Lagos de Montebello

The Montebello Lakes lie in pine and oak forest about an hour east of Comitán, right against the border with Guatemala. The national park, created in 1959 as the first in Chiapas, holds dozens of lakes, often counted at 59, and each has its own color depending on its depth, minerals and the light: milky turquoise, emerald, deep blue, and nearly black. In 2009 UNESCO added it to its network of biosphere reserves.

About 15 of the lakes are easy to reach by road or short paths. The best known are the Lagunas de Colores, a group of five small lakes with names like Encantada, Esmeralda and Agua Tinta; Pojoj, with an island you can reach on a wooden raft; Montebello itself; and Tziscao, the largest, with a village on its shore and Guatemala on the far side. Local guides row visitors around on rafts and kayaks, and there are horse rides to small caves in the forest.

The lakes face real pressures: farm runoff and wastewater have clouded some of them, and the communities that run tourism in the park have long-running disputes over land and access, which turned violent in April 2026. Visits usually go without trouble, but ask in Comitán about the current situation before you go, travel by day, and pay the community fees at each lake.