Agua Azul Waterfalls, Misol-Ha Waterfall, Palenque Archaeological Site
From Oaxaca, I wanted to make my way to San Cristóbal De Las Casas, in Chiapas. For that, I took the ADO night bus. I made my way to the bus terminal early, so I had to wait there for a while until it was time to get on the bus. It was a smooth process, and I was quickly in my seat. The bus was full, and after the driver said something I didn’t understand, we were on the way.
I didn’t feel tired, as it was still a bit early in the evening, so I just listened to music while trying to look out the window at the darkened scenery. At first there was very little I could see, as we were passing some rural areas with (presumably) no one living there. But after a while I noticed some lights and buildings. Overall, there wasn’t much to look at, but I needed to pass the time somehow.
At some point I did fall asleep. I walked up several times, and after a while the seat started to feel uncomfortable. There was very little I could do about that. Eventually, the bus stopped at some point, where most of the people on the bus got off. Everyone else on the bus just had more room to stretch and move around a little bit.
There was one more stop on the way, and then, after a delay of two hours, we finally got to San Cristóbal De Las Casas. I checked into the hostel, rested for a little bit, and then set about figuring out what I’m going to do. After a while, wanting to go deeper into Pre-Columbian history, I decided to book a guided tour to Palenque. All the tours I could find were practically the same, stopping at Agua Azul and Misol-Ha before getting to Palenque.
There were a couple of things that concerned me regarding those tours. The first one was the distance. Palenque was not close by, and looking at the details of the tour it seemed that most of the day would be spent on the road, going in the van from one place to the next. That reminded me of one very disappointing tour I took in Palawan, Philippines, and I wondered if the drive would be worth it. At least this time I was actually aware of the distance, so it didn’t come as an unpleasant surprise.
The second concern I had was going around the ruins in Palenque. It was clear that a tour in English was not included in the price, and I wasn’t even sure that a tour in Spanish was included. Looking around the internet, it seemed that a private tour for one person would be too much, and that my only option would be to find a group of people and split the cost. Otherwise, I’d be left on my own, and going all the way to not have a guide seemed like a waste to me.
At 4am I was outside the hostel, waiting for the pick up van, it took a bit over an hour to collect everyone else, and then it was finally my turn. Getting into the van and being greeted in Spanish, I wondered if I’m the only English speaker in the group.
After a couple of hours on the road we had our first stop at a restaurant that offered a breakfast buffet for more than a reasonable price. There weren’t many options there, but it was alright. After eating, I managed to get into the wrong van, realized it quickly, and then was directed to the right van by one of the other people in my group. We waited for everyone else to finish eating, then we all got back in the van and onto the road again.
A couple more hours passed by, and we got to our first attraction, the Agua Azul Falls. We were surrounded by restaurants and merchants, all trying to sell food, drinks, and souvenirs. Beyond them were the falls. After announcing the time, the driver realized pretty quickly I didn’t fully follow him, and simply showed on his smartphone what time to be back. We had a little less than two hours to be in the falls, which seemed like a good amount of time.
It was said that we can swim at the falls, but as I passed the stalls and the restaurants to have a better look, there was a swimming area which seemed shallow and not good enough for adults, only for children. It was a bit disappointing, but the falls were beautiful and nice to look at. At this point I realized there was a trail going up to somewhere along the falls, and I started following it. It was a paved road, fairly comfortable to walk, with some stairs every now and then.
Along the path were also a few platforms, with a better view of the falls. The higher I went, the more beautiful it got, and the views managed to be different, at times more calm water and at other times a raging flow. Some of the falls were very small and could be missed, while others were bigger, wider, and overall more impressive. The variety of the falls, as well as the quantity, made it all more interesting, and that is without even mentioning the trees that were all around.
After climbing a few more stairs I got to an intersection. The main path continued up, but there was a side path to a lookout point. Curious, I chose to do the latter first. A couple of minutes later I got to the end of the path and another moment that made me say “wow”. Looking at the falls from that view was special, and to me it was worth the drive over there.
