We headed along a highway, toward the border of Mexico and Guatemala, to Parques Nacional de Lagunas de Montebello. There are a series of lakes here. On a sunny day each lake has its own remarkable shade of blue or green, sometimes both. But when we arrived, it was raining, so we made our way to where we were going to camp for the night and thought we would drive to visit the various lakes the next day.
Our camper near the lake in the rain.
The next day, although the setting was beautiful, it was still raining… We decided to move on, but first took a walk to a small nearby lake that straddles the Mexico/Guatemala border. We stepped across into Guatemala, took some photos, and headed back to the truck.
Lake on the border of Mexico and Guatemala with border markers visible in the lower right of the photo.
Cathy and Piper briefly visit Guatemala (standing in front of the white and blue Bienvenido sign)….we were there for about 5 minutes, then walked back into Mexico.
We decided to head to Las Nubes that afternoon. On the way we stopped at one of the few pullouts on the incredibly scenic roads here in Mexico to take pictures of Auga de Oyo below us.
The river cuts through spectacular rainforest.
A closer look at the river.
We drove off the main highway along a small road that alternated through rainforest and farm land. Every once in a while we could catch a glimpse of a river, typically a deep teal colour. We saw our first toucans of the trip. An hour or so later we arrived at Las Nubes, another Paraisos Indigenas location. We have been very impressed by these sites, the infrastructure is new, well built and the bathrooms are clean. The camping is usually cheap (although not always level), and there is usually a decent restaurant on site.
We don’t have flowers like this back home.
It was still raining a bit, but we decided to walk a small trail through the jungle to an overlook above the falls. It turned out to be a fun trail. One section of it is called The Labyrinth and you need to squat down and duck walk through an opening in the rock that is maybe three feet tall and fairly narrow, and then you are surrounded by natural rock walls. The jungle was humid and hot and the vegetation overhead kept the rain from us.
We then came to the overlook….Wow….
The green waters of Las Nubes.
More falls.
Next the trail took us down to river level where the water flowed through a natural tunnel….
…and then to a swinging bridge over the river with views of another set of falls.
Falls from the swinging bridge.
The other direction from the swinging bridge.
We had some appetizers at the small restaurant and later cooked ourselves some dinner. That night we decided to watch a movie and watched Jurassic World (only slightly recommended). But a surreal experience watching a movie about dinosaurs while in the middle of the prehistoric looking jungle!