Sail Through the Cañón Río La Venta

The Cañón Río La Venta is a canyon that snakes through the El Ocote Biosphere Reserve for 50 miles, between enormous rock walls that reach up to 1,300-foot-tall, while others fold inwards, forming narrow passages only 30 foot wide.  

It’s astonishing to think that between these vertical cliffs, covered for stretches by thick-rooted vegetation that can grow anywhere, there might be caves that have concealed the graves and funerary offerings of the ancient Zoque people for centuries. 

Because El Ocote is located within a neotropical transition zone, it possesses enormous biological riches. Within its territory are tall evergreen rainforests, where reeds, lianas and epiphytic plants grow side by side with sapodilla, cedar, mahogany, ceiba and guapaque trees. There are also medium-high rainforests, and areas of low deciduous rainforest with species that form landscapes of brownish-grey colors when they lose their leaves. There is also a great deal of savannahs, thorn forests, as well as pine and holm oak forests.