During our trip through Mexico, a certain rhythm slowly settles in. One stop is rather urban, a city or at least in a well-developed village, followed by another stop in nature. This is also the case after San Cristobal de las Casas: We discover another waterfall on our onward journey. El Chiflón is only about 2.5h drive from San Cristobal de las Casas. The journey there is relaxed and we can even spend the night directly on the grounds of the park, which belongs to the waterfall.

Multilevel waterfall

El Chiflón is, strictly speaking, not a waterfall, but a waterfall staircase with many different steps in the terrain, which in turn create their own waterfalls. Unfortunately, we did not remember the names of all waterfalls. The biggest one by far is called El Chiflón. Here the water falls and trickles a good 30m into the catch basin in an aisle of the jungle. Due to the local conditions the waterfall is rather conical. That means at the upper spout all water flows through a very narrow place. Due to the steep rock of the mountain flank, the water is then always deflected a little further outward to the sides, which finally leads to its very geometric shape. Very impressive!
In addition, we are the first tourists in the early morning and we can comfortably wait for the sun to shine directly through the topmost trees into the spray of the waterfall. Wonderful! Nature can often be experienced most beautifully in solitude.

At El Chiflón there are two shore sides and accordingly, as so often in Mexico, two different park operators. We were on the left side of the river (as seen on a standardized map). The perspectives of the waterfalls are more beautiful, since the river always allows frontal views of the various waterfalls in a slight left turn in the direction of flow. Unfortunately, however, this side has to fight with landslides. Accordingly, the installations were partially buried, but the path was clear throughout. On the other side of the river, the paths also lead a little further up to the source of the waterfall El Chiflón and invites more for swimming. So, everyone can decide for themselves whether the bathing fun or the photography is in the foreground.

We liked El Chiflón very much. The installations in the park were a bit mixed, but they allowed us to get to El Chiflón on paved paths. And if you get up early you will also be rewarded with a beautiful, natural jungle experience.