This is chiapas mexico, and if you've heard of it, it probably wasn't because someone told you to travel here.
In fact, it was probably a headline keeping you away.
So let me be the first you should come here, and if you don't, you're missing out.
You see, mexico is more than tulum, more than cancun.
Yeah yeah yeah, we've all heard it, we know.
Yet, we all end up at the same places.
Fear spreads faster and deeper than positivity.
That's a fact of life, and it's the reason why most of us have never seen the real Mexico.
It's almost the reason I got cold feet.
But after a recent trip to Mexico, I decided to check out the new Maya train And, as it turns out, if you follow it from Tulum all the way to the end of the line, you find yourself the adventure of a lifetime.
Wow.
The night before the adventure, the night before Chiapas, I was preparing, researching until sunrise.
My preparations had paid off.
That looks like $1,000 to me.
And it made my travel day uneventful and stress-free.
This is the damage that is currently in dispute.
Do you have an estimate?
No.
Having spent about $150 per person to go just one way, I was grateful to have arrived prepared.
Can we go all the way?
I cannot go all the way in.
Oh, jeez.
Thank you, guys.
She's got a run right now.
All right, girl.
All right, when we get on the train, I'll throw you the tip.
OK.
No idea how happy I am.
Missing this was not an option.
To answer your question, yes, the party was good.
We're riding this all the way to the very end of the line, which in total will be about a 12-hour travel time.
But the good news is you have now a very simple way to go into the wild.
But my one gripe is that there's no internet.
In fact, we've hardly had internet from Tulum to Cancun.
We're still getting absolutely dead bars everywhere and the train has no Wi-Fi.
So just make sure you come ready for offline work or bring some movies and videos if you choose to take the train, because you probably won't stay connected.
There was a lot of criticism about this train going into place.
If you actually take a step back and look from above, you'll see the way that this train has actually effectively split the Mayan jungle, home to jaguars, countless birds, all sorts of species.
And you already know that wildlife and most animals are starting to see their habitats getting crouched on more and more every day.
So that alone was a big sticking point.
But on top of that there's a lot of criticism that this is actually impacting the cenotes, shaking up what is already quite fragile grounds.
One of our dive instructors told us that one of the cenotes she was diving in she could hear the vibrations as the train went by.
At the end of the day, it's not black and white.
This is a service that's meant to help travelers.
It's meant to connect the less visited destinations of Mexico.
But if I just put myself purely in the traveler's seat, I will say I don't know if it's going to be super appealing to most travelers, where flights are probably still going to be comparable pricing and they're going to be a lot faster.
Is this new train going to revolutionize Mexican tourism?
I don't think so.
Not yet, at least.
There's too few trains.
There's one of these per day going to the end of the line.
In some cases, in the busier routes, there's upwards of three trains a day.
Still not nearly enough.
Secondly, I don't think it's a beautiful enough train ride to say this is like a scenic train.
It feels more like a commuter train, and I think the food speaks for itself.
Still gonna eat it.
Cheers.
Not bad.
That'll do.
Tastes better than it looks.
That'll do.
I give it a thumb sideways.
It could be there someday.
We're here.
It's been a long day.
I feel like the night at the museum right now.
Do a little little tomfoolery in here, spooky.
Wow, we just rented someone's work truck.
It is so beat up.
This thing definitely was just used for like a construction site moments ago and that's okay.
It drives well.
I think it drives.
As long as it drives, i don't care.
Oh, we got a nice beeper like a real work truck.
That looks so good.
It's a heart.
Max, I think she has a thing for you.
Oh no, now it's a broken heart.
Day one starts now.
Now, Chiapas, you've probably even never heard of.
This is one of the most beautiful places on the planet, at least what we can see from Google Maps, because none of my friends that I know have been here.
Secondly, it's very famous for connection to the indigenous people, the Mayan history, and we're about to go see that upfront and personal.
And it's famous for this.
Hopefully not this one.
I think there's a lot to explore here.
We're just getting into it and I love the fact that I have no expectations other than a few photos I saw online.
