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Cascada de las Golondrinas

A lovely water feature tucked 10km off the highway, where two rivers cascade dramatically from a high point of 35m and you can swim in clear blue water during the dry season. A wooden boardwalk crosses the outflow, and at dusk hundreds of swallows duck in to bed down in a cave beneath the falls, streaming out at dawn.

You can camp here in lovely shady spots with basic facilities. From Palenque take a combi to the turnoff for Nueva Palestina (M$80, two hours), where taxis charge M$150 one way to the falls. Arrange a return pickup. Drivers should go 9km toward Nueva Palestina to the signed turnoff; the falls are another 1km in. A fun alternative to get here is to walk from Lacanjá via the pretty jungle walkway called Sendero Ya Toch Kusam just outside the Sok Nak cabañas.

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