Fresh Montañas to Sticky Selva

A mere 8miles took us from Tuxtla to Chiapa del Corzo, where we jumped on a boat for a trip up Cañon del Sumidero – a spectacular 13km long stretch of river with steep, high cliffs and populated with hundreds of birds, monkeys and crocs. The boat was fun, but rather bumpy…it resembled going over cobbles on the bikes – so not a unusual sensation for us.

We conquered the enormous hill to San Cristobal the next day, and it really did feel like we had conquered something by the time we reached the top…nearly 40miles of climbing. Thankfully, as we climbed the weather cooled and a mist hung over the hills, we cycled through lots of indigenous communities, the women in beautiful traditional dress and most speaking their own local languages. We had lots of friendly hellos and shouts and waves from young children, shouting ‘Gringos’! San Cristobal was fresh and cool, we even had rain and thunder, we enjoyed wearing jumpers, getting under the covers at night and drinking 18pesos (about 60p) glasses of wine.

After a couple of days to recouperate, we left the cool haven of San Cristobal to head back down again. We were joined by Jonas (Guatamalan cyclist we met in Muzante). We cycled to Ocosingo, through picturesque and misty pine forests, followed by greener, more tropical landscape. Ocosingo is a pretty ordinary Mexican town…a square, lots of noise but nice enough. We met a Mexican couple and their son in our hotel, they shared a few beers with us and the offered to take us out for dinner…we didn’t realise quite how drunk they were until we got out and spent the evening trying to work out what the hell was going on…not even Jonas, who was acting as our translator grasped everything, Spanish is hard enough but drunk Spanish is another thing altogether. Their eleven year old son was the most the most mature and conversational of the three of them. Nuts.

The following day we cycled to Toniná, a Mayan site about 7miles from Ocosingo. It was quiet and green and had a lovely atmosphere, we spent a happy few hours exploring and then managed to time our ride back so that we got completely soaked and forged several rivers across the road to arrive back in Ocosingo. Maybe this is the sign of the rainy season to come.

As we continued our descent towards sea level, the jungle on either side of the road became thicker and the heat climbed. It was a tough ride, lots of steep climbs followed by sweeping descents. Jonas and I were done in with 10miles to go…irritatingly Sam was just fine and patiently waited as we struggled. It was all worth it to reach Misol-Ha waterfall and jump in the cool pool in the evening light. The tour buses had returned from where they came and we had the place to ourselves as the sun went down and the jungle woke up around us.

We thought the humidity was high on the Oaxacan coast…think again, the humidity of the jungle around Palenque is something else completely. We found ourselves dripping when just standing still in the shade. We stayed in basic accomodation in the jungle near Palenque ruins, surrounded by thick green vegetation and the sounds of the forest. We woke up early the next day to visit the Mayan site, we climbed up on paths   through the jungle, littered with ruined stone structures of the ancient Mayan town. Only 10% of the ruins have been excavated, the rest is still covered in thick jungle…part of the magic I think.

We reveled in another day cycling without the luggage and took a trip to Roberto Barrios cascades…and it was so worth the trip. Awesome to feel the strength in our legs when cycling without luggage and then to find the beautiful blue/green waters of the cascades, with dozens of pools and waterfalls, caves and lagoons. A watery adventure playground. A local man showed us the ways of the cascades…where the best places to jump were, how to take a safe route walking down the rocks and lots of caves under the waterfalls themselves. We were very trusting…if he said jump, we did…but we usually sent Jonas off first as the guinea pig. Some jumps were more than high enough (8m!) to get the heart beating and adrenaline going. A different kind of adrenaline to speeding fast downhills on our bikes.

That night we left Jonas and took a night bus from Palenque to Cancun…our first night bus and a relatively pleasant experience, we were so worn out from cycling and cascade antics that we slept most of the 10hours. Cancun is not somewhere we would have chosen to come, but we are here to meet (Laura’s) Mum and Dad…time for another holiday within a holiday!