Let's go.
It's growing on me.
Alright, let's get to work.
Now look, the Maya train makes it easy getting to Palanque in Chiapas.
But the truth is, this place is raw.
You're going to need to get yourself around.
But for the adventurous travelers, this is an opportunity for an absolutely epic road trip.
This used to be a powerful Mayan city and it goes back to like the year 250.
And actually one of the crazy things I read online is that in the year 900 there was such like scarce resources, there was war and this whole area was actually abandoned.
It was like 1950 that they basically started re-digging it back up, making it all back into a beautiful site again.
And today it's actually UNESCO heritage site.
It's crazy to think how something so grand could be lost in time, completely forgotten for centuries.
It's probably the most magical Mayan rune I've ever seen.
Chichen Itza.
It's bigger, it's grander, but this one feels more like a hidden site, more magical, and I love the way it's mixed in with the jungle around it.
Although I gotta say, that's one of the most unique ones I've ever seen.
It looks like a French chateau sitting on top of an Aztec temple.
I feel like the Spanish colonizers were like, this would be cool.
Yeah, this is a good spot.
This is a good spot.
Researchers discovered that the Mayans actually used these pyramids similarly to the way the Egyptians did.
This is the tomb of Pakal, who was like one of the greats of the society.
He was buried inside here in a sarcophagus type of way.
There's actually hieroglyphics inside of there.
I don't know how Egyptian and Mayan societies would have communicated.
It feels like two separate societies practicing the exact same thing.
It's pretty incredible.
Aliens.
Exactly.
Aliens.
It's gotta be aliens.
Thank you.
So if you're going to go through all the energy of building yourself a massive pyramid, you got to build yourself a place to chill.
And this is one of the courtyards.
It's like right dead smack center on top of the pyramid.
And you can just imagine people hanging out here in the sun.
You can see there's these like T shapes.
The wind comes through here, hits this wall and actually gets recirculated back.
So that's old school AC units right there.
You can see on the opposite side, those ones are fully cut out so the wind could come through.
I've always been really fascinated by ancient history from this area, from the Aztecs to the Mayans.
One of the things that I think of immediately when I see these giant pillars and temples is sacrifice and this kind of horrifying visual.
Turns out, the Mayans actually didn't practice that the way the Aztecs did, where they were basically mass executions.
Here it was actually the noble class that would be self-inflicting harm through stingray spines, through thorns.
They put it into their tongue, into their sensitive areas.
It was actually a way for them to connect with the gods.
They believed by bloodletting, they would be given a vision serpent.
Essentially, in that moment of sheer pain, they would put their blood onto bark, they would light the bark on fire and the smoke would transcend to communicate with the gods.
Pretty fascinating stuff and, i guess, a little bit more pg than the aztecs kept it so good on you minds.
I think what's really cool is there's actually more of these temples than most people even show you online.
When you're looking at the photos, it looks like there's like three or four of them, but i think they just keep going through here.
Beautiful, I was getting worried there.
I was hoping there'd be a gift shop at some point.
I gotta say, Mexico definitely goes hard on their merch.
The sounds of the northeastern Rhodesian beaver slapper.
To understand the province of Chiapas, we need to leave Palanque, and that means it's time to hit the road.
So much for the open road.
If there's one thing you need to know about a road trip in Mexico, it's that it's going to be a very very, very bumpy ride.
So we got a little game on the road.
It's called Tope or Nope.
With the speed bumps in Mexico, you never know when they're going to come.
No sign, they're not painted.
Sometimes you're looking ahead and you're like, status.
And then sometimes you see a shadow when you start slowing down because you're bracing for a towp.
Hello, friend.
Thank you, thank you.
Well, that's the price of dealing with the cartel here.
We almost got mugged but...
That's all right.
It's part of the game.
So about a two hour drive and about 300 topes later.
We have made it.
What a move.
Okay, this is actually way nicer than I expected.
He gets it.
This is, i think, going in my top three waterfalls not the biggest, not the most wow in itself, but the way it spreads there's like five different streams all flowing in different directions.
