Mex 190 - El Aguacero and Benito Juarez Lake

The Mex 190 heading west from San Cristobal takes you near a lot of areas of amazing beauty and we knew before we hit the road that we wouldn’t be able to see all of them. Our plan was to spend a few days, driving in the morning and spending the afternoons visiting some of the places we’d listed as worth a visit, before finally reaching Oaxaca. We had originally intended to visit Sumidero Canyon as our first stop, but having spoken to other travellers who had driven past it, we decided to skip the visit and head further east. We had wanted to spend the night at a scenic mirador on the road heading into the canyon, but one traveller we spoke to was turned away as no dogs were allowed into the site, and another said that the site closes in the evening and evicts any vagabonds looking for a free place to park. Instead we chose to spend the night at El Aguacero, a beautiful canyon and waterfall located a long way from anywhere in the Chiapas countryside.

The road down to El Aguacero starts as a smooth gravel road, but deteriorates towards the end. The final few hundred meters of the road are very steep and have been concreted in two narrow wheel paths to give sufficient traction; the channels are clearly designed for something the size of a pickup truck, as Jim’s wheels were hanging over either edge, and keeping us on the path around the tight final corner was challenging. The 190 is fairly well travelled, but I guess that the 3km dirt road down to El Aguacero puts most visitors off as we spent an afternoon and a night there and saw no other visitors, despite it being one of the most beautiful places that I’ve ever seen.

The site consists of a deep canyon with vertical rock walls, a river running through the bottom, and a beautiful waterfall running down one side of the canyon. The car park is at the top of the canyon, and unless you want your experience of the site to consist of a 50m walk to a viewpoint, you have to descend a long series of steps, somewhere around 750, to get to the flat canyon bottom. Despite the view from the bottom being no better than from the top, the strenuous descent and ascent is worth it for the chance to walk under the waterfall and along the river. The river water is shallow and the bottom is of soft sand; we spent a few hours walking through the warm river water and relaxing under the cold spring water rushing off of the canyon wall. It’s an amazingly peaceful and beautiful place and I’d urge anyone else passing by to take a visit.

The entrance fee was very small, and for 100 pesos we were allowed to park overnight in the car park. Normally the locals maintaining the site, lock the gate and leave at about 4pm, but with us staying overnight, a couple of local guys arrived after dark and slept in hammocks to provide some security.

Whilst we slept at El Aguacero it rained hard overnight, and in the morning I was nervous about the drive up the steep road out of the site. Thankfully our exit was painless and we were soon back on the 190 heading west again.

The section of the Mex 190 towards the isthmus of Mexico is generally not too steep or winding and so for the first time since leaving the Yucatan we were able to make reasonable progress. After 170 miles we were ready to stop for the day, and headed for a free camping site that we’d been recommended, on the shore of Benito Juarez Lake.

The town of Santa Maria Jalapa, through which you have to drive to get to the lake, has few redeeming features, but the adjacent lake is a picture of beauty. If you drive to the end of Presa Benito Juarez, a dirt road leading north out of the town, the road ends on the beach of the lake. The lake is a huge area of calm water, surrounded by the rugged and beautiful Oaxacan mountains. In front of the beach is a large area of compacted sand, sufficiently stable that Jim and a 2wd dodge van that we shared the beach with had no problems getting on or off. There are a few palapa structures where you can buy drinks and antojitos, and a few fisherman use the area in the morning to launch their boats. The scale and beauty of the place means that it feels amazingly tranquil, and is certainly one of the best free camping sites we’ve found in Mexico.

In the morning we woke early, and got back on the road, to complete the final winding and mountainous stretch of the 190 before reaching Oaxaca. We passed numerous Mezcal producers on the way, stopping at one to buy a bottle, before ending the long journey from San Cristobal at the Overland Oasis campsite in El Tule, about 10km east of Oaxaca city’s centro.