Day 8 Sumidero Canyon, and San Cristobal De Las Cases

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Today was a very long 14 hr day with a nightmare 2.30 am wakeup call for a 3am start to a 720 km drive to San Cristobal de las Casas.

A number of us had difficulty sleeping due to firework explosions every half hour or so up to midnight for some festival. The mood did not improve over the first 5 hrs to our breakfast stop. The no doubt beautiful mountain climb through the Sierra Matlan range was a gut wrenching experience with constantly winding switchbacks & turns.

After breakfast we rejoined the main highway & left the corkscrew behind & soon passed a narrow istmas with a 260 km gap between the Atlantic & the Pacific oceans & home to over 900 wind turbines due to the constantly blowing winds.

The early start was to arrive in time for a 2 hour round boat trip up the spectacular Sumidero Canyon with walls up to 800 Mtrs high. The water in the canyon is sourced by Grijalva river and before being flooded in the early 80’s for hydro power the walls were even higher. Now the wildlife on display is spectacular including crocodiles, spider monkeys, yellow iguana and many different bird species. Most were to small to photo without a telescope lense but we got up close to some croc's (smaller freshwater ones). The jungle itself goes right down to the waterline & trees try to grow most of the way up the cliff face as long as its got some small incline to cling to.

Before reaching San Cristobal we passed through the town Chiapa de Corzo, historically important for its ancient archaeological ruins and early Spanish influence before fading in importance to the cooler climes of San Cristobal.

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Photos

Happy croc
We were only mtrs away

Busted birds
Feeding on dead carcases

Wind Turbines
Some of 900