Laguna Miramar- Adventures In The Jungles of Chiapas

---

For my next destination I decided I wanted to challenge my comfort zones even further. I had grown accustomed to arriving at places that were used to seeing tourists and that I had heard about from other travelers. I felt like I was ready for the next step- checking out the more remote jungle pueblos of Chiapas.

I decided my next destination would be Laguna Miramar, which is only a few km away from the Guatemalan border. Ringed by the jungles of Chiapas, Laguna Miramar is regarded as one of Mexico's most remote and exquisite lakes. The 16 square km lake is said to maintain a beautiful temperature all year round and is virtually unpolluted.

My trip to Laguna Miramar was an adventure in itself. I hopped aboard a two hour van ride to Ocosingo and walked through the town's market where numerous Zapatistas were massacred thirteen years earlier- which left me with an creepy feeling inside. Next I took a six hour camioneta ride (the back of a pickup truck with built up wooden walls and a steel roof frame) with about thirty other passengers through some really horrible dirt roads that only allowed us to go about 15 mph due to all the pot holes and dangerous curves. This was one my favorite rides of my trip so far, as I got to sit on top of the roof frame and admire the picturesque mountain and jungle landscape views of Eastern Chiapas while dodging tree branches with the locals in the rain- great times!! As I enjoyed the view from atop, passengers loaded on 50 lb bags of corn, wood, pigs and chicken- or basically anything else they needed to transport- how efficient!!

I arrived to Emiliano Zapata at about 5 PM and Alejandro, the tourism secretary, informed me that Laguna Miramar is a 2 hour walk through the jungle and that I could either rent out a cabana for the night or walk another 7 km to the lake and sleep on a hammock. I opted to rest that night in a cabana so I could wake up early the next day and enjoy my walk when the sun is not too strong (and I did not want to get stuck walking around solo in the jungle at night). I was about to go to sleep when I noticed a scorpion on the wall of my room. I heard Alejandro walking by and showed him my unexpected roomate. Upon seeing the scorpion he said "ha ha oh look it is a scorpion, would you like me to kill it?" as he chuckled. "Por favor" I responded and he took a bottle of bug spray and hit the guy who then fell to the floor but was nowhere near being dead. He then picked it up by its tail and cupped it with both hands for a few seconds before saying "look at the scorpion, I'll get rid of him for you" as he threw it back into the woods. I thanked him and we talked for a bit about life in his pueblo for a bit and he left to sleep for the night. As I got ready for bed in the bathroom I noticed I was not alone, sitting there beside me was a big tarantula!! I just figured if I dont bother him, he wont bother me and kept on getting ready for bed before passing out.

The next morning I started my trek through the jungle and decided I would go check out the lake and decide if I wanted to spend the night out there. While along my walk I encountered many wild horses, pigs and crazy looking insects. I ran into a guy on horseback whipping several huge bulls with mean looking horns. As he passed by, he warned me "cuidado, ellos son muy bravos" (or do not even try getting in their way) so I stepped aside as his five or so bulls continued along into town. It had rained the night before and there were definitely many muddy points along the trail in the jungle with some challenging hilly terrain, so it had taken me about 3 hours to finally arrive at the lake. I hung out there for a bit before deciding that I was going to stay the night on the lake. However, this meant another 6 hours of walking through the jungle to get food, water and rent a hammock from Alejandro. I took the 3 hours walk once again but knew I had to pick up the pace in order to make it back to the lake before dark and this time it was 1 PM and the sun was definitely scorching down on me.

I arrived back to Emiliano Zapata and bought supplies and chugged a liter of water after being drained from walking so long in the heat. I found Alejandro next to his cabanas and this time noticed another tarantula right there on the sidewalk- about three times bigger than the one from the previous night. "Alejandro, check out this guy" I said, knowing he would put on some sort of show for me like the night before. Again, he smiled and said without a worry in the world "oh a tarantula, watch this." He grabbed a stick and started poking the giant spider as it let out a screeching noise as if it were pissed off. As he was doing this I asked him "es peligroso?" (dangerous). He just chuckled and said "si es un poco peligroso" (yes it is a little dangerous) while the tarantula was now climbing onto his stick. He then flicked it away and it ran off never to be seen again.

