mixed reviews. Seems you either love it or hate it. We loved it.
Cabin in the mountains.
We decided to head back to the coast and headed towards a camping spot about half way we saw on iOverlander where there was a nice river and some more caves. After a few hours of driving we turned off of the main highway and were in a small village that appeared to be quite poor. We needed some groceries for the evening and drove around looking for a tienda.
Hierve el Agua
We left Oaxaca on a highway known as the mescal trail and drove past several fields of agave and many small shops selling Mescal made right on site. Some were still using stone wheels about 5 feet in diameter powered by a horse. The wheel is dragged around in an endless circle running over the agave to make a mash, which is then made into Mezcal. We considered stopping at one to buy some Mezcal, but the sample we had had in Oaxaca didn’t really appeal to either of us so we decided to keep driving to our destination for the night, Hierve el Agua.
Oaxaca and Monte Alban
Oaxaca (pronounced Wa-ha-ka) is both a state in Mexico and the capital city of the state. We drove through some beautiful high mountain terrain to Oaxaca city. The roads were quite good, if not all the drivers. I have dash cam video of two cars, a semi and a pickup truck, all shoulder to shoulder trying to pass each other, going up hill and around a corner…..again, wish I had the internet power to upload the video, maybe one day.