Las Guacamayas Chiapas: Eco Lodge in the Mexican Jungle

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If you want to experience the real jungle in Mexico, Las Guacamayas in Chiapas is the best place! We saw more wildlife here in two days than in the rest of our 6 months in Mexico. 

Located in the heart of the Selva Lacandona, the Centro Ecoturistico Las Guacamayas is a community-run eco-lodge. Las Guacamayas means scarlet macaw in Mayan and the lodge also operates a successful macaw conservation project.

It’s a truly remote, eco-tourism experience where you’re surrounded by nothing but the sounds of the jungle, sleeping in basic huts built from natural materials in a very isolated community. 

Such remoteness isn’t without challenges, and getting here is quite a journey. In our opinion, it was totally worth it, and I’ll share everything you need to know to plan your own visit to Las Guacamayas Chiapas. 

About the Selva Lacandona

The Selva Lacandona (Lacandon Jungle) is the biggest jungle in Mexico. It stretches almost 2 million hectares across Chiapas, the southern section of the Yucatan Peninsula and across the border into Guatemala. 

The most special and biodiverse section of the Lacandon Jungle is the Reserva de la Biósfera Montes Azules or Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve, a UNESCO-recognised area of more than 300,000 hectares. 

The reserve is home to 27% of Mexico’s mammal species, 25% of all bird species and over 500 species of trees. It’s a haven for biodiversity and is the real-deal jungle in Mexico. 

Las Guacamayas sits on the shores of the Lacantún River and the boundaries of the reserve officially start on the opposite bank of the river. 

About Las Guacamayas Chiapas

The lodge is formally called the Centro Ecoturistico Las Guacamayas AraMacao. 

The name ‘Guacamayas’ is the Mayan name for the scarlet macaw and Ara Macao is the scientific name for the birds. The lodge was originally started by the local community as a conservation project for the birds. 

A group of 40 families of the Chinanteco ethnic group migrated from Oaxaca to the area in 1976 and formed the ejido (community co-operative) Reforma Agraria. They originally started farming in the area and found success growing chilli. 

They later got involved with a conservation project for the macaws, in partnership with the Instituto Nacional Indigenista or National Indigenous Institute. The first artificial macaw nests were placed around the area in 1991. 

In 1996 they started the lodge to support and enhance their conversation work. They continue to do amazing work protecting and expanding the population of macaws, and you can visit the sanctuary at the lodge.

Las Guacamayas is a fantastic example of both eco-tourism and community-tourism. The entire project is community-led and managed and has enhanced the economic and social well-being of the ejido, as well as had major positive contributions to the macaw populations in the area. 

🦜 Book your stay at Las Guacamayas

Getting to Las Guacamayas Chiapas

When I say Las Guacamayas is in the middle of the jungle, I mean it! It is far away from everywhere and takes at least 5+ hours to get there from San Cristobal or Palenque. 

Having a car is the easiest way to get here, but it’s possible to access the lodge via public transport, which we did. 

We visited as part of our 2 week Chiapas itinerary, where we travelled from San Cristobal to Palenque via the southern part of the state, with multiple stops at lesser-known, remote locations. We would highly recommend following our itinerary, as it breaks up the journey to Las Guacamayas. 

San Cristobal → Cascadas El Chiflon → Lagos de Montebello → Las Nubes → Las Guacamayas → Yaxchilan and Bonampak → Palenque

Getting there from San Cristobal de las Casas direction

• 🚙 By car: if you’re driving, it will take 6.5 hours from San Cristobal. If you’ve followed our itinerary and broken up the journey with a stop at Cascadas El Chiflon and then Lagos de Montebello, the drive will only be about 3.5 hours on the same route.
  
  The route is mostly on the paved Highway 307 which is in decent condition, but the final stretch once you turn off the highway is on bumpy and poorly maintained roads. 

• 🚐 By public transport: again, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend coming directly from San Cristobal de las Casas but the route is similar whether you start there or at one of our other suggested stops along the way.
  
  If you are coming all the way from San Cristobal, you first need to get yourself to Comitan, which is possible via ADO bus (book online via BusBud). It takes around 2 hours.
  
  In Comitan, you need to switch to a colectivo heading to Marqués de Comillas or Zamora Pico de Oro. Ask around when you arrive in Comitan and you will be directed to the right place.
  
  The colectivo will pass by the entrance road to Las Guacamayas, just confirm with the driver in advance and remind him to stop. You’ll need to walk around 1 km (0.6 mi) from where you get dropped off to the lodge. It should take 4.5 – 5 hours from Comitan.
  
  We picked up this same colectivo from the side of the highway after our stay in Lagos de Montebello. It took 3.5 hours. 