I got back to the main path and kept going. There were a few more spots for swimming, with some of them looking quite deep, which was a good sign. As I went up, there were less and less people. I went up some stairs, along twisty roads, and passed a few more vendors. I could constantly hear the sound of the falls, the water flowing down, making the whole experience feel more immersive. As the road levels, the forest sounds got louder, as if all the insects got up and screamed together, fighting with the falls on who can be louder.
Out of curiosity I looked at the maps on the smartphone, and there was a point of interest at the end of the trail marked as “Borne”. I had no idea what it meant, but I had enough time to go and check it out. I passed what looked like some houses that people either rented for a couple of days or lived in full time, came across a nice couple who told me the water is great (where they were swimming on their own with no one else around), and then I was stopped by a man who told me this was the end of the road. I didn’t argue, and instead I put my stuff down and went into the water. It was cold (but not too cold like the beaches in La Paz), refreshing, and very fun. But as it took me a while to get there, and I knew it would take me some time to get back, I was in the water for barely fifteen minutes before I got out, dried off a little bit, and started making my way back down.
When I did get back to the restaurant area, I couldn’t find my van, and so I asked the other van drivers to help me, which they kindly did. Despite worrying about making it back in time, I was the first one back in the van. I would have been happy to spend several hours in Agua Azul and call it a day (and perhaps try to do it with public transport), but once everyone got back to the van, we got back on the road to another destination, further away.
The next stop was Misol-Ha, which was another waterfall. Unlike Agua Azul, there was just one waterfall. It was very high, but to me it was less impressive. There was a short path going down to the bottom of the falls, where some people were swimming, both with and without a life jacket, and there was also a path going down and around the waterfall. It didn’t seem long, so I thought I would go around, have a better view, and then come back to swim for a bit.
The path was narrow, and the people in front of me were a bit slow. As I went along, it was a bit interesting to have a look at the fall from different angles, but it simply didn’t feel special. When I had the chance and the path had a wider section, I quickly passed a few people, wanting to get to the end. As I did so, I needed to be careful not to hit my head on the rocks, some of which were hanging quite low.
I got to the end of the path, which was a cave entrance, and took a look around me. It was a nice view point. I got into the cave, and a man told me that if I want to see what’s inside (getting to the end of the cave path would be a few minutes), it would be an additional charge of twenty pesos. I paid the man, used the smartphone as a flashlight, and carefully made my way inside. As promised, a few minutes later I got to the end, where there was a pool area with a small, “indoor” waterfall at the end of it. Once again, I put my stuff down, and carefully got into the water, not wanting to hit any rocks and injure myself. As I had less time to spend in Misol-Ha than in Agua Azul, after a few short minutes I had to exit the cave and make my way back to the van.
Once again, I was confused as to where the van was, and this time I was searching for it along with two other people from the van. We did manage to find it, and after waiting for everyone else, we were finally on the way to the last destination of the day, the Palenque Archaeological Site. As there was no stop for lunch, on the way over I just ate the food I packed up and brought with me. Other than me, there was a couple that brought some stuff with them, but most people seemed unprepared.
When we got there, before we even passed through the gate, there was some confusion that needed to be cleared up. There was a poster advertising tours in English, which were priced in dollars, and significantly more expensive than the tours in Spanish. It was (and still is) unclear if this was false advertising. After one group member went back and forth discussing things with the guide who was going to do the tour in Spanish, it seemed there were no English tours, period, no matter if I was going to wait for other people, or paying the extortionate fee by myself. The tour in Spanish wasn’t cheap either. It wasn’t included in the price which we already paid, and I had no intention to do it if I wouldn’t be able to understand the guide. The only reason I did go on the tour was that the bilingual woman in the group, who explained the whole situation to me, said she was willing to be my translator for the day. Each of us paid the guide, and after passing through the gate we started the tour.
Very much at the entrance we stopped to have a short introduction of the area and understand what we are going to see during the tour. The woman who volunteered herself as a translator kept true to her word, and translated what the guide was saying. He didn’t stop at any point to wait for the two of us to catch up with him, but he also had the rest of the group to take care of.