As Alejandro rented me one of his hammocks, he informed me that I had about 2 hours before it started getting dark and that I should hurry if I did not want to be stuck walking in the jungle alone at night. So I figured I could just make it in 2 hours if I picked up my pace enough seeing as I had already made the trek two times that day. About an hour into my walk I ran into some cops in the jungle that informed me that I had been walking in the wrong direction, once I got along the correct trail, I started to run as fast as I could with my four liters of water, food and hammock all in my backpack as I was freaked out about the idea of walking solo in the jungle at night. About another hour into my jog in the jungle, I stumbled upon about 20 bulls that looked exactly like the ones the guy on horseback had warned my about earlier in the day. As I entered their field of vision I instantly had 20 sets of eyes glaring at me at the same time as if they were saying "who the hell is this guy and what is he doing here?" At this point I had to make a decision- should I try to walk around these guys and potentially face a running of the bulls- Chiapas jungle style or do I turn around and go back after all the preparation for a night at the lake? I decided I had come this far and was not turning around and quietly crept around them in shoulder high grass as they continued to stare at me. My heart was beating so fast at this point and luckily I made it around them with no problems.

My incident with the bulls delayed me by at least another half an hour and it continued to get darker and darker as I was now literally running as fast as I could to take advantage of every last bit of sunlight that I could. Eventually the sun went down and I was walking in a pitch black jungle with the sounds of animals blasting in my ears like I was wearing a set of headphones on full blast playing some nature CD. The loud noise combined with birds, bats or whatever kind of winged animals that kept flying about 2 feet in front of my face left my heart beating so intensely and I could literally feel the adrenaline flowing throughout my body- I had already walked for 6+ hours that day but I felt like I could walk for another 20. I had to really slow down my pace at this point (luckily I had my flashlight) because I could barely see two feet in front of me. Due to my limited vision I ended up walking through mud that was only a few inches away from being knee high that I easily avoided during the day when I could see my surroundings. After what seemed like the longest hour of my trip walking in the pitch black jungle I finally arrived to the lake with my legs covered in mud and drenched in sweat. As I arrived, my travel buddies were all freaked out and could not believe that I made that walk solo in the dark jungle. That night I took the most satisfying bath of my life in the warm lake water and fell asleep to the sounds of howler monkeys and jaguars along with all the other crazy noises of Mexico's jungle- what a day!!

The next morning I awoke to the cool jungle air and went for a swim in the warm lake water that felt like a jacuzzi. The water was much warmer than the air, so you could see steam rising from the water surface- truly a beautiful experience! That day consisted of relaxing at the lake and cooking some escargot over a fire before walking back to Emiliano Zapata.

I intended to leave with my French buddies for La Realidad (a Zapatista pueblo) the following morning. We stayed the night in San Quitin, which is about a 10 minute walk from Emiliano Zapata, and an older couple let us stay in a room in their house for $2.50 per night. The room basically consisted of 4 brick walls and a dirty floor with an outhouse that you had to manually flush by scooping bowls of water into the wooden toilet. That night I ended up sleeping on a piece of wood with a cushion and pillow underneath. We awoke the next morning and realized we had missed all the buses to La Realidad- we figured out that pueblo goes by two different watches- "la hora del dios" (the hour of god- this is one way in which they rebel from the Mexican government) and "la hora de Calderon" (the hour of Calderon- referring to Felipe Calderon, the president of Mexico) which are an hour apart. So we used the rest of the day to just relax and hang out by a river in town and observe the lives of people in a Mexican pueblo. That night, the couple we were staying with taught us some phrases in their Tzetal language and we taught them some words in English and French. Check out the new additions to my vocabulary-

Bina biil- what is your name
Bar talemat- where are you from
Jocolawal- thank you
yan buelta- goodbye
yax boon ta- I am going to..
joon jiil- my name is..
bin awilel- how are you?
jayeb hora- what time is it?

The next morning we factored in "la hora del dios" into the bus schedules and headed for more adventures. Mission accomplished- I took challenging my comfort zones to a new level on this journey!!

---

Photos

Walking Through the Jungle
My destination was Laguna Miramar which is right in front of the mountain.

Comments

[Keith]

Wow!
George, You've reminded me again of why I've never felt called to be a missionary in the jungle . . . or even set foot in one! You're a brave man! I'm glad you're back!

[Samizinha]

Me too!
I had almost the exact same adventure a year and a half ago- one of the best of my life. Saludos amigo.

[Caroline]

I think you summed up the adventure pretty well.. we set up a tent right next the hammocks and fell asleep to the sound of the howling monkeys..which I thought were jaguars fighting and almost peed my pants cause I was so scared..

[lloyd]

Night Hike
Freaky hike in a jungle would be so foreign to me I think I would die of fright. My wife and I plan to visit Miramar mid January 2014 with a Guide if I can find one. We have bought freezer dried food for three days so for my sake I hope we survive the experience. The jungle noise sounds great to hear!!