Cueva El Chorreadero

Useful Information

photography — Resurgence and Waterfall. Cueva del Chorreadero, Mexico. Public Domain.

Location:	East of Chiapas.
Open:	Balneario de el Chorreadero: All year daily 8-18. Cave Trekking: NOV to MAY daily with reservation. [2025]
Fee:	Balneario de el Chorreadero: Adults MXN 20. [2025]
Classification:	Karst Cave Karst Spring
Light:	bring torch
Dimension:	L=2,692 m, VR=334 m.
Guided tours:	self guided
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Cueva El Chorreadero, Centro Turístico Cascada El Chorreadero.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

Description

El Chorreadero is popular weekend destination for the locals from San Cristobal de las Casas. It is often crowded on weekends, as the place offers a cool river for bathing and a waterfall called Cascada El Chorreadero. And finally there is a river cave named Cueva El Chorreadero or Cueva del Chorreadero. The cave is used by various operators, mostly from Chiapas, for full-day cave trekking tours. The cave is a river cave and subject to flooding, so tours are only offered during the dry season. The tour lasts several hours and requires climbing and swimming, despite what you might read on the website of the operator you need a good physical fitness. Wetsuits, helmets and headlamps are provided. The American Canyoneering Association (ACA) rating is 3C III. This translates "technical canyon requiring ropes and rappelling and/or ascending, has water with current and waterfalls, expect to do some deep wading and/or swimming in flowing water". And the last number is the required time, around 6 hours.

There are actually two different trips. Most operators do the short one, which starts at the resurgence, the lower entrance. They follow the cave to the Sala de los Halcones and return through another passage, so its actually a round trip. It requires climbing, rappelling, and swimming. The full tour starts at the upper entrance, where the river sinks and crosses the whole cave to the lower entrance. This long tour is much more difficult, requires a 9 m abseil at the entrance and is three times as long. It is 2.7 km long and descends 334 m.

We do not list canyoning or caving tours, or any kind of extreme sports, our area is actually tourism, which includes sometimes easy cave trikking. This is definitely not for the regular tourist, it requires physical fitness and climbing skills. But there is a reason why we listed this site. It is a nice bathing spot and offers a great view of a cave entrance with resurgence and a 20 m high waterfall right below.