Cañon Sumidero, Chiapas

Mike Finds A Higher Purpose at Cañon Sumidero, Chiapas

Now I can die and go to heaven. Not that I am intent on the dying part, nor am I certain that heaven would be my destination (if I was convinced in the existence of those concepts). Those who know me probably think that the warmer place would be more welcoming. Ni modo. I am content.

There are very few places in Mexico that I have not seen at least once if not several times. 40 years of traveling around Mexico, mostly by car, as we are doing now, has led me down many paths, shown me many Mexicos. This journey has led me to most every attraction that I wanted to see, some I had to see as a travel writer and some that I wondered what all the hype was about.

I have driven to Chiapas many times and never seemed to have the time to see the canyon. The last time I was in San Cristobal de las Casas, I had accidentally taken a photograph that included a Maya woman. As I snapped, she walked into the scene, turned, stared at me and put the evil eye on me. Seriously. Within a few hours, I was vomiting and so ill I wanted to die. My amigos at the time knew what had happened and that a regular doctor would do me no good. They got an egg, rolled it all over me and left it under the bed. Then they piled me into our car and we hot-footed it out for Oaxaca city. I writhed in pain in the back seat all the way to the Oaxaca-Chiapas border. Once we crossed the state line, the pain stopped. After a nightÂ?s sleep in Oaxaca, I was fit as a fiddle. And just as out-of-tune.

But I digress Â? a common Â?MexicoÂ? Mike tendency. As my darling, long-suffering wife, Nicki told me:

If you get stopped by bandits, just start telling them �Mexico� Mike stories and they will let you go.BTW, we DID get stopped by an �unofficial� roadblock / banana toll shakedown near Cascadas de Agua Azul, but that is yet another story. The �toll� we paid was 20 pesos and we did get a bunch of bananas as a toll receipt. 

Chiapa del Corzo
Back at Sumidero, (the town is Chiapa del Corzo) the story continues. We are staying at a remarkable hotel, Hotel La Ceiba. It is imbued with tranquility, from the peaceful, lush gardens to the warm and understanding staff. Any hotel that has a cat wandering around the restaurant is okay by me. It made me feel right at home. And there is love here, perhaps the most important quality. I saw the manager or owner�s daughter walking her dog (there are three here). The way the dog looked at her and she at him told me that there was no love finer than that, except perhaps mine for my wife. There is a macaw here that has a spacious cage (a sad rarity in Mexico), plenty of fresh food and a good attitude. Add to that, the spa where Greg and I both had excellent massages. The rooms are about $40 and the massage was about $45. I have stayed at hundreds of hotels in Mexico and this is one of my favorites. The owner also owns the Hotel La Aldea in Palenque. 

Canon Sumidero
You can look up all the data about the canyon, like it was created by the building of a dam in 1980, has ridges that rise 1,000 meters to the sky and a depth of 300 meters at the deepest. That kind of stuff is interesting, but it all pales in importance after you have seen it.
Greg, who is traveling with me lives near the Columbia Gorge and says this is spectacular. Due to my single-minded purpose, we snagged a seat in the front of the launch. That spot is great for taking pictures, but hard on the spine and bladder. I suggest you pee before you start and then pee again.

I felt a sense of completion, entering the canyon walls. It was like Mexico had held her most magnificent beauty for me in reserve. Sure, I have seen the Copper Canyon and even driven down to the bottom. I have seen the Zone of Silence and driven though it. Real de Catorce has seen me too many times to count. To me, Sumidero tops them all.

I donÂ?t know why, but I have had the feeling that this might be my last Mexico trip. There is nothing sinister in that, it is not as I expect to keel over dead or that Mexico will disappear, it is just an unreasonable fear. And not seeing this canyon would have made me feel incomplete.
As I lay extended across the bow of our little boat, bouncing up and down with the heavy wake, I felt truly, completely alive. Snapping photos with my Nikon, getting battle-scarred, made me feel that this is the life I was meant for. I felt truly alive, one with my camera, one with the canyon, one with the Universe. For that half-hour I was living entirely in the Now. That is like stepping away from this vale of mundane existence that we all live and stepping into an alternate reality where everything has meaning, where every breeze has significance, where every thought is carried on angel wings to Heaven.

Oh, that I could be that alive every minute of every day! I know that the spiritual teaching that I struggle with tell me that we can, and I have experienced minutes of sheer bliss before, but it is rare that I can live in the present to such an extent. Yet, this happens to me every time I come to Mexico, at some point. This is why I travel, this is why I keep preaching the joys of seeing Mexico, not just as a destination, but as an alternate reality where you can release your burdens, feel your soul and touch the sky and beyond.

So now I have seen it. What next?

I t is not a question of what, or where, next, it is a question of how next. How will I live, having achieved a life goal? DonÂ?t we all experience this at some time in our lives? IsnÂ?t this the age-old question of the meaning of existence?
Could it be that I no longer need physical goals, or even spiritual ones? Could it be that I can advance beyond the necessity of needing mile-markers on my journey to being the perfect being that I already am?

I donÂ?t know and that is a good sign. As the Lao-Tse said, Â?He who says he knows the Tao, doesnÂ?t know the Tao.Â? I know nothing and am content. Tomorrow will be today in a few hours. Life is good and perfect. So am I.