If you would like to spend a wonderful time visiting mystical ruins and bathing under waterfalls then stay around Palenque for a few days. Visit Agua Azul and Misa-Ha. Near San Cristobal you can visit any number of villages or the Canon del Sumidero (Sumidero Canyon). There are beaches in the southern end but if you have to leave via Cancun then you should plan on spending time on the Mayan Riviera or Cancun before you fly home.

After Palenque you leave any semblance to tourism behind. Traveling from this point on can still be done in a limited way via "soft touring" but after San Cristobal your tour shifts from soft to medium then to hard quickly. What this means is that you will find less places selling pizza and hamburgers and far fewer hotels.

The river expeditions are fun and you can secure a private boat to go either way up most rivers. If you go to the Lacandon then you can visit a number of ruin sites as well as go up the Usamasante river and camp in the Montes Azules biosphere reserve with the Lacandon.

Visiting any of the southern parks means penetrating deep into the Chiapas via bus or other means of transportation. It is a good idea to first contact a park supervisor to gain information about the park you wish to visit. Regular tourism drops to a trickle past San Cristobal as does amenities for travelers thus you may want to have a southern trip planned out more conclusively before you journey. Unfortunately information, even in this web site is limited regarding the southern end of Chiapas. We hope to modify this in the near future with additional information.

You can cross into Guatemala at a number of different border crossings and most people do via the Lacandon side. The alternative is to take the Pacific coast however last reports indicated a number of problems with the rout recommending to go via highway 190 up the middle to Tapachula and cross into Guatemala there.

There is not that much demand for extreme tours because they are both dangerous and expensive. Some tour companies offer watered down expeditions into the jungle for a couple days of camping. To go with a guide deep into the jungle for days and survive off of jungle food means first finding a guide(s) to take you. If you are interested, e-mail us.