All of it with this beautiful, beautiful silty blue color.
You can wander around, Literally get lost in a place that nobody's even heard of.
I feel like I'm in a dream here.
It's pretty crazy when you think that you can get a place like this with no other people.
I know.
That's pretty wild.
This was only 80 pesos each.
80 pesos.
This is the first bargain of Mexico.
It's kind of expensive.
It's really expensive.
Holy snapple crapple pop.
Very expensive.
You pay a lot to be here.
Tulum wasn't going to cut me any deals, but maybe Chiapas will.
We came too far not to get in.
That's fresh water.
This is the waterfall of a thousand waterfalls.
I mean, I cannot believe it.
This is the real Chiapas experience.
We're not the only ones here.
Most people are actually by the looks of it, probably domestic travelers.
But this is definitely nothing like a Cancun, nothing like a Tulum.
You're going through some rough roads, some rough terrains and you're getting out there into the real hidden gems of Mexico.
And we're getting here just before the sun drops down.
Look at that.
We've got about a lot of hours left to go today.
We're actually driving now from the waterfalls to the highlands, and a look at something I didn't even know existed in Mexico.
Now, I don't think we intended to spend as long here or get here as late, and the road that we're about to take every review online says not to take it at night time.
Why?
I'm not quite sure why.
I don't know if it's banditos or if it's just hitting cows or all the crazy turns or all the topaz.
It's definitely the topaz, maybe a couple cartels, but i'm more worried about the topaz.
One of those things will not be nice at night time and yeah, i think we're gonna be driving a bit tonight okay Well, no matter what, never stop.
Except for the topaz.
Luckily, with big Gus, ain't nobody stopping us.
Twice now we have heard a growl from the bushes.
I'm not joking.
My money is on that being a jaguar.
That was...
We've heard jaguar impressions all day and that was spot on.
I have no visual proof, but my ears tell me that with like 99% certainty we just heard a jaguar.
Two times now it made a noise.
We pulled over.
We're like 10 minutes away from the waterfalls and we pulled over to fly the drone because it was just so beautiful.
We were hanging, chatting, and then all of a sudden, like deep, deep sound.
It was 100% a jaguar.
Nobody will convince me otherwise.
Back on the road, we got a long night ahead.
Well, hopefully that's not us.
Nope.
The Jaguar didn't get us.
We'll be all right.
Uh-oh.
That's a dope.
Wasn't a nope.
It was not a nope.
I'm not gonna lie.
This is probably the most insane road i've ever driven.
There's been two landslide areas that are not marked.
I just had to swerve out of my own lane to get into a clear lane, the oncoming lane.
And then there was a moment where the road fully stopped on our side.
It had caved out, not marked, no safety materials, just god be with you.
That's all.
There aren't many drives i've had that have been so exhausting.
It was like a chinese torture, hitting every single little topaz was a little drop on my forehead.
But we have made it and i can't wait to show you this tomorrow.
Let's get inside.
This is home for the next couple nights.
We're now way up in the mountains.
This is San Cristobal de las Casas, and we are at an altitude of 2200 meters, or about 7200 feet up.
I got some sleep.
580 topes do this to you.
I'm going to go shower, get our day popping, locking and dropping, because we are somewhere that I have not seen visually like this since Cusco, Peru.
I mean, I don't think anyone thinks Mexico and this is what they think of.
It is so vastly different than everywhere else I've ever seen in Mexico and a big city to go explore.
So everything's like old school, everything is stone, colorful, vibrant, one floor living.
And a lot of vintage vehicles too.
There's also a ton of amazing graffiti that I saw this morning.
When you walk around, there's like a lot of street art.
Now, one of the things that honestly keeps some people away from going deep in Mexico and honestly forces many Americans to go resort mode is safety.
Breaking news out of Mexico.
A sharp rise in violence.
Has rocked Mexico once again.
San Cristobal de las Casas is not immune to the dangers of cartel activity, and definitely not petty crime.
You'll read reviews and things online of people getting robbed people getting robbed in front of the church.
