It's been quite a
while since my last update. A great many new adventures have been experienced,
new friends made and many more markets visited to have fantastic local foods...
In my last report, we had made it to San Cristobal,
and were ready to leave to go to Tuxtla Gutierrez,
the capital of Chiapas.
It was a cool morning with fog as we climbed out of San
Cristobal. San Cristobal
is known for its temperate climate, it's the reason the Spaniards moved their
seat in the region here from Chiapa de Corzo (which we were on our way to
visit), but this was a bit unexpected. It was actually cool enough to stop and
add a layer of clothing (heated, preferably...). As I have come to expect in
the central Mexican regions, the road was simply great, with reasonable amount
of topes (this was a surprise) all
the way to Chiapa de Corzo. At Chiapa de Corzo you enter the river valleys and
the scenery flattens out. We didn't stop at Chiapa de Corzo initially,
continuing to Tuxtla first, so we could find a hotel for the night.
Tuxtla Gutierrez is a much more
modern city than San Cristobal, and
much less interesting because of that. Actually, the only reason to stop there
was so that Lizbeth could get a bus ticket to Oaxaca,
but I am getting ahead of myself.
This was the only time in many years of travel that the Lonely Planet let us
down. The hotel we picked was indeed nice, but as we were checking in, it
turned out there is no hot water available at Hotel Posada
Chiapas. Never has had. Oversight on the
part of the LP writers or misunderstanding on my part assuming that even budget
hotels have hot water unless otherwise indicated? In any case, it was a deal
breaker for my co-pilot, so we wandered off to look for a place that did have
hot water. The San Marcos wasn't
too far away and did have all the amenities, but it took us a bit to find it,
since it wasn't our next pick. Should have gone by geographical proximity and
saved an hour we needed to go see el
Caņon del Sumidero.
We got back to Chipa de Corzo around 2 PM,
using a local bus since I didn't want to leave the loaded bike at the boat ramp
for a couple of hours. The bus was very basic, and had a feature I had not seen
before. The driver had an assistant whose job was to find passengers. As they'd
pull over where people were standing waiting for a ride, he'd shout the route
to the people and try to talk them into using their service. He also handled
selling tickets and hitting on all the young girls that boarded the bus. Wait,
the last part may have been extra curricular, but appropriate for his teenager
status...
The Caņon del Sumidero turned out to
be as impressive as I had read, but there were few photo opportunities. Due to
the late hour the sun was getting too low, and it created very sharp
light/shadow contrasts which were too difficult for my camera to handle. I did
get a few good ones of some crocodiles that warming up in the sun.
So why didn't we simply stay in Chiapa de Corzo that night? The road from
Tuxtla to Oaxaca passes through the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and in a 15 km
stretch that ends in a town called La Ventosa (the windy one) there are very
strong northern winds blowing from the Gulf to the Pacific (the isthmus
coincides with a valley that runs in the same direction in this area, making
the effect more pronounced). Some high vehicles have been blown off the road
due to these winds. Lizbeth checked the weather, and the previous day winds up
to 80 KM/H had been reported, so she wanted nothing to do with riding this road
on a motorcycle. The assumption was that she'd take a bus (tall vehicle, but
try to explain this to her... ;-) from Tuxtla to Oaxaca,
and if I survived the odyssey, we'd meet there the next day. Well, it turns out
that due to the proximity to the x-mas holiday, there were no available seats on
any type of service to Oaxaca
until after Dec. 25th. I guess we'd have to ride there two-up.
Lizbeth was pretty nervous about this change in plans, but she conquered her
fears and we made the trip without any incidents. I have to admit that it was
one of the windiest sections I have ever driven/ridden. The winds may have not
been quite up to the 80 KM/H velocities recorded earlier, but it was rather
gusty and it moved the bike around quite a bit, even after slowing down
significantly. Before La Ventosa, we rode up and down a mountain that offered
both great scenery and roads for motorcycling, and as usual, it was amazing how
quickly the landscape changes in this part of the country. After Tehuantepec
the road starts climbing to Oaxaca's
central valleys. Again we were treated to fantastic views on the mountains and
valleys. And of course, as I have come to expect from any decent Mexican road,
it is absolutely made for motorcycling. You have to love these low budget roads
that have to follow the terrain closely rather than blast the mountain and
create straighter sections.