After the introduction we walked around for a little bit, looking at the ruins and the surrounding area. The jungle backdrop made the place feel more interesting to me than Monte Albán, but also smaller. As we stopped near a pyramid, our guide (and my translator) talked about the importance of it. Apparently it was a grave that housed “The Red Queen”, who was an important woman who more or less ruled over Palenque. Her name came from the grave that the archeologists found, which had red color all over it, and over the remains of the woman. While there was a sign at the bottom of the pyramid, with English explanation, it was very limited and uninformative compared to the guide.
After the explanation from the guide, we went up the pyramid and into the part where the tomb was located. While the queen herself was removed, the grave was still there and the red color inside of it was pretty dominant. Other than that, there were a couple other stone graves, but not much else to look at.
Right next to it was another pyramid, which served as the tomb of a king named Pacal. While the name didn’t ring a bell to me, apparently his remains were in the anthropology museum in Mexico City. As I didn’t remember the name, I had no idea if I’d seen it or not. The pyramid was just as impressive as that of the queen, although we were not allowed to go inside. It used to be open for public access, but quite a few people decided to take things from the grave and either keep it as souvenirs or sell it, which led to the unfortunate yet necessary restriction.
Next to those two pyramids was, according to the translation I received, Pacal’s palace. It seemed small from the outside, but I was told that inside there is (or was, back in the days) a lot of room for many people. Other than the king and his servants, there were guests (and their servants), prisoners (and guards to watch over them), and working people of important notes, such as philosophers, astronomers, and shamans.
With those three structures explained, we started walking again, along a road that went inside the jungle for a little bit, before emerging on the other end of the trail to look at a few more ruins. In the center there was a big yard and around it were three temples, two of them facing each other and one facing the jungle. According to the guide, the place served like a compass, as well as telling the time of the year. The two temples facing each other were the temple of the sun and the temple of the moon, while the one facing the jungle was the temple of the cross.
According to the guide, the sun temple can be lit up by natural light during the peak of the spring, and that’s more or less how they used it to tell the time of the year. The temple of the cross seemed to be in honor of Pacal’s successor, Kan Bahlam, with some carvings that might describe his rise to the throne. And the right corner at the top of the stairs was a great place to take some pictures of the area. Pretty much everyone in the group made their way up the steep staircase to have a quick look inside the temple, although there was very little we could see, before taking some pictures and going back down.
After everyone went back down and regrouped with the tour guide, we started to make our way back, which was quite confusing to me. I’ve seen other ruins in the distance, and other paths that looked open to the public. The group paid for a complete tour, and backtracking at the point felt incomplete. We stopped near the first group of ruins, and after an explanation from the guide, we all went into the jungle once more. We stopped along the way to touch a famous tree, but other than that nothing else happened until we got back to the starting point of the tour. As far as I could tell, we went through the jungle just to say that we went through the jungle. The guide bade us farewell and went on his way.
The group sat down to wait for our driver to show up, and I couldn’t help but feel it was a bit of a ripoff. It is certainly possible that I didn’t fully understand what we were actually going to see during the tour, and which parts are actually open to the public. Comparing it to Monte Albán, I felt like I’ve seen more in Oaxaca, although I learned more in Palenque. I’m pretty sure some things got lost in translation, however the woman who translated to me did her best. She had to look after her daughter, listen to the guide, understand what he was saying, and then translate it for me. That was a tough job, and I’m not sure I would have been able to do it for someone else. I also thought a better way to do the whole thing was to start with the ruins, and then go to the falls.
When the driver did show up, we got back to the city of Palenque, where he dropped off a few people, and then to a gas station where we could have a bathroom break and get some food. There was another stop to pick up more passengers, and that was when the long drive back got even longer. For a while, those people were quite loud and inconsiderate, and it took them some time to turn down their volume.
Eventually I fell asleep again, and woke up at another stop. We were back at the restaurant from the morning, and this time they were offering some snacks. Once everyone was fed, we were back on the road, and the noise level got back up. It was a noisy drive back to the city, and as people were dropped off it got quiet again. I was the last one in the van, and when I was finally in bed again it didn’t take long for me to fall asleep.