BEST Palenque Chiapas Tour - Palenque Ruins, Agua Azul, & Misol-ha Waterfalls!

Hola, bienvenidos! Welcome to beautiful Palenque! Oh hey, there you are. Buenos dias, good morning country collectors. I am whispering because it is 3 a.m. 3 a.m.? What are we doing up so early? We are about to embark on an 18-hour epic adventure from San Cristóbal de las Casas to the ancient Mayan city of Palenque, stopping at Misoja and Aguazul waterfalls along the way. Are you ready for this? I don't have much of a choice, do I? Oh, the things that make him do. Before we get started, make sure to hit that subscribe button and ring the bell so you don't miss out on any of our future adventures. Let's go! We are just waiting outside of our hostel right now for our transport that is scheduled to arrive at 4 a.m. We booked this tour through our hostel, Hostel Casa Gaya, for 650 pesos, which is around 33 US dollars, and that includes transport and our entrance fees. The journey to get there is about five hours each way, but you know what they say, nothing worth doing comes easy, and it actually looks like our transport is arriving right now. We'll see you at the first stop. My bad, my bad. Me too. So we have just arrived in Ocosingo. It is 7 a.m., so it's been three hours since we left, and holy windy roads. El camino es como serpiente. Hay muchos, muchos topes. There were over, I don't know, 200 to 300 speed bumps on the way here, which made sleeping next to it impossible, and if you are prone to motion sickness, I would recommend taking an alternative route to Palenque because, yeah, it was a bit much, but now we are gonna head in and have some breakfast, so come with us. There's a breakfast buffet here for 95 pesos. It is your only option, but they have a great spread, pancakes, eggs, tamales, a whole bunch of kinds of fruit, and most importantly, all the coffee you can drink, and I need it. Now that we're fueled up, it's time to go find some waterfalls. Vamanos. It is about 9 20, and we just arrived at our first activity today, so it's been about like five hours since we started this. It was quite a ride too. I mean, it was beautiful, but the twists and the turns have just been non-stop. Yes, but we are here at Agua Azul, and we are so excited to check it out, so come with us. I believe it's 40 pesos to enter the Cascades, but ours was included in our tour. As you enter, you're gonna notice there's a ton of shops selling clothing. There's restaurants as well, so if you need something to drink or eat or you want to get a souvenir, it's a good place to get it. Wow, and you can see some Cascades right there. All I can think about is TLC and don't go chasing waterfalls unless you're on a Oh my gosh. We just got our first glimpse of the water, and now I know why it is called Agua Azul. Because it is so blue. These waterfalls range from six meters and down, and they just cascade into pool after pool, and I don't know, it looks pretty incredible. Let's go check it out. We're gonna follow these stairs and go all the way up to the top, and you gotta be careful because it is very slippery. Wow, look at that. I know it's like a little tease we're walking by all of the Cascades, but like our driver said, go all the way to the top first and then make your way down. That's the best way to do it. I'm out of breath. Are you? Looks like we've made it to the main viewpoint. It said it says it's 40 meters this way. Follow me. That is so pretty. Remember when we went to Guatemala? Oh man, what was it called again? I think it was called Cime Champe. Champe, yeah. It's like very similar, these cascading waterfalls with that bright blue water. I'm so looking forward to actually checking out each level as we go back down. I'm really glad we came up to the top first to get like that full view. Well, over here it says that there's a swimming area, so let's go check that out first. Wow, and there are so many shops. They're going all the way up to the top. Look how pretty these outfits are right here. I would love that little jumpsuit. That is one heck of a vine. It is. I feel like hanging around. Right up from that main viewpoint, you can find this swimming area right here. You can see how calm it is and it goes up here even further. Look at this. Up by the swimming area, she's selling coconuts and she has Coco Locos. You can put some rum in there for you, tequila. That's awesome. Oh wow, this is cool. It's kind of like a little beach here. I know it's not sand, it's dirt, but look at this. And it just keeps going up and up and up and up. This place is humongous. There's some people swimming out there. Yep, this is the area for swimming, area para nadar. Let's walk down this little bridge and see how cold the water is. Oh yeah, it's pretty fresh. Wow. Right behind me here is a Salve Vida or a lifeguard, so when you're here you can feel completely secure. We'll tell you where to go and it'll keep an eye on you so you feel safe. I'm going to take a quick jump in. Cannonball! Oh Adam, thanks for the entertainment. Wow, that feels so good. Seems like you're out of breath. It took your breath away. Look how blue the water is behind me. It is so gorgeous in here. Did you get water up your nose? I got water up my nose, in my ears, and some other places too. Now that I'm cooled down, let's go chase some waterfalls. Oh look at all these mini waterfalls here. Oh yeah, check it out. Beautiful. There's that Mirador we were at right up there, but look at this cascade, the power of that. Incredible. Increible. It is. I feel like this is the best view we've had all day. I swear, it just keeps getting more and more impressive as we come down. Look at this. I know it's loud, but that's because these falls are so magnificent. Every level we've been to has been a different shade of blue and that has to do with the different minerals that are in the water like calcium carbonate. It is just unbelievable and I am... Agua Azul, you rule. Hey, she's getting good at those. Thank you. So we were allotted an hour and 45 minutes here, which at the time we were like, oh that's great, like we'll be able to do a lot and this place is so big, there's so much to do. So we recommend if you're able to stay in Palenque, take a couple days up here, go to the ruins and then go to the cascades. They, I mean, they're worthy of a whole afternoon on their own. That is the only downfall to taking a tour is the time constraint, but we didn't have the time to come stay up here, so this is what we got. And we're loving it and we're so glad you came along with us. So we are gonna head back to the van now. We will see you at the next waterfall. Welcome to Misolja. Unlike Agua Azul, this is a single cascade that's over 35 meters