Tenosique

Tenosique is a little riverfront town that lends its name to the furthest reaches and some of the most unspoiled country in Tabasco. The town is likely most famous for the Carnival which starts every year in Late January and extends until Ash Wednesday. It's said to be one of the oddest in Mexico, although those in Veracruz and Mazatlan are far and away better known. Carnaval here originates in the ancient world, long before Europeans, and it still includes haunting, prolific masks of natural materials and every possible description. Celebrations go on for weeks and they're especially celebrated for spectacular and otherworldly dances.

More people than ever attend since the opening of the Tren Maya station in town. The rest of the year, the sleepy town is one married to the river. And life seems to pass by ever so slowly. People get off the train, especially to explore the fantastic Usumacinta canyon. It extends from here, upriver, southward toward the Chiapas border. It's an unrivaled natural spectacle of green valleys confronting cliff faces warmed in the sun, and from the same boats that have plied these waters since the Maya Empire. You'll hear the familiar whistle through the jungle trees.  

People come for Carnival, and to set off for the canyon, or off to the fantastic ruins at Pomoná ruins. The ancient site is less than an hour to the west, across the bridge at Boca del Cerro. Closer to home, visitors will take to the malecón river front, and the town square. The public market is there, too, and local people are always cooking something fantastic and local. The town has more hotels and lodging options than ever before, but it's just the center of a natural and seriously adventurous landscape that radiates from here in ever more resplendent greenery and landscape.  

The trip from Palenque on the Tren Maya takes a bit less than an hour. Traveling south from Escarcega, in Campeche, the trip will take a little longer, but there are also multiple bus lines making the trip too. However you get here, the landscape is world renowned for the lushness of the jungle landscape, and the fantastic sights and people you'll meet along the way.