Getting there from Palenque direction

• 🚙 By car: if you’re driving from Palenque, it should take around 5 hours. Highway 307 is in decent condition most of the way, but you will have at least 30 km + (18 mi) on unpaved or poorly paved roads to reach the lodge. It will be a quicker trip if you decide to stop at Bonampak and/or Yaxchilan on the way from Palenque. 

• 🚐 By public transport: whether you’re coming from Palenque or you’ve decided to stop at Bonampak and/or Yaxchilan for a night or two along the way, you need to get a colectivo along Highway 307 to the town of Benemerito Las Americas.
  
  From here, the best way to get to the lodge is to take a taxi. It will take about an hour and you should expect to pay upwards of 500 MXN (~ $25 USD). I know it seems expensive but timing a colectivo in this direction is very tricky and the taxi leg makes an already long travel day more bearable.
  
  We did this in the reverse when we left the lodge and we’re glad we took the taxi. The rest of the route to Palenque was very easy and the drive from Benemerito Las Americas to Palenque (or vice versa) should take 3.5 hours. 

Accommodation at Las Guacamayas

Las Guacamayas has a range of accommodations available, from dorm beds with shared bathrooms, private rooms with shared bathrooms and a variety of cabins with private bathrooms, some double, triple or quad share. 

All the cabins are made from natural materials with palm-thatched rooves and an open-air design, screened for bugs. 

This does mean you’ll hear a lot of jungle noises throughout the night. We loved it, but it can get super noisy with the howler monkeys, insects and the sound of the river. Something to keep in mind if you’re a light sleeper. 

Considering their location, the cabins are nice and are very clean and well-kept. We stayed in a private cabin with a shared bathroom, and the bathrooms were always exceptionally clean. 

I don’t believe any of the cabins have air conditioning, but they all have multiple fans which combined with the screened windows wasn’t too hot. There is electricity for lights and charging phones. From memory, there is hot water in the bathrooms, but honestly, we didn’t use a drop of it, it was so hot we wanted cold showers! 

The private cabins are obviously nicer and they increase in comfort level as you go up in price. The cabins with private balconies with hammocks and chairs looked lovely and if we had the budget, we would have loved to stay in one of those.

🦜 Book your stay at Las Guacamayas

Activities at Las Guacamayas

Once you get to the lodge, you’ll spend all your time there as there is not much else around. 

You can book some of the tours offered by Las Guacamayas or simply enjoy relaxing in the jungle and looking for wildlife. 

Independent activities:

• 👀 Wander around the grounds and look for wildlife 
• 🦜 Check out the macaw aviary (you can’t go inside independently but you can look at any birds they have in there at the time)
• 🦌 Check out the deer conservation project in the paddock 
• 🛖 Relax in a hammock or in the palapas
• 👙 Go for a swim in the river (they assured us this was okay and we happily swam and so were many local kids, but we did see lots of crocodiles on our river cruise the following day…)

Las Guacamayas organised activities: 

• 🥾 Hike in the biosphere with a guide
• 🥾 Hike in the ejido reserve with a guide (cheaper)
• 🚤 Take a boat cruise along the river inside the reserve
• 🔦 Do a night walk
• 🦜 Formal tour of the macaw sanctuary and nesting areas
• 🚣🏽 Kayak tour 

The prices are per activity, so if you are just one or two people, it can be quite expensive. For example, the lancha (boat) tour was 2,100 MXN (~ $100 USD) but the boat could hold 8 people. 

I’d suggest scouting out other guests at the lodge, and seeing if anyone else wants to coordinate on tours. The staff can also help to connect people wanting to do the same activities. 

We were lucky enough to share the boat cruise with a lovely Mexican couple. It brought the price down to make it pretty affordable. We opted for a boat tour instead of a hike because it was so hot at the time of our visit (40°C / 104°F and 100% humidity) that we couldn’t bear the thought of walking in the jungle. 

We cruised along the Lacantún River and down small tributaries deep into the biosphere reserve. Our captain pointed out so many animals along the way, including crocodiles, hundreds of butterflies, toucans, bats, monkeys and even a tapir having a drink on the riverbank! 

He expertly zipped us up and over a small set of waterfalls (yes we drove UP a little waterfall in a boat, it was so fun!). We got to a calm, lagoon area of the river which he assured us WAS okay to swim (I guess crocodiles don’t scale waterfalls?). 

With hindsight, I wish we had organised a few more activities, but the lodge was pretty quiet when we visited (May, low season) so there weren’t a lot of people to share the cost with. The hike in the biosphere would have been incredible and had it not been so hot, we definitely would have done this too. 

We also decided not to do the macaw tour. It was a shame as I wish we had learnt more about their conservation project. The tour goes further than just the aviary on-site at the lodge, and you’ll be taken to see the artificial nests they’ve installed around the area and learn more about the species and what they need to do to preserve and increase their populations. 

