Boating through the Sumidero Canyon is an incredible way to begin your time in Chiapas. This two hour trip takes you through a photogenic setting of emerald waters, beautiful cascades and sheer cliff faces. You also come across a variety of birdlife and get close to crocodiles on the shore basking in the sun.
Afterwards we arrived in the charming colonial town of San Cristobal – a picture perfect highland settlement of cobblestone streets and pretty architecture. Outside San Cristobal lie several indigenous villages where the locals practice bizarre rituals. You'll see people drinking copious amounts of Coca Cola in the belief that belching represents evil spirits leaving your body – and we were told not to take photos as they believe that this captures part of their souls.
The road from San Cristobal to Palenque is winding and full of speed bumps, but there are some fantastic places to stop along the way. We took a break at the beautiful waterfall of Misol Ha where you can have a very cold dip. Tonina is a lesser known archeological site which we also visited, where the road twists down mountainside to steamy jungle lowlands.
Walking around the ruins of Palenque at sunset is an amazing experience – you see the towers in a wonderful light with the sounds of the rainforest in the background. You'll see squirrel and howler monkeys here, as well as bats and spiders if you venture through the temple corridors. Out of nowhere a heavy rain shower hit us curtailing the visit, but we'd managed to cover the majority of the site. In fact we were fortunate to get out of the reserve as the storm had blown a huge tree onto the road, which our driver hacked out of the path with a machete!
The following day we headed early to the ancient settlements buried deeper in the jungle, starting at Yaxchilan which is only accessible by boat. Here you are right on the border with Guatemala and it becomes clear how far the Mayan legacy stretches across Central America. Gruesome Mayan traditions are depicted in the stone carvings here and also at the magnificent frescos of Bonampak, where the wall paintings have survived unscathed since 700 AD.
Now on the road again to the sparse, flat region of the Yucatan Peninsula...
