San Christobal Des Las Casas

Our BMW hosts in Arriaga


A Street in San Christobal des Las Casas

January 28/06 continued

We arrived in Zipolite noon-ish. As usual, an excursion down sandy roads was required to find the accommodations. We parked the bikes and took turns guarding the bikes while the others reconnoitred the potential habitats. In this case I headed out onto the beach and into a cove at the north end. I discovered some wonderful thatched roof cabanas. (El Alquimista Cabanas) The rates however, exceeded out budget. When we returned to the bikes we reported our finding. I guess I was the most excited with what I had discovered and offered to pay for the accommodations. Anyway, to make a long story short we rented two lovely cabanas… 900 pesos! Blew the budget, but everyone needs a treat now and then, right? The fact that we were on a nude beach did not influence my decision in any way.

Mexico is laid back. A nude beach in Mexico is a laid back as you can get!

After getting settled we picked up some beers and proceeded to stroll the beach. Beer here is treated like pop… buy it at the grocery store ($4.50 for 6 beer) and drink it anywhere. There are no restrictions on the beach. In fact there are no restrictions in Mexico. (Craig. You’d love it! Talk about a libertarian society… this is it!) Glass on the beach… no problem! Dogs on the beach… same thing. And in this case bathing suits… optional! You could even ride your motorcycle up the beach if you so desired. I could go on about the Mexican attitude and perhaps I will later, but it is in someway refreshingly liberating to be free of the uptight (confining) Canadian social structure. (enough of the social analysis).

On the way down the beach we took to the waves to attempt some body surfing. I think I “caught a wave” once. I didn’t surf far but I tumbled with the wave, jammed my big toe into the sand and hobbled the rest of the way back to the cabana. The other fared better.

Mid afternoon Dave & I decided it was time for some bike maintenance. We had earlier picked up some oil at the Pemex station. We have ridden the bikes (for night storage) down a steep narrow paved path to a location behind the resort bar and restaurant. It turned out to be a good location for an oil change. We are in the habit of buying a 4 litre bottle of water each day. Normally we empty the water into our smaller water bottles and discard the larger container. In this case, the empty water container (with the top cut off) became the drain pan for the old oil. After draining and filling the bikes with fresh oil we filled the 1 litre oil containers with old oil and left them with the hotel’s garbage. The bike’s chains also got a fresh lube job. After a closer inspection of the underside of my bike I discovered that the centre stand was not as badly damaged as I once thought. It works fine. My skid plate was bruised and bent but there is no damage to the engine. The skid plate is doing it’s intended job.

Picking a place and ordering supper is an interesting experience. Do you know how long it takes for four indecisive people to decide on a restaurant? … Too frigging long! It is painful! My god, you would think that the fate of western civilization was at stake. Then, once we decide on the restaurant, we that have to decide on what to order. It isn’t helpful that we don’t have a clue what at least 70 percent of the menu items are. We have tried to ask. Our grasp of the Spanish language allows us this much but understanding the answer… that’s a whole different scenario. I finally think I have the problem figured out. I simply select an item from the menu and order it as if I knew exactly what it was. I figure, if I like it I’ll eat most of it, if I don’t, I won’t eat quite so much and chances are whatever I get, will most likely go with the beer I’m drinking.

This is likely our last beach stop for a while. By tomorrow evening we should be heading inland and by the next day up into the mountains. We expect max temperature will drop by at least 10C. Perhaps I will appreciate my heavier MC jacket then.

Good night from Zipolite

January 29/06

Today was a hot ride through relatively unremarkable county side, mostly over semi-arid land a few kilometres inland. We did not have a specific destination today. We only wanted to work ourselves towards San Christobal des Las Casas. By mid afternoon we had covered about 250K. We encountered some brutal cross winds between La Ventosa and Zanatepec that almost blew us off the road. We had been warned that it was not unusual to encounter strong winds in this area, but these winds were brutal, worse than in the Baja. (Later we spoke with some locals that told us that the winds today were, on a scale of 1 to 10, a 1. They told us that occasionally a section of the road is closed to traffic. The wind has been known to blow stationary tractor trailers on their side.) Dave managed to collide with a stinging insect of some sort. It stung him on the arm through his shirt. It was sore at first but seems OK now.

At a Pemex station in Zanatepec we met two Mexican fellows on BMWs heading for a BMW get-together in El Salvador. One of the fellows has a daughter living in Vancouver and spoke some English. He insisted that we follow them to a hotel in Arriaga. It was an interesting experience following these guys. Watching how they handled the traffic situations, passing, etc. Once at the hotel, Manuel negotiated our room rate. A little while later two other guys arrived and we all went out for supper to a local restaurant. Then we headed down to the town square where a marimba band was playing in the band stand. (Marimba bands originated in Chiapa) Jen & Dave were enticed to dance… much to the amusement of the locals. If only we had a movie camera?

After breakfast we all packed up the bikes, said our goodbyes to the “beemer boys”. They headed for the Guatamala border and we headed inland up to San Cristobal des Las Casas. Almost immediately after leaving Arriaga we started climbing a steep twisty-turning road. Some bends were so steep and tight that the road was gouged from the rear overhang of trucks coming down the hill. The first climb was to a high plateau at about 2300 ft. asl. As we rolled over the top the vegetation changed to pine forest. It smelled good and the temperature was much more comfortable. As we approached San Cristobal we climbed again to 8000 ft before descending into the city. (7500 ft asl) It was definitely a pleasant change to get away from the hot humid coastal weather. This evening we actually needed a jacket while out walking. Riding was very comfortable. An enjoyable ride all in all.

Both Arriaga and San Cristobal des Las Casas are located in the state of Chiapas. Chiapas is the only Mexican state that joined Mexico voluntarily. It is also one of the most controversial areas politically. The Zapatista movement is still active in this area. Chiapas has 30% of the Mexican water supply and 40% of the wild animal life and is also thought to have a reasonably high oil reserve. From initial observation it is perhaps more well off that other areas that we have seen so far. The road system we encountered seemed more organized and well maintained. There was even a by-pass road around the centre of the capital, Tuxtla Gutirrez. San Cristobal is definitely a touristy area but in a pleasant way… not at all like Acapulco or Puerto Vallarta. It is the one of the centres of Mayan culture, hence many people come to visit the nearby Mayan ruins and villages.

Once in town we walked around looking at the sights. There are the normal street vendors and individuals selling local items and knick-knacks. In San Christobal their seemed to be an inordinate number of young kids selling various items. These kids, especially the young girls, are very cute and they are very persistent in their sales technique. Some of these kids appeared to be as young as 3 years old however, most were a couple of years older.

We are plannng to camp at a waterfall part way to the Guatemalan border tonight and cross into Guatemala tomorrow. We are not sure how easy it will be to find internet access in Guatemala so there may be a gap in our updates for a while.

Looking forward to the adventure of our first Central Am border crossing.