Sumidero Canyon

Declared in 1980, it protects a canyon cut by the Grijalva over millions of years, with walls that in places rise more than 1,000 vertical metres. The canyon also carries a deep historical weight: by tradition, in 1528 hundreds of Chiapanec people threw themselves from its crags rather than surrender to the Spanish conquistadors, an episode that Chiapanec regional identity commemorates to this day. The boat trip along it offers sightings of river crocodiles and a rock wall known as the Christmas tree, for the moss and mineral formations that cover it.