Wet Adventure Travel in Chiapas

I wanted some adventure travel in Chiapas, Mexico, and I certainly got it. This part of Mexico is far from tame and I was off the grid for four days, when even my Mexican cellphone didn’t have coverage most of the time.

Mostly though, I got very familiar with the feeling of being wet. As a guy who writes reviews of adventure travel gear, I’m pretty well set with waterproof gear and shoes. But there are times when that can only get you so far. Mother Nature has been cranking out some storms on both coasts of Mexico and Chiapas got stuck in the middle.

If you want to see some raging waterfalls though, come to this state when they’re having a rainy spell. At Chiflon falls, I saw a pool of water surging so hard that there was a giant boulder floating on top, just whirling around like a rubber duckie. I’d show you a photo of the top of the falls, but the mist coming off it was so strong that even a waterproof one someone else was carrying couldn’t get a shot.

We managed to raft one day well below the waterfalls as Las Nubles, but at another point we were supposed to raft the guides took a look in the morning and said, “Es muy peligroso. Class 5.” Flirting with death did not seem like a good idea, so it was a 4-hour muddy jungle hike instead. At one point we crossed this bridge at the base of a waterfall. One wrong move and…

I’m at the Adventure Travel Trade Association Summit right now, which followed this tour through the countryside up to Bonampak and Palenque. You think Mexico isn’t serious about adventure travel? The opening speaker was…the President. As in the president of the country, Señor Felipe Calderon.