Three hours drive from Palenque there are more Maya ruins at Yaxchilan. The only access is a lengthy riverboat ride with Mexican jungle on one bank and Guatemalan jungle on the other. Our afternoon visit included only us and Alex (a professional French photographer we met in the restaurant); three tourists alone among the ruins on Halloween eve. The day was made appropriately spooky by the bats that flew around our ears and hung over our heads in the dark arches of the ruins while in the surrounding forests howler monkeys screamed their scary howls.
In the setting sun we tore ourselves away from our explorations. Night had fallen by the time we returned to the nearly deserted ecolodge on the river bank.
For such a remote part of Mexico, the long road to Cascada de Las Nubes (which runs along the Guatemalan border for several hundred kilometres) is surprisingly in good condition, but it was almost deserted. The road starts out with long straight sections and then winds downwards through the mountains. On all country roads in Mexico there are many, many “topes” (speed bumps) demanding that you slow down. They are built a hundred different ways at least. Some of them are unmarked by signs and impossible to see until it is too late. Thumping into suddenly appearing topes at high speed makes for grimaces from driver and passenger alike.
As unique as their varied forms of construction, topes also have lots of different monikers.
The final stretch of road approaching the destination turns into a gravel track. Due mainly to its remoteness, Cascada de Las Nubes is fairly described as a rather difficult to get to ecolodge oasis. Nestled in the jungle, the grounds are spacious, green and beautiful. A short river-side path to our cabana leads to a restaurant overlooking the falls. Upon arrival a peaceful aura immediately descends.
Evenings are a bit dull when at 8pm all lodge services cease. There being no alcohol served, it is a BYOB arrangement. Livening the experience is the fear of being bitten. Natural existence in Mexico means the potential for being eaten alive by mosquitos and jejenes (basically no-see-em bugs but with a mighty bite that lasts a week). Itchy nights spent fighting the relentless urge to scratch away the problem are no fun at all. Closeting ourselves in the cabana we hid from the bugs with a bed-time hour that an eight year old would complain is “no-fair-ridiculous”. The sound of the river raging helps to lull sleep.
That tingling on your leg in the middle of the night is not just a vestigial jejene itch, it’s ants, goddammit. Hundreds of them in your bed sheets. You’ve let your bedsheets fall to the floor, fool. Wake up. Find flashlight. Argh, it is an invasion of a hundred thousand marching through every part of your cabana. Good thing for that early bedtime. No sleep from 2-4am while you shake your bedsheets and watch that the creeping hoards stay off your beds. In the morning they are all gone.
The curvy roads on the way to Comitlan afford lake sight-seeing and waterfall viewing opportunities.
Out last road-trip night was spent in Comitan. We found an inexpensive hotel with parking a couple of blocks from their very pretty and well-kept town square, unlike so many towns we have seen whose Centros have fallen into grotty dereliction. Comitan is not really a tourist destination but it looks prosperous and like a town that would be good place to live in.
Six hours of driving switchbacked, painfully slow roads through mountain valleys and villages have now brought us back to Puerto Chiapas. The circle-trip in total amounted to 40 hours behind the wheel and 1900km in distance.
We have only a few minor boat chores to attend to and now we become weather watchers, waiting for a good window to go. We need to cross the Golfo de Tehuantepec, which is notorious for its gale force northerlies. We need a two day wind lull in the forecast and we’ll make tracks.
Omg. Ants in your bed. Horrendous. Interesting to see and read your adventures. Hope your sailing journey is safe and speedy. Looking forward to the next update. xo
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