A Day on the Water (Agua Azul and Misol-Ha)

While chilling out at Mayabell we had got talking to Nancy & Drew and together we hatched a plan to go together to a couple of places near to Palenque but up that awful road that we had both driven the day before. We were overjoyed at the offer so we wouldn’t have to drive the Beast – Nancy & Drew have a much smaller mini-van type camper which is much more nimble.

So we set off for the hour long drive back up into the mountains to Agua Azul. This is a park where a mountain river cascades over a number of waterfalls  and in between the waterfalls there are swimming holes. The water is a beautiful turquoise colour.

The path up the river is lined with restaurants and vendors. We decide to stop off for lunch in one of the little restaurants. We all decided to go for the Empanadas at only 10 pesos (under 1 USD) for 5 with a choice of chicken, cheese, meat and potato.. Not only were they really cheap but the woman cooking made them from scratch right in front of us. Probably the best value meal I’ve ever had.

After lunch we headed back down the road towards Palenque for our second stop of the day at Misol-Ha. This is a 30m waterfall with a big pool in front of it.

There is a path around behind the waterfall which climbs to the top of a second smaller waterfall for which the water comes out of a small cave. You can walk into the cave and about 20m in is a cavern with another small waterfall in it among bats and glow-worms. There is a guy sitting at the entrance who tries to charge us another entrance fee but we just ignore him – by the time Drew who is the last of us to go in he gets quite irate – but none of us pay !

After visiting this waterfall we all went for a swim in the lake which was quite cool but really refreshing in the jungle heat.

After leaving here we drove back to Palenque having had a thoroughly good day. It was really nice to do something with other people for a change. Big thanks to Nancy & Drew for driving us around – and also good vibes to Rocky, their gorgeous dog, who unfortunately hasn’t been very well recently.