One of those things we're trying to do to be smart though, keeping ourselves to one camera out at a time, trying to keep it more low profile.
Make it look less appealing because, man, we are a snack.
I'll be very honest.
We look juicy, right?
We are juicy.
If they knew it's... Yeah.
It's hard to travel anywhere without taking some form of risks.
But I can tell you, while nobody can promise you you won't run into some kind of trouble...
Staying alert has kept me safe over the last 11 years and I've never had any real run-ins.
I'm glad I didn't let the media and the fear talk me out of the raw and unfiltered Mexico, because this destination is a hidden gem and we're only just getting started with the province of Chiapas.
One thing i noticed all morning, and i'm even noticing now too, is we're the only western tourists.
I haven't seen a single other american or canadian.
We're in with the locals here, which is honestly really nice, super nice.
A spot like this, like you, would expect it to draw more foreigners.
This is kind of more the touristy market.
What we're going to after this is like the local market.
The morning light cascading down, the smell of fresh fruits and dead chickens.
That's fresh, I tell you that.
Definitely fresh.
That part was a bit less great, but my favorite was the sounds.
This one in particular, one of the most interesting things i experienced when i traveled latin america.
There was all these sounds that any latin american would know.
It's like oh, when you hear that sound, it's the dude that sharpens your knives.
When you hear that sound, it's the woman that sells the popcorn.
When you hear that sound well, apparently that's the sound of the guy that sells cotton candy.
So wild, I don't think this is an arcade.
This is a casino.
Well, if Vegas isn't your thing, San Cristobal de las Casas.
I'm not gonna sugarcoat it, the locals here weren't all that friendly.
Most didn't seem to think anything of us and some looked at us frustrated, especially by our cameras.
That guy was pretty pissed.
Yeah.
He was not happy.
You said that people were not down to be filmed this morning?
No, it's probably one of the least receptive places I've traveled.
I tried to learn how to ask for people's photos.
Take their photo.
15 people in a row was a solid no.
Interesting.
But we're not here to be served an experience.
We're here to observe.
And that's what we did.
So we are in the heart of downtown San Cristobal.
This looks like a Starbucks reserve.
One of the really cool things about the region is they're actually a big producer of coffee beans and cacao, like two of my favorite things.
So we can hopefully here find a good coffee and some chocolate.
So this is a proper, proper coffee moment here.
Paid a little extra for it, not cheap, 95 peso.
No cappuccino for this one.
We're gonna try out a true Chiapas bean.
I do love my coffee.
It's a medium body, comes from the altitude of about 1200 meters up.
And let's see how that impacts the profile.
Really good.
Really good.
Oh, I like this.
This is like right on the nose with the type of coffee that I like the most.
Bit of a medium.
It's actually even says here that the taste is a little bit like honey, natural.
Very nice, actually.
I'm not a coffee person.
Look, if you've made it this far, I want you to ask yourself this question.
Have you hit the like button?
Have you subscribed?
And if you haven't...
Después de tanto esfuerzo y sacrificio, Que a mi familia les iba a fallar, Que yo me iba a perder.
Let's go.
Hello.
Oh wow.
Oh, that's good.
So right now we are experiencing the second gem of Chiapas.
You got the coffee bean and you got the cacao bean.
So these here are 60 cacao, all from the region nearby.
Oh bro yes, this is so good, that's more my taste.
The town definitely has a bit of a charm to it, even if the people weren't the warmest, but there's more to see than just the old pastel town.
You see, just outside of it is a church shrouded in mystery.
You have seen churches all around the world at this point, but I bet you you've never seen a church like this one here.
This church is one of the most sacred points of this entire community.
It's probably one of the firmest strongholds of the former culture.
It's a Catholic inspired church.
But imagine taking what the Spanish brought over but holding on to what the Mayans had beforehand.
Inside here, they still practice sacrifice of live animals.
And one of the facts I found most fascinating, they also have tied in Coca-Cola to this practice.
They'll drink it and... like you do when you drink too much Coca-Cola, they'll burp.
The burping is the process of releasing spirits, I believe evil spirits.