Cost was a factor, but also language. I think if you’re lucky there may be someone at the lodge who can speak English and come along to translate, but it depends on when you visit and who is there at the time. The tour would have been entirely in Spanish, and whilst we could have pieced together some of it, we weren’t sure how much we would have gotten out of it. 

They had some great resources to read around the lodge about their story and the work they do, so I was able to read up and get some understanding of the macaw project. 

Wildlife we saw at Las Guacamayas

If you’re anything like me, your primary motivation for visiting Las Guacamayas is to see wildlife. Well, it delivered! 

We honestly saw more wildlife in the few days we were here than the rest of our 6-month trip in Mexico. That alone made it worth the trip for us. 

This was my wildlife spotting list, and I’ve included where we saw them so you can keep an eye out, but really there’s a chance to see any of these animals anywhere around the lodge or in the reserve! 

• 🐒 Spider monkeys: we saw a ton of spider monkeys, mostly around dusk, in the small patch of forest just next to the restaurant. They’re super playful and acrobatic and we saw lots of babies too! 

• 🙉 Howler monkeys: if there are howler monkeys around, you will not miss them! If you’ve never heard the call of a howler monkey, you’re in for a surprise. It sounds like a noise straight from the depths of hell but is such a typical sound of the jungle. I’ve popped a video below so you understand what I mean! We had a whole troop of howler monkeys swing past the restaurant while we were having breakfast on our final morning. 

• 🐿️ Squirrels: there are lots of squirrels zipping up and down and jumping between the trees around the lodge. We saw a couple near the macaw aviary, but if you keep an eye on any tree, I’m sure you’ll spot one!

• 🦛 Tapir: very rare and very shy, we were SO lucky to briefly see a tapir on our river cruise in the reserve. He was having a drink down on the riverbank but quickly ran away when he saw the boat. They’re quite elusive so this is an unlikely but possible sighting. I didn’t get a photo of him, but this is an image from Corcovado in Costa Rica to show you what you’re looking for!

• 🦌 White-tailed deer: the lodge has a deer conservation project, and there are a dozen or so deer in a large paddock at the back of the lodge. They’re very sweet and we loved wandering down each day to see them. 

• 🦎 Iguanas: there are iguanas lazing all over the lodge in the sun. Sometimes they’re up trees, but we often saw them hanging on the ground, mostly on the wooden platform on the riverfront. 

• 🐊 Crocodiles: we saw quite a few crocodiles when we did our river cruise. Not quite as big or aggressive as the saltwater crocodiles we have in Australia, but still… 

• 🦜 Guacamayas (scarlet macaws): the namesake and icon of the lodge, we saw lots of scarlet macaws. Both in the aviaries as part of the project, but also flying free around the lodge. They’re super loud and squawky, so if they’re around, you should find them. 

• 🦤 Toucans: we got very lucky to see a keel-billed toucan high up in the tree on our river cruise. Their call is quite distinctive (listen to it here) so always keep an ear out. Your guide will be attuned to the call and if you’re hiking or on the river, they’ll be looking out. 

• 🐦‍⬛ Hummingbirds: there were lots of little hummingbirds zooming around the plants and flowers near the restaurant. They’re my favourite birds! 

• 🦉 Lots of other birds: I wish I knew enough about birds to list all the species we saw, but if you’re a twitcher, you’ll be in heaven! The birdsong around the lodge was beautiful. 

• 🦋 Millions of butterflies: we saw thousands, what felt like millions, of butterflies when we did our river cruise. They were hanging on the edge of the riverbank and it was magic to see them all take off. I later read that there are more than 800 species of butterflies in the biosphere which accounts for 44% of Mexico’s butterfly population! 

• 🔥 Fireflies: we saw fireflies lighting up the sky at nighttime which was so special. 

• 🦟 Mosquitos: yep, thousands of them! How bad they are will depend on the time of year you visit and if there has been any rain recently.  

• 🪲 Creepy other insects: there were insects of all shapes and sizes around the lodge. Including spiders, and yes, they land on you, especially at night. I’m not a big fan of creepy crawlies, but it’s a jungle reality! 

Eating at Las Guacamayas

The restaurant on-site is basically your only choice of food. The rooms have no fridges or kitchen facilities, so you are kind of trapped into eating three meals a day at the restaurant. 

We found the prices and quality to be very good considering the location. Everything we ate was nice, not mind-blowing, and we didn’t think it was overly expensive. The rooms and tours were pretty pricey, but the restaurant was very reasonable. 

We spent about 150 – 200 MXN (~ $7 – $10 USD) per person for lunch and dinner, breakfast was slightly cheaper. 

