Chiapas, Mexico

March/April 2009

In late March we travelled to the state of Chiapas, Mexico to bird, hike, and camp in the El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve. Our trip was led by Mark Pretti of Mark Pretti Nature Tours (Hereford, Arizona) with local guide Jorge Montejo of the El Triunfo reserve. We flew into Tuxtla Gutierrez (see map right) and after a morning in nearby Sumidero Canyon, drove to Jaltenango, the next morning to the coffee farm Finca Prusia, and from there hiked ~8 miles up to the El Triunfo base camp at ~6500 ft elevation. After three nights at the high base camp we worked our way down the opposite side of the ridge through three different camp sites, eventually finding ourselves in Mapastepec, then to Tapachula, and on to home.

Click photos to enlarge...

Getting There

Robert at the Hotel Palmarecas in Tuxtla Gutierrez	Fearless leader Mark Pretti	Sumidero Canyon	Overlook at Sumidero
Rio Grijalva below	Canyon view	The canyon is the result of the river cutting through a 3000 ft limestone dome	Guardrails? What guardrails?
Liza & Robert at the overlook	Out of the canyon, birding en route to Jaltenango at the Rio Acatengo	The welcome mat :-) at the Hotel El Triunfo in Jaltenango	Steve Mouras in the lobby
Robert outside the Hotel El Triunfo, Jaltenango	Obligatory beer-drinking photo	Ron Beck and Robert on our wheels to Finca Prusia - a cattle truck...	Liza & Robert on the truck
Liza runs her fingers through Ron's hair :-)	Federico of El Triunfo, Mark, and Ron on the truck	En route to Finca Prusia	Coca-Cola stop en route to Finca Prusia
	Gear getting ready for the hike up to high camp	One of the several patient burros who carried all of the gear

Click photos to enlarge...