Bonapak and Yaxchilan

Thursday 7 November 2013

We altered our whole itinerary to make sure we saw these two places.  We were always intending to see Tikal in Guatemala but originally we were going to fly into Guatemala and then drive north but in the end decided to go over the river border from Mexico via Bonapak and Yaxchilan.  To get Yaxchilan you have to go via the river Usumacinta which is the border with Guatemala.

Bonapak had the most famous murals of anywhere in the Maya world but it’s dark and hard to make out the details really.  Going to Yaxchilan; it rained on the way over in the ‘chicken boat’ so that wasn’t fun.  Then it was raining hard when we got there.  Not fun.  Took the umbrella and went anyway to the top of the ruins.  Still raining.  Quite gloomy.  Not really atmospheric; just gloomy.  Then all of a sudden is stopped raining and the sun came out!  Oh, so beautiful.  Changed the atmosphere of the place.  We even saw spider monkeys in the trees.

We stayed at a little town called Frontera Corazel which is a one-horse town.  Not much to see but they sure put on a beautiful sunset. This was the border crossing into Guatemala.  The boats below sitting on the banks of the croc-infested Usumacinta river are the only way across which was fun with all our luggage.