How this Trip is Slowly Turning into a Wildlife Safari
Our short stay in Chiapas including a daytrip to the Sumidero Canyon.
From Puerto Escondido we took the night bus to our next destination: San Cristóbal de las Casas. The eagle-eyed among you might have noticed that this place was not on our itinerary from the start. In fact, we decided to swap Tuxtla Gutiérrez for San Cristóbal only a few days before going there. For safety reasons, we wanted to avoid night buses but for the lack of a better option, we bit the bullet and booked the bus over night to San Cristóbal. The main reason for the change of destinations was that the bus was scheduled to arrive at 5 am in Tuxtla, but at 7 am in San Cristóbal, therefore we preferred the latter.
This journey did not go very smoothly. Our bus broke down in the middle of nowhere. We ended up waiting for another bus that was headed to the same destination. Because this bus was also a regularly scheduled bus, the passengers from two buses were stuffed into one bus making this one extremely crowded.
Our hostel was one of the nicest hostels we stayed in so far! Even though we needed to wait until the afternoon for the check-in, we allowed have breakfast upon arrival. The staff showed us a nice common room, where we could recover from the 15 hour bus ride. Afterwards, we explored the city - a pretty small and cozy place in the mountains. What made the city even more comfortable was the climate. Sitting at an elevation of 2200 m and being surrounded by mountains, it has a very different climate than Puerto Escondido with lower temperatures and humidity.
The next day, we booked a trip to the Cañón del Sumidero and its surrounding national park which was organized by our hostel. Although the trip was advertised to be in English language, we were told (in Spanish) that there was no English speaking guide available that day, so we got to practice our Spanish! The canyon itself was very impressive being up to 1000 m deep. First we visited two lookout points from where we could look down into the canyon.
Next, we drove down into the canyon and hopped on a boat in order to travel through the canyon and get to the town Chiapa de Corzo where we would later be picked up by the bus driver. This boat trip through the canyon was definitely a highlight. Seeing the huge canyon from the river was not the only attraction. After seeing dolphins, turtles and iguanas in Puerto Escondido our little wildlife safari continued. First we saw a lot of pelicans and other birds, which we were already excited about, but the main event was yet to come. Next, we got to see wild crocodiles and monkeys which we definitely did not expect!
After arriving in Chiapa de Corzo, we had a snack before we were brought back to our hostel. In the evening, we still needed to figure out how to get to the airport close to Tuxtla Gutierrez from where we would take the plane to the Yucatán peninsula on the next day. Unfortunately, the free airport shuttle of the hostel, which was advertised on their website did not exist, therefore we were looking at other transfer options.
Because there was no bus running at the time that matched our flight, we ended up getting up very early and walking to the bus terminal at sunrise in order to catch our transfer bus. At the airport we had plenty of time for breakfast before getting onto the plane. We are already excited to tell you about beautiful beaches and Mayan ruins in Yucatán, so stay tuned!