Chiapas Highlands Route (398 km)
Tuxtla Gutierrez to Montebello Lakes · one way, about 398 km back to the start
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Why this ride
398 km from Tuxtla to Miguel Hidalgo, about 5 h 25 of riding. On the way it passes Sumidero Canyon, San Cristobal de las Casas and Comitan. The highest point is about 2,000 m. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Roadbook
- Tuxtla Gutierrez
start
Tuxtla Gutiérrez is the capital of Chiapas, a big, hot, busy city in a valley at about 520 metres, and it is not the most beautiful place in southern Mexico but it is very useful. With around half a million people, it has everything from fuel to repair shops to big supermarkets, and it is the sensible place to start a ride into the highlands. The name comes from the Nahuatl for the place of rabbits, and the city's symbol is a rabbit. The Zoológico Miguel Álvarez del Toro, a zoo that focuses on the animals of Chiapas, is one of the best in Mexico and is set in a hillside forest.
The real attraction is the Sumidero Canyon, a deep gorge whose walls rise over a thousand metres above the Grijalva river. A road leads to several viewpoints at the rim, and boats run along the river at the bottom, where crocodiles bask on the banks and herons stand in the shallows. The canyon was formed by a crack in the earth's crust and later by the river, and it is spectacular in morning light. Riders can reach the viewpoints on a short, winding road from the city.
Leaving town, the route climbs toward San Cristóbal de las Casas, at over 2,100 metres, through pine forests and mountain villages. The road is a main highway, with curves, long climbs and mist, and the surface is generally decent. Trucks and buses crawl on the uphill sections, and passing requires patience. Be alert for topes, the speed bumps found in every village, and for stray livestock. In the rainy season, from May to October, fog and heavy rain are common in the highlands.
Food in Chiapas is distinct: try cochito, a pork dish, sopa de pan, and the local coffee, which is some of the best in the country. Chiapas is also home to many Maya communities, and their textiles and traditions are visible in the markets. Fill the tank in Tuxtla before the climb, take cash, and consider starting early, since the heat in the valley builds fast. By the time you reach the cool pines, the city feels far away.
- Sumidero Canyon
scenic
The Sumidero Canyon is a crack in the Chiapas highlands with the Grijalva river at the bottom, and its walls run up to about a kilometre in places. Most visitors see it from a boat that leaves Chiapa de Corzo, but a rider gets the other view, from the rim road that climbs out of Tuxtla and visits a string of lookouts along the edge. Each has its own name, its own car park and its own stall selling fruit and sweets, and each shows the same trench from a different angle: vertical rock, green water, and a ribbon of foam far below. The water is a lake now, held back by the Chicoasén dam, finished in 1980, so the canyon is a flooded canyon, though it is no less dramatic for that.
The riding to get to it is short and simple. The road leaves Tuxtla, the state capital, and rises through dry forest and farmland to the national park gate, with a decent surface, wide bends and ample room for a rider to look about. Traffic is light on weekdays. At the miradores the ground is rough and the edges are often barely fenced, so watch your feet, and keep your helmet on when you walk to the rail. The heat is heavy by late morning, and the haze can wash out the photographs, so the first hours of the day serve you best.
There is a story people tell here, though how much of it is history and how much memory is hard to say. When the Spaniards came in the 1520s, the Chiapa warriors are said to have chosen to throw themselves into the gorge rather than surrender, and the canyon has carried that dark pride ever since. Crocodiles still sun themselves on the banks, spider monkeys cross the canopy, and vultures ride the thermals at eye level from the lookouts.
Fuel and food are easy in Tuxtla, a city of half a million, twelve kilometres from the park gate, so fill up before you climb. At the rim you will find cheap snacks, fresh fruit with chilli and lime, and drinks. Bring your own water all the same, because the sun is fierce, and there is little shade at most of the lookouts.
- San Cristobal de las Casas
scenic
San Cristóbal de las Casas sits at about 2,200 metres in a bowl of pine and oak forest in the Chiapas highlands, and the altitude shapes everything. The mornings are cold, the afternoons bright and the evenings smoky with wood fires, and the old streets, cobbled and low, are lined with houses painted in ochre and red. Diego de Mazariegos founded the town in 1528, and it was later renamed for Bartolomé de las Casas, the Dominican bishop who spoke up for the Indigenous population. On New Year's Day 1994 the Zapatista rebels briefly took over the town hall, and the uprising still shapes the politics of the region.
