On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
lashonharangue
Continuing downriver, we camped on the Guatemala side below the last ruin we visited – Piedras Negras. This ruin is only accessible from the river or via a two hour hike on a jungle trail. Because it is so difficult to get to, and because the Guatemalan government is so poor, the site was the least excavated and the worst preserved among the sites we visited.
This was a giant Mayan calendar.
Jungle cleared from a stone path.
Barely visible carving surrounded by glyphs.
The Mayans never developed real arches. They built these narrowing stone walls topped with a lintel or stone to span the top – known as corbel arches.
Back on the river we saw the Usumacinta Canyon ahead.
The canyon wall shows how high the river can rise in the rainy season.
Then we lined up to run the rapids through the canyon.
Another raft through.
Exciting and fun without being too scary.
The Usumacinta eventually opened up after this white water and we paddled along a calm river the rest of the way. After passing under the Boca Del Cerro Tenosique bridge we took out at the little village of San Carlos. The van drove us back to our hotel in Palenque. A great trip with experienced and attentive staff that made it quite a unique adventure.
sab
I am old, and so jealous from this thread. Jealous in a good way. Couldn’t possibly do that trip, but wow. I wish I could. I see the photos and I can just hear the water rush.
Thanks.
Thirty years ago I did do less adventurous but trips like this. They were amazing.
Baud
Thanks for your series.
eclare
That was an amazing trip.
OzarkHillbilly
Cool stuff, love the canyon.
The jungle is not kind.
SiubhanDuinne
I’ve loved this trip. Thanks for sharing your adventures and wonderful photos.
Torrey
Wait a minute! That calendar was clearly broken. Does that mean the world already ended and I missed it?
Thank you for these amazing pictures and the descriptions/explanations.
AM in NC
Loved this whole series. Thank you so much for sharing your trip with us!!
stinger
Another great set of photos! I’m awed by the apparent difference in river heights, rainy season over dry.
The perfect vacation!
Trivia Man
I knew these other sites existed, so glad to see sone up close and personal like this. Thanks for sharing your unusual adventure.
Anyway
Loved this entire set – the pictures, narration, sites, waterfalls, archeological tidbits — Thanks so much for sharing this with us.
Question about the weather – how hot was it? I’m a wimp about the heat …
WaterGirl
What a great series, lashon! Thank you so much!
lashonharangue
@Anyway: It was in the middle to upper 90s. We would sit in the river whenever we landed.
We met the previous trip before we started and they had it into the 100s. They said it was tough. The rafting company cancelled the scheduled trips after us because it was getting too hot to be enjoyable. I recommend going in February.
UncleEbeneezer
Great series of pix. Makes us want to head back to the Yucatan :)
Madeleine
I’ll just add another thank you for this entire series, photos and text. I appreciated seeing and reading about both the archeological and the natural experience of the trip.
Neldob
Can you have too many thanks? I hope not, here’s one more. And the stone work on the arch was great. Thanks.