Mexico
Sumidero Canyon
Thousand-metre canyon walls rising vertically from jade water, crocodiles sunning on every ledge.
The boat accelerates and the canyon walls begin to rise. Two hundred metres. Five hundred. A thousand. Vertigo works in reverse here — the rock doesn't loom from above but climbs endlessly upward, jade water reflecting the narrowing strip of sky overhead. A crocodile slides from a ledge into the current without a ripple.
Sumidero Canyon stretches 13 kilometres along the Grijalva River in Chiapas, its walls rising over 1,000 metres — twice the depth of the Grand Canyon in places. Speedboat tours from Chiapa de Corzo navigate the full length, passing American crocodiles sunning on every available ledge, spider monkeys in the cliff-face vegetation, and the Christmas Tree waterfall — a mossy cascade shaped like a fir tree that has become the canyon's most photographed feature. The canyon was the site of a legendary last stand by Chiapanec warriors against Spanish conquistadors, who chose to leap from the cliffs rather than surrender. Five viewpoints (miradores) along the canyon rim offer vertigo-inducing perspectives from above. The nearby colonial town of Chiapa de Corzo, founded in 1528, provides a base with riverside restaurants and the annual Fiesta Grande de Enero celebration.
Family
The speedboat ride turns geology into theatre — children count crocodiles, spot spider monkeys, and crane their necks at walls that make every skyscraper look small.
Couple
The scale silences conversation. Drifting through a canyon deeper than the Grand Canyon, crocodiles at eye level and the sky reduced to a strip overhead, creates a shared sense of awe.
Friends
The speedboat ride delivers adrenaline, the rim viewpoints deliver vertigo, and the riverside restaurants of Chiapa de Corzo deliver cold beers and cochito horneado afterwards.
- Canyon walls rise over 1,000 metres from the Grijalva River — twice the depth of the Grand Canyon in places.
- American crocodiles sun themselves on every ledge, undisturbed by the passing boats.
- The Christmas Tree waterfall — a mossy cascade shaped like a fir tree — is the canyon's most photographed feature.
Cochito horneado — Chiapan roast pork with thyme and pasilla chillies — from Chiapa de Corzo's riverside restaurants.
Pozol — a cold, fermented cacao-maize drink unique to Chiapas — served in gourds at the dock.
Ouzoud Falls
Morocco
A hundred-metre cascade smashing into olive-grove pools where Barbary macaques swing through the mist.
Symonds Yat
England
Peregrine falcons hunt above a river bend so tight it almost forms an island.
Göynük Canyon
Turkey
Wade chest-deep through turquoise water between vertical canyon walls into a hidden waterfall chamber.
Saklıkent Gorge
Turkey
Ice-cold river water rushes through a 300-metre-deep slot canyon narrow enough to touch both walls.
La Huasteca Potosina
Mexico
Turquoise waterfalls cascading through jungle into natural swimming pools stacked like an Escher staircase.
Cenotes of Cuzamá
Mexico
Horse-drawn rail carts rattling through bush to underground pools lit by single light shafts.
Espíritu Santo Island
Mexico
A volcanic island of red cliffs and turquoise coves where sea lions swim alongside you.
Marietas Islands
Mexico
A hidden beach inside a bombed-out volcanic crater, accessible only by swimming through a tunnel.