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After arriving in San Ignacio, our hostel owner offered a short evening trip to Monkey Falls. I knew it was a waterfall, but that’s it.
It was a short, probably rough, drive from town and a short hike through some pretty serious mud to get there. It was definitely worth it though.
Travel Services I Recommend:
AllTrails – This is my favorite hike tracking app.
America the Beautiful – The national park pass is essential.
Booking.com – This is great for finding and booking hotels.
Get Your Guide – I recommend Get Your Guide for booking tours.
National Park Obsessed – This is the best national park planner.
Skyscanner – Skyscanner is great for finding and booking flights.
Enterprise – This is my rental car recommendation.
See all my resources here.
We were greeted with glistening emerald water, that was actually pretty warm. (I think?) There was a waterfall with a hole behind it that our guide made me crawl in.
It was pretty small and I was a little afraid of what might have been behind me, but I tried not to think about it.
After I was safely back in the water, I enjoyed it a bit more before walking a bit farther down. On our way, I almost fell in.
The mud in some spots was actually just mud on top of water and my leg went right in. I also almost fell off of a log on the way back.
There was limestone under the water acting as natural bridges, and believe it or not, I almost fell off of that too. That was actually slippery. Steady as she goes, right?
I’m really probably not doing this place justice. It’s an aweesome thing to do in (or just outside of town) that won’t break the bank like an ATM Cave tour or river tubing.
The Cahal Pech ruins are another greeat in-town budget activity. It was like a mini Semuc Champey. How bad could it really be?
Tips for visiting:
- Ask at Bella’s Backpackers hostel if you want to go. That’s where I stayed and she told us about it. I’m not sure if they take people that aren’t staying there, but there aren’t many other hostels in town.
- Wear shoes you don’t mind getting muddy.
- Watch your step along the water and on logs. It can be slippery and like I said, muddy.
- Bring a snack and water. You’ll be gone for a few hours at least.
Have you been to Monkey Falls? Do you want to go? Which picture is your favorite?
Hi Megan. I went to Monkey Falls today (and got my Jeep stuck in the mud for several hours). I saw and photographed what is in your first photo. Were all your photos taken at that spot? I saw another person’s blog about Monkey Falls and they look much larger than these.
Oh no! These were all from the same spot or just down from it a little bit. One post I just looked at, the falls look bigger but almost like different ones, though they are the same. That’s so wild they look so different!
I figured out why the other photos look so different. The water level was several feet lower in their pictures, making the rock walls seem much larger!
That makes so much sense and never even crossed my mind! Thank you for the update!