The past couple of days we have crossed through quite a number of military checkpoints, so I’ve been thinking, to myself of course, of all the inappropriate things one could say at such a location. The phrase “como se dice” is useful for those trying to learn new words in Spanish. It means “how do you say...” to which you say the word in English that you are trying to know in Spanish. The thought of asking the man with the giant machine gun how you say drug mule in Spanish when he asks you what you’re doing is quite amusing to me.
One of the checkpoints yesterday was the most thorough searches that we have had yet. After some bastardized Spanish on my part, the officers proceeded to rummage throughout our car, and this time into our bags. I don’t think he stole any of my underwear, but if he did, the joke is on him. We may need some laundry done soon. Although, spending a week on the beach, wearing mainly swimsuits, one doesn’t need much for laundry.
Our time in Puerto was very enjoyable, with the exception of the loss of the helmet cam. A large bruise is formulating on my thigh which is likely a result of said incident. We left at 10 in the morning, with no concrete plans, but made fairly good time. What turned out to be a good start would turn into one of the longer less enjoyable days we have had yet, at least for me. A nasty head cold decided to materialize somewhere up my nose and between my eyes as though some little man had climbed up there and decided to stay for a while. I suppose that it’s highly likely to be a result of the magnitude of salt water that the Pacific Ocean managed to thrust up into my sinuses over the past week. The driving continued and the cold got worse.
We arrived in the city of Tuxtla just after dark and began our search for lodging for the night. For those of you trying to find a hotel on the day after Christmas, on a Saturday, you may want to think again. Even if your name is Mary and you are pregnant through no control of your own, it would appear that even the mangers are all full for the night. After numerous failed attempts at securing a room, we proceeded to drive through a couple of other towns and back to the city for just over 3 hours before finding a hotel in the middle of the city. That brings our driving total to 10 hours for the day, and a not very happy Tyler.
Another issue turned out to be parking. The same bad occurrence of arriving on a Saturday night did give us the fortune of free downtown parking. We found a spot in front of a paid parking garage that had a night security guard, and in the morning we awoke to find nothing amiss with our intrepid matrix. We drove to Chiapa de Corzo, where we had attempted to find a hotel the night before, and stopped into the Super Che to get some food for breakfast and some stronger head cold medicine. For those of you interested, you cannot get Sudafed in Mexico, but you can get some funny looks and have the pleasure of people laughing at your misfortunes if you attempt to try asking. I personally recommend Histiacil flu over Contac C, as it appears to be working better.
After a brief lunch in the car, parked in the town plaza, we got out and took a short walk down to the river to take a tour of the Sumidero Canyon. This is definitely the best 300 pesos we’ve spent on the trip. After purchasing our tickets, we got on a boat and adorned our mal-fitting lifejackets and whisked away down the river a la Miami Vice. We stopped at several locations along the way and saw 2 crocodiles, a monkey, and numerous birds including hundreds of black vultures congregated on one small stretch of rarely available shore. The most impressive feature however were the towering canyon walls on either side of the river, the tallest of which rose over one vertical kilometre above our boat. Lush vegetation carpeted what little non-vertical space there was, and birds circled in the thermals high above. If anyone is ever in the Chiapas area of Mexico it’s definitely worth a visit, but be sure to book a place to stay ahead of time.
The canyon tour took us to about 1:30 in the afternoon, so we decided to see how close to the Guatemala border we could get. With the help of straight fast roads, we arrived just after 4 in the afternoon, and now sit in an overpriced hotel right across from the Mexican customs office. So we’ll walk over in the morning and ask if they need to stamp anything before we leave, and then try and make it to Antigua, just outside of the Guatemalan capital of Guatemala City.
Tyler.
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