The only qualm I have is that drinking water was not included or available so we had to buy plastic bottles which was a waste of money and a physical waste of single-use plastic. Hopefully, they’ve changed this by now. 

How long to stay

We spent two nights at the lodge. We arrived at lunchtime on the first day and didn’t leave until mid-morning on our third day, so we essentially got two full days there. 

This felt like a good amount of time and I definitely would not have wanted any less after the long journey to get there and away. 

If we had the budget to book another tour I definitely would have stayed a third night. However the heat was starting to take its toll us on by this point and we didn’t sleep very well (remember we poorly planned our visit for May, so you may not have this issue!). 

I think 2 – 3 nights is the ideal amount of time here. 

Things to remember for your stay in the jungle

For many people, the idea of spending a few nights in the depths of the jungle surrounded by wildlife is a dream, but the reality is, that being in an area this remote comes with some challenges. 

We love it and we’ve spent quite a bit of time travelling in these types of environments, and there are some things you just have to get used to and prepare yourself for! Set your expectations and don’t be one of those people who complains without any consideration of the location they are in. 

• 🚧 Bad road conditions: if you’re driving, you will encounter some sections of very poorly maintained road no matter which direction you’re coming from. Either unpaved or paved but with so many potholes it may as well be unpaved. It’s only a small section of the journey, but don’t expect perfectly paved roads. 

• 📍 It is remote: Las Guacamayas really is in the middle of the jungle, and there is virtually nothing around the lodge beside the biosphere reserve across the river, and the small ejido. We saw a few local houses as we walked to the lodge, but there was really nothing here. 

• 💸 It’s expensive: the prices for accommodation and tours are very high, but given they are the only option, they can set the prices. For us, it was still worth it, and you’re paying for an experience you can’t replicate anywhere else. Plus I admire the work of the community. I think they’re running a great business and I’m sure a lot of the money gets channelled back into their conservation projects, which I’m okay with! 

• 🗣️ Spanish only: you should be prepared for very little English to be spoken at the lodge. It’s run by the local community and isn’t on the typical international tourist trail. We had no problems with this and easily got by, however, it is something to consider for tours. We understand decent Spanish but we did miss a lot of context and information on our boat cruise. 

• 🥵 Hot, humid, no AC: this is the jungle and it is hot and humid year-round! Admittedly, we visited in May which is the hottest time of the year, and it wouldn’t be anywhere near as bad from December – March, but it’s still a very tropical jungle environment and you’ll be sweaty and sticky year-round. 

• 🕷️ Bugs and creepy crawlies: I repeat, this is the jungle, there are creepy crawlies everywhere! The cabins are all screened, but that doesn’t mean things won’t fly in when you open the door or squeeze their way through the cracks. If you’re a princess about bugs, prepare yourself. 

• 📚 Very little to do outside the organised activities: if you’re someone who needs to be constantly entertained, you might be bored here. Besides booking the tours, there isn’t much to do. We were so happy just wandering around, looking for wildlife and reading books but bring something to keep yourself occupied. 

• 📱 No phone service or wifi: the lodge has virtually no phone service, and there is only wifi in the reception area. This doesn’t reach down to the cabins or the restaurant, and most of the time, it was so slow it wouldn’t load anything. Be prepared to be off-grid (download Google Maps in advance).

• 😒 Staff are not always super friendly: you will see this a lot in the reviews. We didn’t have a particularly bad experience, but we did agree the reception staff weren’t the nicest and it didn’t feel super organised. This is a community-run project, so you need to be patient and kind and understand that if you don’t speak Spanish, you can’t expect them to speak English either. We loved the staff in the restaurant and our boat captain was very nice. 

• 💰 Bring cash: the lodge did accept credit card, but from memory, the fee was 2.3%. The internet is also spotty and can go out, so it’s best to have a stack of cash. There is obviously no ATM here!

Is Las Guacamayas Chiapas worth it?

Is Las Guacamayas Chiapas worth it? For us, the answer is definitely YES! 

Yes, the lodge is quite expensive, it’s remote and hard to reach, but I can’t think of anywhere else in Mexico where you could replicate the experience. 

The fact that it is so remote and hard to reach is what makes it so special. It’s far away from the hustle and bustle, with only the most adventurous travellers making the effort to reach it. 

The wildlife alone made the visit worth it for us, and I couldn’t believe how many animals we saw in such a short space of time. Not only when we paid for tours to venture inside the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve, but just hanging around the lodge while we were eating breakfast! 

I hope this post has helped plan your visit to the Centro Ecoturistico Las Guacamayas. Follow our Chiapas itinerary to plan your broader route through Mexico’s most raw and wild state and combine Las Guacamayas with so many other amazing natural sights.