And that right there has to be one of the most interesting churches on our planet.
Alright, I'm gonna go in and I'll let you know what I see.
I'll be back in a few minutes.
This is probably one of the most interesting things I've ever seen, and the whole time I was thinking, how could I not have my camera on me?
But there's moments where I just feel it's so important to respect where you're shooting, and this was not the moment to film.
It's very clear you're not allowed to do that.
Let me set the scene in there.
That room there is a long Catholic church.
Just imagine an open cathedral, remove the pews.
On all perimeters, every side of you.
You're surrounded by these, like marionettes of old saints, with their names above them on a wooden box.
There's got to be at least 40, 50 different figurines of saints in there, all kind of human-like, but just off enough to be a bit.
You get the idea.
There are minimum 2000 candles in there all lit up.
I mean, the room smells amazing and it's billowing with smoke.
You could see the light coming through that front door.
It's one of the few light openings and it just has this beautiful kind of mystical, enchanted glow.
And what we actually researched and heard online.
I just saw this woman took a rooster out of the box and she handed it to the man.
The man then proceeded to take the rooster and he was literally moving it like this in a circle and he was rubbing it on another gentleman.
And then i'm like, oh no, i i know what's gonna happen here, and the man that was doing the ritual snapped its neck and hands it back to the lady who had taken it out of the box.
She just kind of holds it by its feet and you can see it kind of doing its last moments of life.
And she then takes out another one from another box, hands it back to the man and they began it again.
Now, I will add, the Catholic Church today, they do not accept any association with this church.
Probably not hard to understand why.
Very, very different.
Hard to even... It barely... I don't... i'm kind of for loss of words i did my best here one of my most shocking moments as a traveler we headed back to sombra del agua which is our home base for just one more night before we make our way to the grand finale of chiapas We're back here to try a local delicacy here.
And this is posh, spelled P-O-X.
Is it spelled P-O-X?
Yeah.
Yeah, my Mayan's not great.
Haven't brushed up on that since high school.
This is actually known as medicine, directly translated.
It's their local liqueur.
Let's try it out.
Oh, it's nice.
It's really nice.
What percentage is this?
Well, it goes down kind of nicely for 45.
And this is the bar that they call Poshna.
The House of Medicine.
Pretty cool.
This whole building that we're in, our hotel, Casa del Hombre.
Casa de Hombre.
Sombra, sombre, sombre de agua.
Sombre sombra del agua.
I don't i don't speak spanish.
We have many bloopers in this video.
This hotel that we're in, sombre de agua, is actually formerly a spanish home back to like the early 1900s.
You can feel that just feels like you're stepping into the past.
Have a couple of these and you'll be stepping even further in.
As the sun set and we drank another posh, we were ready for dinner at their restaurant called Tarumba.
This was going to be an interesting one.
Fuego.
Okay, one more.
We've got what will be our last Mexican meal.
And it sounds like it's a four course meal.
So Max and I are gonna be eating very good and experiencing some of the local foods here from Chiapas.
It's like a little caterpillar.
Well, it's not little at all.
We're eating bugs.
A bug tortilla.
You know, insects are full of protein.
He's watching me too.
All right.
Oh my God.
That's not the texture I was expecting.
It tastes good.
The texture though is not what I was expecting.
It's like hollow.
It's kind of like a cheese puff.
Better than bugs.
We could add a bug on it, maybe put a little grasshopper inside it, a little jumpalina.
Now this is the showstopper.
This melts in your mouth.
This is phenomenal.
So far this is the most memorable dish of the bunch.
The last course is the most stylish of them all and the one that will put me to sleep.
The caterpillar was a unique plate, but with four courses we got a full taste of the region and a reminder why Mexican food is undefeated.
Highly recommend.
See you tomorrow for the best of Chiapas.
Okay, let's go.
Okay, let's go.
We didn't know it yet, but this road trip had a way of saving the best for last.
I recommend this trip.
I don't know if I recommend how we've been doing this trip.
We've been making every second on this trip count.
