We left Palenque today and headed to San Cristóbal. Palenque is at an elevation of 80 meters (~260 ft) and San Cristóbal is at an elevation of 2160 meters (~7000 ft), so we had a ways to go. And it was, of course, a tiny, winding road. Although we were looking forward to getting out of the warm lowlands and head to more temperate weather in the mountians.
Our first stop was at a waterfall called Miso Ha. There was nothing particularly cultural or historical to see. The natural beauty of the falls spoke for itself. This is apparently one of the prime locations featured in the movie Predator.
Our next stop was another set of waterfalls called Aqua Azul. There had been heavy rains the night before, so the falls were stronger than usual. Unfortunately, they were not blue - they were brown. We were reassured that they are normally quite blue. Oh well. We parked at the base and worked our way up the falls.
Our next big stop was a site of ruins on the way to San Cristóbal - Tonina. The ruins are built into a cliff, so there was a lot of climbing. The steps were so steep that it felt as if you were climbing a wall. Tonina is known for having very good reliefs about the capture of warriors and a tribute to the god of the underworld. I decided that I was going to brave the room of the dead - reagardless of spiders. Luckily, there were none.
After the ruins, we stopped at a place for homemade quesadillas and then drove the rest of the way to San Cristóbal. We noticed that most of the signs on the road had large holes in them. We all assumed that they were bullet holes, but our guide pointed out that the government drills holes in them because the locals steal the road signs to cook tortillas on. Drilling holes in them makes them useless as stovetops.