I met a man from Texas while I was in San Cristobal de las Casas.
We had a long conversation about things to see in Mexico and he told me about these secret Mayan ruins that have never been explored or seen by archaeologists.
The instructions were to drive to Lagos de Montebello and look for a man named Jose who owns a few cabins on the lake.
I was to ask him for his son to take us to the secret Mayan ruins.
And since Adventure is my middle name, I decided I had to do this.
We drove for 2 hours and finally reached the Park where Lagos de Montebello is located and paid our entrance fee.
Lagos de Montebello is a National Park that is comprised of 59 multi-colored lakes and two Mayan ruins. Lago Tziscao is the largest of the lakes which is where the secret ancient Mayan ruins.
Using a map, I located how to get to the lake but I had no way of finding out where Jose was.
I started asking people in the little town and it turned out that people knew exactly who he was. They pointed me in the right direction.
When I got to Jose's cabins I asked him if his son can help us get to the place with the secret Mayan carvings. They wanted 300 Pesos but I got him down to 200 pesos to guide us and help us row to the opposite side of the lake.
The boat was heavy and it was a 3 km ride each way. But we decided to do it.
The rowing was very difficult. Brando was the Captain of the ship and he stood there as if he was surveying the wind direction.
When we finally got to the opposite side of the lake we docked the boat and started hiking about a 1/2 mile up this hill, through tall grasses.
We found this large boulder that looked like it was apart of a much larger structure hidden underneath thousands of years of plant growth.
It was pretty fascinating to see these face carvings up close and personal. At the same time, it felt exciting to be apart of something that not a lot of people have seen.
We landed and had to hike up a half mile...
And we had to row back too...
We left Lagos de Montebello and on the way back to San Cristobal came to a massive traffic jam.
There was some kind of protest with labor unions who were blocking all the traffic.
People said that we wouldnt be able to cross until tomorrow morning. So we turned around, found a cheap $20 hotel, and woke up in the morning to drive to Oaxaca.
