We were told by the reception desk
clerk that we should arrive to the boat dock that would take us to
Sumidero Canyon around 9am, in hopes to get a boat by 10. The dock
was only one block down the road, so we didn't rush to get there.
Surprisingly there were no tour buses there and we were two of the
handful of tourists that were there. We paid about 20 bucks total for
a boat ride that would take us through the Canon and would take about
2 hours total. We shared the boat with about 20 people, 4 of which
were English speaking Italians who we chatted a bit with and the rest
Mexican. Where were all the other gringos? Sumidero Canyon is one of
the top attractions of Chiapas, after all.
Pulling out of the dock the driver of
the boat/tour guide stopped to inform us that while we paid for the
tour he himself does not see a dime of that money. He informed us
that he works off of tips and counts on that money to feed his
family, ect. After he finished, we were on our way. It took about 5
minutes to get to the opening of the canon down the river and as we
drove through we passed another dock point which was obviously for
much larger tour groups. That's where all the gringos go! We spent
the next few hours taking photos the canon, wildlife, the river, and
the dam at the end of the canon which was also the turn around point of the
tour. Here, the tour guide stopped the boat, explained that this
would be the end of his tour (even though we had the second half and
way back to make) and asked for gratuity at this point. He passed
around a hat which we all put some dinero into, and then took us over
to a small boat which acted as a small snack shop where many of the
tourists bought chips and drinks, and then quickly made our way back
to the dock aside from an interesting stop into a small hole where we
were able to see a large crocodile.
I'm not normally a bird watcher, but there are so many interesting birds in the canyon that I couldn't help myself. Unfortunately, there is also a lot of trash in the river, so we often saw birds drying out in the sun next to a pile of trash like below..
The time was about 12 when getting back
to the dock, and Eric and I wondered what we would do for the rest of
the day in such a small, sleepy town. We ate some lunch in the local
market which was filling and tasty, and then decided on going to the
top of the canon for a nice bike ride and some different view points
of the canyon. We were glad we did. Apparently not too many tourists
go to the top of the canon so the ride was peaceful and we only saw a
handful of tourists in passing. What great views!
Afterwards we ate dinner and hung around the town square people watching
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