Cascadas Roberto Barrios — Attraction in Chiapas

Here is a thorough guide for visiting Roberto Barrios, Waterfalls! But first things first -- DO NOT LITTER OR LEAVE ANY TRASH AT THE SITE, PLEASE! This place is very beautiful and it is absolutely wrong to ruin it with plastic trash. Don't leave anything behind.

How to get there?

You can get to the waterfalls by car, taxi or collectivos. There are collectivos running between Palenque and Roberto Barrios several times a day. There is usually a text "Palenque - Roberto Barrios" in a minivan that goes there. We got here by using a rental car. The roads were ok and you could basically get there with any car. Once you come closer to the village there is a place where u need to pay 10mxn per person in order to enter the community/village. After that you drive about 5 more minutes and reach the village. At the center of the village there is a big square where you can casually park your car. Should be totally safe as the whole village is super calm, frienly and safe. There are usually tourist buses in the square so it is hard to miss.

Where to buy a ticket?

They sell entrance tickets to the waterfalls at that main square for 30mxn per person. First this felt slightly suspicious, but there is a small counter where they write a ticket for you. 30mxn is more than fair price since they have built paths, bridges and other things in order to help you walk around the waterfalls. They also offer life vests (for a few pesos?) If you need one.

How to get to waterfalls?

Just walk straight past the church (so that the church is on your left side). The road goes straight to the waterfalls. You can also ask help from the locals. They are willing to help you (in spanish of course).

How are the waterfalls?

Amazing! There are plenty of them. All of them are marked with signs. You should definitely go further from the first waterfall. I recommend waterfall number 5. There are lovely natural jacuzzis and even a natural waterslide! The waterslide was absolutely my favourite and totally safe. Just go to waterfall number 5 and experience it yourself. Water is not cold nor warm. I would call it refreshing. The temperature was perfect!

Can you swim there?

Yes. Some spots are more difficult to reach as there is slippery mud and steep steps to take. The further you want to go the more difficult the paths get. You don't need to be fit to experience the waterfalls, but reserve at least 1-2 hours to fully enjoy the place and move around safely without slipping or sliding. There are some locals making sure someone helps you if you are going to drown or if youre struggling to get up a hill or something.

How is the place overall?

The whole place is very peaceful, nobody is trying to sell you things and disturb your peaceful moment in the nature. There is sadly some trash at the site (because locals & stupid tourists throw some of their trash in the bushes and it ends up in the waterfalls with time). I really wish someone would clean it up or help the locals to deal with garbage more...

We went to cascada Roberto Barrios through the main entrance in the village - as we lacked 20 pesos to pay entry, 3 men at the caseta didn't let us enter and were totally unhelpful and non-understanding in our situation. Instead they said something like "better use your money to go back to Palenque" without even looking at me and already were calling collectivo to carry us away. So we decided just to walk along the river after meeting such bad mannered "owners of the waterfall". We discovered very nice waterfalls just on the side of highway with free access and zero people. Later we entered the falls from the other side (Valle de Bascan) where the caseta man accepted the amount we had without any problem. And they share the same waterfall. So I would recommend to enter from that side, at least they are polite to their visitors. The waterfall itself is very nice, combines a lot of cascades and walk in the selva. We also saw monkeys there. There is camping zone 50...

Entrance in national park is 20 pesos per person, entrance in cascades is 30 pesos per person. For this money you'll see a lot of plastic along and in the river, no trash bins at all. We arrived at 4pm and found half of the villagers doing their laundry in the pools. Another half was washing themselves with use of shampoo and body soap. We occupied one the most remote from busy locals and the upper on a stream place with steps into the water from stones. In 5 min a young local lady came to the place where we left our bags and clothes and started to make her laundry on that stones which we thought were steps. We left immediately - no wish to swim in public laundry/bathroom. Cascades are so-so. Water has nice blue color. The place is not worth a visit. We were very disappointed. This place is not deserved to be promoted as a...