A Visit to Mexico’s Grand Canyon

Hola todos! Been some days since the last installment hasn’t it? I’m losing count but think this is somewhere between 40 and 50 days in now but would have to go back and check.

Since we left off I had mostly just chilled around town for the weekend but one notable thing was doing a walking tour where the guide showed us around different markets, churches and explains the story of the zapatista movement – a sort of separatist movement centred around reclaiming autonomy promised by the government that they renewed on. Long story short might do another post on them since it’s quite complex but the tldr is they are still active and there is still a lot of wealth and resource inequality both here and across all Mexico that is a trouble for the average person here.

That pretty much brings us up to speed for the weekend. Now Monday has rolled round and I decided it would be a good day to do a tour. So having a look at options it was decided to do El Cañon de Sumidero – this is probably the most famous natural landmark in Chiapas resembling something of a grand canyon with a lake. This is an absolutely spectacular natural wonder and one I have taken lots of videos and photos of. It is another to make a dedicated video on at a later date.

The tour I booked on was a reasonable start at 0900 and we were first taken up the mountains to look at the canyon from the miradores (view points) It is spectacular but also a tad freaky to see them from the top nothing just how high up it is (up to a 1km sheer drop in some parts). After this part was done drive took us to the northern side of the canyon where we boarded our boat from Osumacinta and would ride through the canyon back to Chiapa de corzo, a small colonial town just outside Tuxtla. Unfortunately no hotel stay included 😂😂

The boat trip was about 2 hours and was very nice for what it was. Once you get going it’s quite a cool breeze within the canyon. Our Capitan stopped at various places and explained about the features, all in another hard to understand dialect of Mexican Spanish so didn’t catch all of it. Some notable places were a bird sanctuary in one area, various waterfalls one of which being known as ‘the fountain of youth’. Various different cave systems in the mountains, a part of jungle where spider monkeys live as well as lots of crocodiles on shores. All was excellent stuff and excellent views. As you then exit the canyon the river opens up into flatlands around big river that very much resembles the “Charlie don’t surf” scene of Apocalypse Now.

Once we arrived into Chiapa de Corzo our drive was there to meet us and we had an hour and a half for lunch which then got dropped to an hour – probably because nobody went to the restaurant his cousin was working in! Still the area was a bit of a tourist trap anyway so an early return to San Cristobal was not opposed by anyone.
Met some good people on this tour but once again they were not sticking round and headed the opposite way so no new best friends!
All in was a good day. Let’s see what tomorrow brings!