Advertisement
Hello to all you loyal readers! Before I start I think its worth mentioning that all your comments are well appreciated. We notice when we haven't blogged for awhile because those friendly reminders of our kin back home and around the world aren't quite so present in our lives. We love those bits and pieces that bounce back at us from these. Love!
On with the story… Just over two weeks ago Natalie and I headed off on a passport stamp trip. We just love getting stamps so we decided to travel all the way to San Cristobal de las Casas , in Chiapas, Mexico. We stayed a night there and then headed even further out to Agua Azul.
The journey started at 4am on a Friday morning, we squeezed into a van and headed off to the frontera. It was eight or nine hours to the border and four or five more to San Cristobal. It was a long day to say the
least. We arrived in San Cristobal with intentions of catching the next bus out to San Cristobal. However, we quickly realized that there probably wasn't going to be an affordable one and that we were
tired and hungry. So we found a comedor and got some pesos exchanged at a nearby bank. It was nice to be back where the money exchange is in tenths and mole' is the main meal. Mexico's all about money and mole' I'm thinkin'. Good Mole' too.
San Cristobal is not unlike Antigua in its mayan and colonial heritage. Chiapas Is the southern most state in
Mexico and has some of the largest indigenous populations. They also have some of the strongest socialist activist movements for campesino rights, originally.. I'd heard and read about how Chiapas is the poorest state in Mexico. I found the countryside to be quite scenic and clean. Yeah clean as opposed to Guatemala. Everything just seemed a little better managed and much less litter, etc. It felt funny to think of Mexico as a clean place. It didn't feel that way coming from the U.S. Anyway it's all relative!
San Cristobal has a much more polished colonial tourist town feel than Antigua. There has been much more restoration in San Cristobal than in Antigua. However, Antigua may be protected and that kind of restoration and renovation is not allowed. The city maintains its
beautifully authentic, well-aged look. San Cristobal was definitely cute and comfortable to hang out in. We were happy spend the night there.
The next morning we caught a 7 o'clock bus to Agua Azul. It was something like 5 hours with an hour layover in a town along the way. If you can't tell already, I was a little disgruntled about the long travel times. But, when we arrived at Agua Azul and walked up to the lowest falls I could tell it was going to be a fun place to hang out for a couple days. There was a couple who begrudgingly took a taxi with us, all thinking we're getting robbed of course. "Since when did taxis charge by the head," I asked. And they wouldn't let us get on the little collectivo. Locals only… The young couple informed us that the best camping was near the top in someone's yard, they'd gotten a tip. So we trudged on up there to check it out with them; and they were right. The falls just kept going and going as we walked up the stairs. After the stairs ended we kept on walking up a dirt path but there
were tiendas and comedors all the way. Eventually we found the little house with a fenced yard and a nice lawn for camping. Fifty pesos a night; $5.
We set up camp and jumped into our suits to get into the beautiful pool across from our camping spot. The limestone shelves that form Agua Azul basically form a series of Giant pools and waterfalls. There are places where the pools are very safe for swimming and places where it's not so safe. There's lots of space for everyone that's there too. It never really felt crowded, and all the tourists were European. French teenagers with cigarettes, speedos, and other notable stuff like that. We set up camp and made the most of the next couple days just enjoying the riverside. Natalie, the adventuresome soul that she is, walked up river and found a more secluded beach for some real peace and quiet. From that beach you could see up a narrow canyon where the river seemed to be tossed like mean Caesar Salad. It was just churning up there! It gave me the grand Idea of doing rock climbing traverses up canyons that are otherwise impassable on foot. It could
be a pretty exhilarating form of river-tracing.
