Road block | Warning

We left Agua Azul around 9:30am on our way to Palenque- No road blocks today; just a few kids with a rope "selling" fruits...we bought 4 oranges from these bandits

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No problems todays, Monday at one p.m.
Only gorls with a laying small rope ... we passed easily.

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No problem today, nothing one the road except some kid with a rope. I didn't stop.

I ask before at my hostel in San cristobal and they say at this time they are really quiet.
In summer it's block almost every day.

One other advice was to start at 8 or 9 o'clock on the morning from San cristobal. So you drive with the Mexican traffic and you avoid to be catch alone.

By the way...so many topes... argh.

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No road block today at 4pm. From Palenque to Agua Azul, we didn't see anyone.

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No issues or roadblocks the day we traveled from San Cristóbal to Palenque. Seems like going on a Sunday made for smooth travels. In the last 30 KMS a few kids holding up rope, but we just slowly drove through and they didn't bother us.

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nothing special on the 199. no road blocks.
I did see and heard from other travelers that sometimes they run lines with flags across the road to get you to stop to sell stuff or just get some money.
all these places I came across had their lines just lying across the road and the people looked pretty innocent (children/women).
so lucky for me, 0 issues.

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There was NO road blocks. Slow ride because the road is winding with lot of tops and holes... but beautiful views

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No issues today... drove from Ocosingo to Palenque without any trouble. What a beautiful part of the world!
A few topes and the road is rough in spots but not as bad as some overlanders would have you believe!

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Not at these GPS coordinates, but about 7 young guys wearing full masks (different personalities) were dancing in the street stopping traffic a bit South of Ocosingo. There was a mototaxi on the side playing music. We were the only ones there.

They didn’t get out of the way. They shouted festival or carnival, then one approached the drivers side. He said ‘saca dinero’ (get out your money). The others started approaching the front of the van to block it. I didn’t see any rocks or nail boards, so I just gunned it and they jumped out of the way. I’m not condoning doing the same because if someone was hurt, you’d have bigger problems.

Just North of Agua Azul, some kids had a rope across the road to try to sell things...just keep driving...

This was after Pemex station in San Christabal said it was safe.

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No road blocks at any point on the 199. Asked in Palenque about them before leaving and they said they are not happening anymore due to the change of power at the last election. To be continued...

Yes the road has lots of topes but it is one of the most beautiful views you’ll get in Chiapas! I greatly recommend this road and not going all around like buses do. Enjoy!

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We left San Cristobal at 5:30am. No road blocks, no kids with ropes, just topes and an amazing view. We arrived at Cascadas de Agua Azul at 10am, enjoyed until 3pm and then left to Palenque. We finally saw some kids with ropes but not a big deal. We think that driving early in the morning would be better to avoid this situations.

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We drove this road and no road blocks in any point over the 199. We checked with staff at Pemex and they said that road blocks are not happening at the moment. Lots of kids selling and pulling up ropes when we were passing so we would buy from them. Expect lots and lots of horrible topes on this road. Safe travels!

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No roadblocks. A few children selling fruit and veg but no need for anxiety

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No roadblock noted today.

Again, post has to be at least forty characters.....

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There was no road block more. So maybe it was just one day without but we didn't had problems on our way from San Christobal to Palenque.

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This still exists. We ended up paying about 40pesos after saying it was all the cash we had on us (my boyfriend’s fist language is Spanish which always helps in this situation)

But from our understanding they are not collecting for admittance to the waterfall, but as part of a protest against the government for services promised but not delivered. We were given a printed paper explaining this.

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*edit - after discussing this on a forum it has come into our awareness that the toll is being made by Zapatistas (Maya resistance) - and this is something that has been getting done since the 80s (apparently) - the road was built through indigenous land - we had no idea about this and would have paid the toll without hesitation - pays to research.

WARNING for 199 from San Cristobal to Palenque.

Today we had both extreme highs and extreme lows. Visiting the Agua Azul Cascadas in Chipala was amazing. However, driving from there to Palenque on 199 we encountered children running towards our car trying to sell things - extremely dangerous. They also had ropes and string that they would pull up very quickly to try and make you stop - INCREDIBLY DANGEROUS. Especially when one little boy had the rope wrapped around his hand. No, we are not going to stop or buy anything - especially when using this incredibly dangerous tactic.

This, however, was not the worst. In addition to this there was a place (we were warned on iOverlander) where cars were lined up and what seemed like an entire town had set up a road block with boards filled with nails which had ropes attached for them to pull in front of cars as well as large rocks. We watched car after car let through without fee and then as we approached we were being asked for 200 pesos. There were probably 40 people standing around - women, men, children.

Things go out of hand as my partner who was driving refused to pay, parking the car in the road - blocking anyone from going (bad move - I know). I got out asking them to let us through (as there was no reasoning with my partner) and men were whistling and laughing. I got back in the car and my partner got out to move the rocks on the road in front. (At this point they had put some behind our tires trying to force our hand) men grabbed him and one man hit him (not hard - but still) with a stick. I was livid and yelling. I had the 200 pesos and demanded to be let through. Men have too much ego! Another Mexican passenger who spoke English came to us and said - it's only 200 pesos (yes but no one else seems to be getting charged...). So I gave him the $$ in good faith that the towns people would let us through - no longer trusting. They did - but what a horrible taste was left in our mouths.

We found an officer a few kilometers away and told him - of course he knew all about it - but said 'the 100 peso' fee? Guess we were real suckers. He drove off towards the road block to investigate...

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locals blocked the road with nail boards demanding $100 per car coming into the waterfall. A huge line formed behind us and they still wouldn't let us cross. we turned around, then tried again later but said we only had $100 for two cars, they let us through.

On the way out they tried charging us again $200 per car. We showed them a paper they gave us they day before after paying and they let us through for free.

local at agua Azul told us they're there between 6am and 7pm

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