Misol Há

March 26th
Oh my. Misol Há is a beautiful area. There are two 100-foot waterfalls cascading through rainbows into a large swim hole in deep jungle. The cliffs behind the falls cut in sharply and they have built a walk way behind them. If you follow the ropes completely behind the falls, they lead up to a cave. There are solid nylon ropes to hang on to, and smaller cascades coming down around you as you ascend the rocks to the cave opening. Chris, Cassidy, and Teslin took the 10 peso tour back into the cave……they will have to describe it, since I sat happily on a high overlook and watched life go by (I heard something about a large dark cavern with tons of bats and fish with giant eyes). While I sat, 2 toucans soared over the falls, followed a bit later by a pair of bat falcons. The sun was darting behind clouds and every time it reappeared, created a massive rainbow at the base of the falls.
THEN a skink led us downstream into a fairy land of small waterfalls and swim holes, around boulders, through water deep and cool and clear to other boulders, falls and deep pools. The skink was chasing bugs near the end of the top pool and then got up on his 2 back feet and ran across the water to another boulder. Jesus the Skink. Quite something, really. We played and explored for quite some time until Chris took a jump off a boulder into what we thought was deep water and hit a rock 4 feet under. Luckily he landed flat and didn’t break anything. He was quite sore though, and we had to give old gramps a rest (I’m happy to report there was no lasting damage and Chris is as limber as ever).
It was quite incongruous to find 6 tour buses in the parking lot when we came up. 95 percent of the visitors just go down to look at the falls, take a picture, and never set foot in the water. A man who works in the campground in Palenque told us that it is just in the last year that Misol Há got on the map as a major tour destination. Chris had been there many years before and found it quite empty. Now there are cabanas and a nice restaurant. They’ve made a huge parking lot, so must get quite a few people though. We hope that like all of the popularized beauty spots, that they are good stewards this amazing place.