tall. It falls down into this pool right here. You can see people walking behind it to a cave that goes 20 meters into the side of the mountain. Let's go check it out. This is so cool. This is like Indiana Jones. Seriously, I feel like I'm in Jurassic Park and we're about to go behind the waterfall and a T-Rex is gonna roar. Wow. The waterfall is giant when you get up close to it. It is just so crazy. I can't wait. You can see people kind of coming up the side. We might get a little wet, so I hope you didn't bring anything that might get wet in your pocket. This is incredible. Wow. Amazing. It really is. Seriously amazing. Definitely getting a little wet back here. All that spray from the waterfall. It feels good. I am waterfalling in love with Chiapas. Wow. And when you get to the top behind the waterfall, you'll find the cave. You can see it right behind us. We paid 10 pesos each to enter, so let's go see what we can find. Let's do this thing. So excited. I hope we don't bump into Gollum in here. Actually, I hope we do. My precious. It kind of feels like that, right? It's really cold. Yeah, he said to go to the left. There's a waterfall in here. It's loud in here, but there's bats flying around everywhere. Definitely come into the cave when you come to be so hot. All right, we gotta go back. Absolutely stunning. Yet again, we wish we had some more time. We only had 40 minutes here, so we are booking it back to the van. We will see you at our final stop. The ancient city of Palenque. See you there. Welcome to Palenque. Palenque is one of the most significant Mayan ruins in all of Mexico. The reason is because of this building right here. This is the Temple of Inscriptions. They found intact hieroglyphs that have told the history and story of the Mayan Empire and all the things that have happened in this city right here. Scientists used to decipher the mysteries of the Mayans. How cool. I don't know if you can hear that chirping sound I was just making. When they designed these here, that sound you're hearing is supposed to mimic the quetzal birds. And when the people would come and do this here, they actually believed that gods were speaking back to them. So cool. I can't believe they designed this to do that. That's just crazy. The Mayans, man, you know what's up. They did that in Chichen Itza as well. That's right. Oh yeah. In this temple behind me, they found a sarcophagus with a woman in it, and she was the queen here. This is one of the only Mayan cities that they had women rule, which I think is so cool. Girls rule. And what I am enjoying so much about Palenque is how peaceful and quiet it is in this jungle setting. And compared to Chichen Itza, there's like nobody here. That's it. When you get off the beaten track a little bit, you definitely get rewarded. And you can see here, they have some souvenirs if you want to buy something. Behind me, you can see this canal. The Mayans actually diverted the river into this canal system that they built. And a really cool fact is it is the first pressurized water system in all of the Americas. How neat is that? As we're walking around today, try to imagine what it must have been like 1300 years ago here. At the height of Palenque's power, they actually ruled over parts of five different countries here. It must have been a beautiful, bustling city. Every time we come to a place like this, I try to do that. And it just makes it so much more rich, the experience. Something that's really wild as well is that only 3% of this entire site is excavated. That is so crazy to even think about that there is 97% of buildings in history that just is waiting to be discovered. Yeah, it's incredible. We definitely recommend coming here. Are you doing okay? Yeah, the Mayans must have been in great shape. There are so many steps. Yeah, and it's so humid in the jungle. It is also humid in the jungle. Oh my gosh, look at this temple back here. I want to say that's so cute, but I don't think Mayans would appreciate me saying this is cute. I mean, but talk about great builders. I've lived in places that have only been around for 20 or 30 years and are falling apart. These have been around for thousands and they are still in wonderful shape. Yeah, the Mayans were fantastic architects, that's for sure. And they built it with such harmony with the landscape. And something else that's really cool about Palenque is the admission. It's 90 pesos. That is under $5. Comparing that to Chichen Itza, which I think was between $20 or $30, it's just like, I love it. And also there are placards around that give you a bunch of information. And Adam and I did read up on stuff before we came here, but if you want a guide, they have them at the entrance and they speak multiple languages. We talked to one guy and he said for the two of us to take us to the main temples and also into the jungle, it was going to be a thousand pesos or $50. All right, let's keep But if I'm wrong, please correct me in the comments down below and let me know what this beautiful red tree is. It's gorgeous. And definitely be on the lookout for some wildlife here. We've heard a lot of birds, but supposedly they have like toucans and howler monkeys. Man, what a day. And we still have a five or six hour ride home. Don't remind me. So we are going to sign off right now. It was such a wonderful day. We're so glad you came along. It would have been nowhere near as much fun without you. So true. And we're so glad we got to explore more of Chiapas and the natural beauty here. It's really, it's probably the prettiest state we've been to. I think I can honestly say it's been second to none that we have experienced as far as natural beauty goes. So far. And I want to talk about the tour a little bit. As we went throughout the day, you saw that we were not complaining, but you know, we felt rushed throughout it, but we had to get to so many places in such a short amount of time. If we had the chance to come here again, we would definitely stay up here in Palenque and visit the ruins and the waterfalls on our own. So we could take as much time as we wanted. Really soak it in. That's what we like to do when we go to a place. But if you, if you only had that little bit of time like us, like one day to see all of this, we absolutely recommend it. I mean, we saw it around town for 500 pesos, $25 for this tour that included your transport and the entrance fees. It's like a no brainer. It was awesome. So if you come here, definitely put this on your list. Thanks so much again for joining us. We can't wait to see you next week, but before we go, make sure to hit that subscribe button, give us a big thumbs up comment and don't forget to ring the bell. We'll see you next time.