The ride up from the lowlands is the real attraction, with a long climb through forest and a succession of tight bends, and signs for villages whose names are in Tzotzil and Tzeltal. Be ready for the topes, the speed bumps that guard every settlement and can be vicious at the wrong speed. Fog and drizzle are common in the rainy season from May to October, and the road can be slick, so ride within what you can see. Dry season from November to April gives clearer skies, though nights are cold enough for a proper jacket.
Walk the centre, which is pedestrian-friendly, and visit the Santo Domingo church with its elaborate baroque front and the markets next to it, where Maya weavers sell textiles. Chiapas is also known for amber, which comes from local mines and is sold in small shops. A short ride away, the village of San Juan Chamula has a church where the rituals blend Catholic and older Maya traditions, and photography inside is strictly forbidden, so respect that. Zinacantán, nearby, is known for flowers and weaving.
The city has Pemex stations around the edges, plenty of cafes serving local coffee and a surprising number of good restaurants. Park the bike somewhere secure overnight, since the centre is dense with tourists and the streets are narrow. The altitude can make you a little breathless on the first day, so go gently, drink water and take your time.
- Comitan
scenic
Comitán sits at around 1,600 metres in the highlands of eastern Chiapas, closer to Guatemala than to any large Mexican city, and it has the slightly reserved, self-contained air of a town that has been far from things for a long time. Its full name honours Belisario Domínguez, the local doctor and senator who stood up in the Senate in 1913 and denounced the dictator Victoriano Huerta, and was murdered for it. His statue, his museum, and the main square named for him tell visitors how the town sees itself. Another famous daughter is the writer Rosario Castellanos, whose novels and poems of Chiapas are still read widely.
The ride in is a pleasure after the long grind along the Pan-American Highway. The country is pine-oak forest, cattle pasture and farm plots in a rolling landscape, cool in the mornings, with mist in the folds of the valleys. The road bends gently with good views, but there are topes, the speed bumps of Mexico, at every village, so ease off at the sign. Trucks are slow on the climbs and the highway shoulders are narrow, so overtake with patience. In the rainy season, from May to October, afternoon downpours are heavy.
The town itself is a handsome place of low colonial houses, a big arcaded plaza and a church, and it is lively in the evening when families fill the squares. The local drink is comiteco, a spirit distilled from agave in the same family as tequila and mezcal, drunk in small glasses and proudly claimed as theirs. Posol, a cold maize drink often sold in the market, is the traditional refresher, and the food is Chiapan, with tamales, black beans, and grilled meats. Look for the stalls selling cheese and bread, which are hard to beat.
Comitán has about a hundred thousand people, so fuel, banks, repair shops and hotels are plentiful. It is also the gateway to the Lagos de Montebello, a group of lakes in pine forest about an hour away, in many shades of blue and green, and to the Lacandon forest beyond. Cool nights surprise visitors who think of southern Mexico as hot, so keep a layer in the bag. If you can spare the time, stay overnight and ride out in the morning light.
- Montebello Lakes
finish
The Lagunas de Montebello is a cluster of around sixty lakes scattered through pine forest on the border with Guatemala, and they come in colours that look improbable. Some are turquoise, some deep green, some blue-grey, and the shades change with the light and the minerals in the water. The lakes sit in a limestone karst landscape at about 1,500 metres, where underground rivers and sinkholes feed them, and the park is a protected national area. The small villages around, such as Tziscao, Miguel Hidalgo and Ojo de Agua, are home to Tojolabal and Mam communities and a few families who run cabins and food stalls.
The ride from Comitán de Domínguez is easy and pleasant, with a road that climbs through cool pine and oak forest, with mist in the mornings. Surface quality is fair, but topes and potholes are common, and local trucks and pickups are slow. The air is crisp, and the quiet is notable after the traffic of the plateau. This is a region of strong Maya heritage, and the border with Guatemala, a few kilometres away, is not a fence but a line through the forest.
Some of the lakes are named, such as Tziscao, with a beach and boats, and Laguna Bosque Azul, and the Cinco Lagos, a group with different shades. At Tziscao, you can walk to the border marker. The water is cold, but swimming is allowed in some lakes. Birds are abundant, and in the forest, you may see quetzals, though that is a matter of luck and patience.
Simple food is available from stalls and small restaurants, with quesadillas, tamales and fresh trout, plus coffee grown nearby. The dry season, November to April, is best, as the rainy months can bring heavy showers. Bring a warm layer, because the air at altitude is cooler than you expect, and the water is a fine reward.