We made the most of our one full day there and swam a bunch and cooked ourselves some good meals. In the evening we walked down to the bottom of all the falls again had a beer and then went photo crazy on the way back taking slow exposures. The next morning, Monday, we were waking up slow and dreading packing up and leaving. We had already decided not to hurry out of there but not too leave too late either. We wanted to be back in San Cristobal around sundown. So, we had a late breakfast and were gearing up for another swim when Jose'-Antonio, the guy who lives at the little house where we were camping, offered us Lunch. He had a big pot of a chicken stew with rice all prepared. So, despite barely having finished our breakfast we joined him. Timmy don't pass up free food!
No really, it's good to meet people in foreign countries and have a chat despite language barriers. He told us most of the people who stay there are vegetarians and usually turn him down when he offers to share his meals
which apparently at least have chicken or other meat included. We, however, as a result of not being vegetarian were offered a special tour out to another chunk of falls that is not on public trails. Jose'-Antonio told us it was a short enough walk that we would be back early enough to meet our needs so we jumped at the opportunity.
Shortly after eating we geared up and headed out. J.A. with his machete and us with our poor footwear and my camelback; replete with camera. (As a result of this outing we're in the market for a dry bag.) The walk started out by crossing the main river. We traversed on the limestone shelves in knee deep water most of the way across the river and then where there was a gap in the shelf had to walk up to our armpits for about 6 feet. So, Timmy the Tourist waded with bag held high while trying to stay on foot and keep the camera dry. Woohoo! No problem, so we kept walking following J.A. down-river. Our guide was careful to cut any reaching vines from the path and to inform us which plants were safe to
touch and which were not. Some of the poisonous ones would have been the perfect hand-hold while climbing down the last 10-feet of steep slope to the river.
On our walk it finally occurred to me to shoot a little video and make a fun clip of the mini-adventure. I busted out the camera and as soon as I did J.A. said this is where they shot Predator and made a motion with his hand and a noise shwieeesh to help us understand that he was really talking about a movie. I thought he was joking, and started shooting. I was later to find out that he wasn't joking. Natalie heard him say it on the way back and when we stopped at the spot she immediately remembered it from the movie. It was the location where Arnie covers himself with mud and the Predator, up on the log, couldn't see him any more. But back to the water part. The first spot we came out on was cool, a giant staircase water-fall and some more limestone shelves to cross the river on. But not without taking turns swimming up to a closer shelf and posing at the base
of the raging falls. About this time a couple local boys joined for the walk and headed back into the next island of woods. When we hit water again we came out at the base of a little water fall but you could hear something big very nearby. We had to work our way around a little mound or wet ground to emerge at the base of a giant vertical water-fall. I accidentally still had the camera on video so I got a quick shot of video and a couple photos before hiding the camera from the intense spray coming off the waterfall. You couldn't keep your eyes open to look at the falls because the brisa or spray coming off it was so strong.
There was a little limestone shelf you could walk on around the edge to get even closer to the base of the falls and stand as close as I think anyone could ever safely stand in the face of something so immense that it could just wash you away in a heartbeat. It was a very powerful place to be.
We took enough time to soak up as much brisa as possible and
then made our way back to our camp; stopping for a little more swimming on the way of course. Once we returned, and got the camera setting out to dry in the oven-like tent, one of the local boy we'd met showed us one of his favorite places to dive into the river. You could walk out the shelf to a gap where the water pushed through and dive into the rapid. He and I played around taking turns diving and he eventually showed me up doing all kinds of running flips and dives from every possible angle. He left and I kept playing and eventually convinced Natalie to give it a go. It took her a minute to get up the gumption but once she did it she was so excited and proud she made me get the camera and do several takes of daring feat. I'll leave you with that. Nat the Salmon!
Now we're back home in Guatemala enjoying the comforts of our work routine, ever-present puppy, and cute little house that is getting soggier by the minute as the rainy season begins here. But, them dusty trails are starting to get delightfully better with the
rain. Love to all!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.068s; Tpl: 0.018s; cc: 14; qc: 30; dbt: 0.0347s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
tami
non-member comment
thanks again!
love all the pics. thanks for taking the time to blog. wish i could have been there for the salmon dive. i love diving off of cliffs!