Date: 11/11/2012
City: Magdalena Tequisistlan, Mexico
Kilometres ridden: 265
Cumulative kilometre: 25413

Started a bit later, talked too much in the morning, first with a guest from Austria and then with a girl from Alaska riding the pushbike from Mexico to the south for the next six month, very impressive.

 

So we finally started at 10AM. The GPS was suggesting a long route along a two lane highway, it was longer then the route through the mountain but it would be faster. We decided to take the slower road through the mountain; we could see as well the ruins of Mitla. The GPS didn’t have any idea were the ruins are, so we followed the signs. We didn’t realize that they were still building the highway until we went onto a ramp and encountered a pile of sand half way. This was the second time that the highway all of the sudden ended in a pile of dirt. In both cases I was too surprised to take a picture, next time. Great, so we had to turn around and make a 50km detour through the mountains. We gave up on the ruins in order to make any progress at all. An hour later we were back on a highway, this one was finished. 🙂  So we continued on the highway through an area where they distilled Mescal on the side of the road. We decided to buy some to have a sip of it after a meal, that should keep your stomach healthy (a zip, ok, not a shot glass fullJ). We got that tip from two bicycle riders and it is working for them. So we stopped at one of these places and had a look how they produce Mescal. It seems to be pretty simple, squeeze and boilJ

When we ask the sales guy if we could take a picture of him he disappeared to return a moment later with a Sombrero!

The way through the mountain was definitely the right choice, the views and the twisty roads were just great.

After 4PM we started looking for accommodation and ended up in Magdalena Tequisistlan. Asking around, we were told that there was one hotel. When we arrived it looked closed. So we knocked at the door and a young girl opened. After some questions, her mum came and we booked a room and parked the bikes secure in their sort of living room.

I tighten both chains and during this time the dad arrived with a donkey and a cart and the kids loved it.

We had dinner there , then went to bed. In the middle of the night we were under attack from moskitos. We didn’t pay for an air-conditioned room, we thought the fan and an open window would to the job but we forgot to make sure that the window had a fly screen. So after all even though the hotel was quite decent we didn’t sleep very well.

Date: 12/11
City: San Cristobal de las Casas , Mexico
Kilometres ridden: 429
Cumulative kilometre: 25842

Got up early and had a nice breakfast and I took some photos.

It took a while before I could convince the GPS where to go (it didn’t recognised the street to the hostel that we had earmarked, not sure why), so we started at 9AM. We were discussing if we should have a look at the ‘Canyon Sumidero’, but we arrived there a bit late, so we decided to skip it to be in San Cristobal before dark. We had a short stop on a view point in Tuxtla Gutierrez and took a couple of pictures. We meet as well somebody famous, but we don’t know is name, he was sitting there for a long time; I guess he likes the view.

We continued through the hills and all of the sudden we passed a mountain lake with a small village, it was quite picturesque.

When we arrived in San Cristobal, it took ages to get to the street! The traffic was mainly small one way streets, with stop and go traffic and some unknown traffic rules. Finally we got there, but, no hostel there! After asking around and getting send all over the place we gave up and looked for any hostel. At this time it was dark. We found one hostel, shared toilet and shower, we would like to have at least a private toilette, so Sigrid ask around in the hotel, but there were all too expensive. We took off again and found a hostel, with private toilette (which had even a lid) and a private shower, luxury! J. After settling into our room, we went out for dinner. On the way to the restaurant we noticed that it got cold, really cold, so on the way back we stopped and had a nice hot chocolate.

Date: 13/11
City: San Cristobal de las casas , Mexico
Kilometres ridden: 0
Cumulative kilometre: 25842

We slept in, no mossy’s to keep us up J. We bought some bread rolls and had breakfast in the hostel where we meet James from Spain.

He played in an orchestra back in Spain but decided to travel. He is now teaching the tuba in a children orchestra. During our breakfast, another teacher came and they both tried to play a peace, so we had nice music during our breakfast. In the afternoon we walked to the church at the top of the hill that was a good exercise.

The inside of the church was different what we have seen so far, there were neon lights

in the middle of the altar and I saw the first time a black Jesus.

I noticed as well that only energy efficient light bulbs were used inside.

On the way back we walked around the city, had a look at a couple of other churches and buildings and Sigrid found the following sign at the wall of a law faculty. She wanted this photo for Niko 🙂

Tomorrow we’ll take our first bus tour to the Canyon we missed earlier.

 

Date: 14/11
City: San Cristobal de las Casas , Mexico
Kilometres ridden: 0
Cumulative kilometre: 25842

After breakfast we started our tour to the canyon. There we hopped on a speed boat that drove us for two hours through the canyon.

We saw some crocodiles and a lot of different birds.

The boat captain explaned the sights in Spanish, luckily we were sitting in front of a couple from Koeln, He could speak Spanish, so he was translating it for us and his wife into German J. The landscape was great and the canyon has vertical walls reaching as high as 1000 meters!

At one place we saw something that looked like a Christmas tree. It was created by an underground river ending at the canyon wall. When we came closer, we could see the water dropping down.

After arriving back at the harbour, we hopped back on the bus to have a look at the canyon from the top. The white dots in the river are the same boats that we were on!

On our way back, we had an hour stop in Chipa de Corzo, a small town with the main feature the ‘La Pila fountain’, a building in diamond shape made out of bricks. It is located on the main square in the city.

After taking pictures and having a late lunch we arrived back in San Cristobal, had a beer with an Australian couple that we meet on the trip. Then we went home and packed our gear. Tomorrow we will be on our way to Palenque.