Tuxtla Gutierrez

After my long, eventful bus ride, I was in Tuxtla Gutierrez, hoping to walk into the town center and find a hotel to drop off the burden of my heavy bags. It was only supposed to be five or ten blocks, so I thought I'd save a bit of money by walking. After a while, though, a taxi driver convinced me that I wasn't all that close, and it turns out that he was right. My map showed the bus station as being right in town, but apparently a nice bus station has sprouted up on the outskirts of town. In addition to that, the street names all branch off from the town square, resulting in streets like 9th St North West, 9th St North East, 9th St South West and 9th Street South East, which is a good thing for finding your way around town, but only once you realize how the system works. Soon I got a cheap hotel room, and I walked into town, hoping to find a tour to the main attraction of the area and one of the best natural sights in Mexico, the Cañon del Sumidero.

The somewhat hot city of Tuxtla sits in another mountain valley, with a large range running along the North side of town. Within these large mountains, a crevasse can be seen, which is the opening to the canyon. As I searched around town for tours of the canyon, a few locals notified me that I'd need to go to the nearby town of Chiapa de Corzo. Eventually I found a minibus for the thirty minute journey, and I arrived to find a small, easy going town with large dock on the adjacent river, which happened to be the Rio Grijalva (the name of the street in Mexico City that I didn't know). Initially I tried to join a tour with a company in the town square, but I had just missed the boat, and there were no other tourists in the area, so it looked like the tour wasn't going to go for another few hours, if at all. Fortunately, the operator was very nice and gave me my money back, suggesting that I go down to the water and try to hook up with one of those tours. Soon, a few others joined in, and I was able to take the boat tour along with about ten other people. We jumped in the small boat with an outboard motor and four or five bench seats, heading down the river, under the bridge and into the first walls of the huge canyon. Spotting birds such as herons, vultures and egrets along the way, the walls of the limestone canyon began to grow. Moving through the thick green vegetation and the brown river, our guide also pointed out a few of the numerous crocodiles along the secluded banks. Next, we came upon what looked like a wall in the river. As we came closer, we saw that it was a massive deposit of trash and logs, jammed together, blocking the river for about 50 yards. The mass is a result of the runoff from the canyon walls above and the nearby city, creating an unsightly spot in this otherwise pristine area. Birds walked around on the trash, feeding on whatever they could find. Our guide told us that this is a year-round occurrence and is often cleaned, though the rains bring in so much trash that it would be impossible to keep it clear. Instead, the boats just slowly plow through the mess, one after another, leading the tourists back into the picturesque parts of the canyon.

Soon, the limestone walls, half exposed rock and half green vegetation were towering above us at over 3,000 feet high. The sheer walls were spectacular, and at its highest point, we were around 3,600 feet below the canyon rim above. At points, the water below us dropped down to a depth of 720 feet. The size and grandeur of the place was unbelievable. With the green and white walls, it did have a look of Copper Canyon, which I had visited early on in this Mexico trip, though it was thicker, slightly more tropical vegetation, and it was certainly a different vantage point to be able to see the canyon from the ground level. Also, the powerful Rio Grijalva that carved out this place is the same one that flows towards the state of Tabasco and the city of Villa Hermosa, just days before causing large scale flooding and leaving somewhere around 1.6 million people without homes or food. Anyway, after an hour and a half of riding down the river, we came to a huge dam and lagoon that contains an electrical powerplant said to supply much of the power to Mexico and neighboring nations, even some of it going up to the US. In the lagoon, we stopped at one of the small restaurants on the water, giving us a chance at some overpriced food and a little break. Opting not to waste my money, I talked with a nice woman from Mexico City and two Belgian women (mother and daughter) that were on the tour with me.

On the way back, I got a better seat all the way in the back with the Belgians, allowing us to sit up higher on the seat backs and enjoy the view and the wind passing by. At the same time, the guide was also showing some interest in the Belgian girl, allowing her to drive the boat for a few as we sped back towards Chiapa. Strangely, he didn't make the same offer to me or anyone else on the tour, but I guess blonde European women sometimes have that pull over the local guides. The tour was soon over, but it had been absolutely incredible, leaving me wanting to see more of the massive canyon. Allegedly there are some tours of the overlooks in a small truck, but there were no signs of it all over town, so I continued to search.

(Rio Grijalva and the beginnings of Cañon del Sumidero.)

(The start of the wall of trash...not so appealing.)

(Our little guide and the canyon passing by.)

(One of the massive waterfalls of the canyon, named Arbol de Navidad, as the moss growing around the water looks like a Christmas tree from far away.)

(The glassy lagoon and our restaurant and boat dock.)

(One more of the beautiful canyon.)