In Oaxaca we met our friends
Adalberto and Margarita, who had invited us to stay at their home in Oaxaca.
Good thing too, because hotels were hard to find during this holiday season.
Adalberto is another of my Motoaventuras buddies, friends I had made on-line
talking about bikes and turned out to be just a very good friend. Lizbeth and
Margarita were chatting the first evening in a cafe in the zocalo and they commented that it seems as if we had known each
other for years, not hours.
Oaxaca is one of those places in Mexico
that could keep you busy for a long week as a tourist, without ever getting
bored or running out of things to do. Luckily, the bike has very limited
carrying capacity, so one activity - shopping - was out of the question. Very
lucky too, because I could see Lizbeth filling up a truck with different
Oaxacan crafts...
What we did do is eat. That kind of shopping you carry with you (hopefully
without any problems...) regardless of how much space you have in your
saddlebags. Oaxaca has several
typical foods - chocolate, different moles, chapulines
(grasshoppers), qusillo (type of
cheese), etc., etc.. We started the day with breakfast in the market. Oaxacan
breakfast can't be had without a (very) large bowl of hot chocolate and sweet
breads, and the market is the place to have both. We also went back to the
market for lunch, taking the opportunity to try different moles, tamales, etc. I
need to go on a diet now.
We took an obligatory trip to Monte Alban.
Monte Alban was a Zapotec capital
about 2000 years ago. It sits on a tall mountain overlooking the valley, very
strategically located. We typically use a guidebook rather than hire a guide to
walk around the sites, but this older gentleman, Don Agustin, was very
convincing when he approached us, plus I thought, what the heck, we'll give the
old man some work. Well, turns out Don Agustin is not as crazy as some of the
younger guides seem to imply (only half jokingly, it seems). He is very well
read on the history of Monte Alban,
the Zapotecs and many other cultures, and he managed to make connections that
he says are his "theories" based on what he has read, talked with
experts he met visiting Monte Alban,
etc.. One thing I am sure off, I saw Monte Alban
differently because of his talk during the tour, things that are not even
mentioned in the guidebooks, but seem to make a lot of sense when he talked
about it showing us the different buildings.
The next day we went with Adalberto and Margarita to see a spring called Hierve el Agua (the water boils). Its
location almost at the top of a mountain makes it a fantastic scenic place to
visit. The fact that it has a very nice road going up to it makes it a great
motorcycle day tour. After the visit we headed back on the 3 mile long dirt
road to the highway. Less than a mile down the road, a sign that pointed to the
left said "Oaxaca." I
stopped, told Adalberto that I am fairly sure we came straight through on this
road. He asked an old guy at the intersection, who indeed pointed to the left
and said this is the short way to Oaxaca.
The (dirt) road started by climbing up the side of this steep mountain, and it
climbed, and climbed, and climbed... Then we got to the top, looking down,
there was nothing but a dirt road snaking its way down the other face of the
mountain. Yes, this may be shorter distance-wise, but it was 25 miles of dirt
switchbacks and hairpins. If you are riding a burro, it probably is shorter
than going around on the paved road...
Unfortunately, it was time to move on, we left Adalberto and his family, glad
we made these great new friends and a little sad we had to part ways so
quickly. I am sure we will see them again.
We made our way to Cuernavaca, a
town known as a resort town for the Mexico City
rich and famous, as the weather there is described as an eternal spring. Sure
enough, there were all sort of flowers in bloom late in December, most annoying
of all was this one called Morning Glory. It's a plant Lizbeth has been nursing
in our Oregon climate, and she
gets very excited when it blooms. It was growing wild, and blooming, by the
side of the road all over the Cuernavaca
area... From Cuernavaca we took a
day trip to visit Taxco, an old
silver mining town that is still very famous for its handmade silver jewelry.
It's built into an insanely steep hill, its narrow streets winding up and down
like a maze. Unlike many other colonial towns in Mexico,
they have managed to control the growth and it remains very much like you would
imagine it looked in colonial town. Well, that plus the never ending streams of
VW Bug taxis and combis driving way
too fast up and down the steep streets (did I mention the streets are narrow
and have no sidewalks?). If you day
dream while walking around Taxco,
you are likely to get run over by a taxi.
OK, it's long enough for today, I need a break (you guys need one too,
probably).
YMexAdvMV,
Gustavo
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