We've left zero buffer and we have a flight to catch in three hours.
So we booked a private boat for the morning because I need to show you this.
In fact, I need to see this.
This might be the highlight of Chiapas.
So we actually got creative because of our early flight.
My assistant did a bunch of research and figured out there was another port that opened earlier, because the main port doesn't open till 8.
And it's because of that that we have an extra hour on the water with nobody else.
It's just us.
This was 250 for the private boat, not the worst.
Got like over two hours out here, so i'm so happy this is already like for me flat water, a motorboat it's the best feeling.
Yeah, Flatwater is nice, but I had no idea what was coming.
Google Images couldn't have prepared me, not even in the slightest.
Inside this canyon, you realized you had discovered a hidden gem.
If this canyon was anywhere else in the world, we would call it one of the world's wonders.
But fear has kept Sumidero Canyon and Chiapas completely hidden.
But to me, that makes this all even more special.
I even saw photos online and I was not expecting it.
And I think going early in the morning too with the fog, it adds so much atmosphere.
It's such a vibe in here.
I feel like we're gonna go like see dinosaurs at the end of this.
Now that's a crazy perspective.
Words can't describe this moment.
One of the most beautiful places on our planet, and it's right here in Chiapas, Mexico.
Untold stories, untold location.
The suddenness of the drop, Max and I are talking about it.
We're like, I don't know where else we've seen such a steep drop off.
I mean you go to the bottom, the edge of the river, and you look up and it's just, it's a flat climb.
It's fully vertical.
Only places I can think of are There was one place in Norway I've been where the boulder is suspended between two rock faces.
You can jump on it.
It looks really sketchy and it is pretty sketchy.
But that does not have the vertical, the height that this has.
This is one of my favorite landscapes.
Bar none.
It's amazing.
So this one here. is not even as tall as it gets.
The taller mountains are deep inside.
Now behind you actually is something very, very strange.
It almost looks like a Christmas tree.
There's a bunch of moss plants and flora just growing off the side of the cliff.
But more uniquely is like these almost like little rose petals that are growing off the mountain.
I mean, they look like they're actually stone.
Everywhere you look is just flying V formations.
Wow, look at, this is perfection.
I don't get these sort of like truly magical moments that often, like when i think of all the moments that led to this, everything that just brought us here, and it's like i mean, it was worth it a long time ago, but now it's just sensational.
This is incredible.
This is one of those peak travel moments.
Sumidero Canyon isn't just a cinematic rock face.
It's also home to thousands of birds.
Everywhere you look, there they are, flying in V formation, sitting in trees.
I mean, that's pretty much everywhere you find them, but they were everywhere.
But those aren't the only inhabitants.
There's also these guys.
He kind of spooked me when he started moving.
I jumped a little bit.
Give me the shivers.
Give me the shivers, bud.
Whoa!
Whoa, oh my god, they keep going.
This is insane.
Like what the hell?
We had no idea what we were signing ourselves up for.
I didn't realize this was going to be a safari.
I've seen more wildlife in one like little session than maybe any other moment of my life.
We have had countless gorgeous birds and even a couple crocodiles.
Absolutely incredible.
Just having the best time of my life.
I've been traveling almost full time for over 10 years now.
I've been to 100 countries and I'll tell you right now there are very few places in the world that are this beautiful, this inspiring, that aren't already on the front page of Instagram.
This experience brought me back to being in the Philippines in 2015, experiencing Coron Lagoon before the crowds were there.
And if you're watching this, I don't know how much longer Sumidero will be like this, but today it is an iconic experience and it's truly a hidden gem.
I was moved by this experience, and I hope you get to have it for yourself too.
But the sad truth is, our time in Chiapas was now complete, so we drove over one last tope.
I did a heartfelt dap up with my amazing friend Max.
And we may have hugged.
I didn't cry, I promise.
And I boarded my flight for the next adventure.
And honestly, it's my biggest one yet.
I'm about to drive across Africa coast to coast with my best friend Cam.
But that's a story for a coming video.
Till then, let's get lost again in the next one.
