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Day08-Where are we?, Mon, Dec 6, 2010

Notice the inversion cloud layer in the valley behind me. Very cool. Our route took us up to 8,250 feet! It was pretty chilly.

How far do you go down the wrong road before deciding to turn around?

Start & Stop: Palenque, MX to San Cristalbol de Casa

Day’s mileage: 208 miles (335 km)

Route:  6:35: AM Palenque, MX, through Ocosingo, to San Cristalbol de Casa. 2:48 PM

Weather:  Chilly, 40-50 degrees F.  Hey we were at 8,250′ (2515 m) elevation!!!!

Lodging:

Fuel:

Money Exchange:  $1 USD = 11.96 Mexican Peso

Dean: OK, I screwed up! Last night we were searching the internet for places to stay in San Cristobal de las Casas and Huehuetenago, GT.   We found cheap potential cheap digs in both cities.  Except I left the Guatamala waypoint as the last Go To.  So this morning we get up, pack and head out.   The route to both San Crisobal and Huehue are almost identical so Lisa’s GPS is waypointed to San Crisobal and my waypoint is directed to Huehietenago GT.  When we come to the first intersection out of Palenque both our GPS route us up the wrong road.  We ride 50 minutes and the GPS routes us onto a dirt road.  Then the road gets worse with water filled potholes and slippery mud.!   Two riders on a 250 comes by and we ask them is this the right road to San Cristobal?  Si 40 km of dirt.  We continue and come to a Y in the road which is the transportation hub of the area.  There are 30 guys waiting to catch trucks, vans, etc to various points.  I stop and ask Ocosingo?  One guy steps forward and look at my map and points back to the direction we had just come from.  This is why our SPOT tracks show a little spur route before we got back on the correct route.

At the little villages near the top of our ride, 8,250 feet, the people walking long the roads were very small!  Lisa was like Dorothy and all the people were munchkins.  She is 5′-10″ and all the rest of the native ladies are ~4′-6″.  Heck I felt quite tall.  All the women wore very colorful dresses.

The entire route was very tropical. Reminds me of riding around the Big Island, Hawaii.

The 208 miles today was beautiful!  Very similar to riding on the Big Island Hawaii.  Thousands of huge sweepers through lush green canopied trees, dense jungle brush, and towering mountain ranges.

Lisa: Oh gosh, where do I start?  First, I have been mulling this over for days and now have reached a conclusion: Mexico is noisy.  It’s super noisy.  And it doesn’t matter what time of day either.  Dogs barking, roosters crowing, cars with loudspeakers driving around making announcements, babies crying, loud music, people yelling and laughing, church bells, you name it.  It’s not an annoying loud, it’s just a pervasive loud, a never ending noise background that has made me laugh more than once.  My room in Palenque was directly across the street from a large Roman Catholic Church and since we stayed Saturday and Sunday nights, I got the whole gamut – Saturday night socializing, Sunday morning call to mass (about 367 gongs of the bell), and (my favorite) Sunday evening chanting – hauntingly beautiful.  But the most random noise today was at about 6 am when a car with the loudspeaker on the roof drove by announcing something I can’t understand with Jingle Bell Rock as the background.  Really?  A nation of millions of Spanish speakers and Jingle Bell Rock is the best you can do? S ort of like us making Feliz Navidad our National Christmas Carol of choice, no?  And while I’m on this subject, how weird is it to be in a tropical jungle and see plastic snowmen and trams decorated with lights and pine boughs?  It’s completely incongruous.  I don’t know how I *thought* that people here celebrate Christmas but this wasn’t it.

Tope. A simple, four letter word, pronounced Toe Pay, meaning any annoying speed bump inconveniently placed just about everywhere here in Meh Hee Co.  Seriously, they are everywhere and in many different incarnations – tall, short, metal, concrete, asphalt, you name it.  And after today, I am an expert on topes as I have hit each and every type and height at an inappropriate speed.  It was a short miles day but loooong on topes.  But perhaps most ridiculous about topes is Dean’s complete inability to pronounce that simple word.  When he leads, he’ll come over the CB saying  Toepulls, Toupees, Toopollooties, Toepoes, etc.  He is absolutely incapable of pronouncing ToePay.  Let’s not even get started on the rest of his ‘Spanish’ but now I know that what he said is true: he flunked high school Spanish 1 three times.  One super fantastic thing about topes – they stop trucks in their path, forcing them to come to a COMPLETE stop and iiiinnnnncccchhhh over them ever so slowly, allowing riders on speedy motocicletas to zoom to the front and pass said annoying trucks, or so I’ve been told. Every dark cloud has its silver lining.

Most of today's ride looked like this. Add a 1,000 sweepers, a bagillion "topes", a few trucks, cars, pick-ups and one bicycle.

Dean: Lisa wanted to stop for a cup of coffee.  All the reputation Mexico has for coffee beans, all we could get was Nescafe instant.  But the little roadside cafe we stopped at was well decorated.  Here we met Everado “Chevy” Barojas from Mexico City who is riding a bicycle to Cancun,  Very difficult ride considering he had to summit 8,250′ elevation.

In the open air patio, little kids started peeking out at us.  Lisa brought a big bag of stickers to give to children.  After a few friendly smiles and “buenos dias” and “comos se yamas”, all the kid had some stickers and a few had them all over their shirts.

Roadside coffee break was well decorated.

Lisa: So a couple of days ago Kneebone gave me grief for the fact that we took some toll roads, saying that we ‘weren’t getting the full experience’.  Well I’m here to tell you tonight that we ‘got the full experience’ – in spades.  We had a slight directional brain fart today and our GPSs put us on a dirt road to get us back on track.  Dean and I looked at it and sort of shrugged, eh, no biggie, go for it.  So a few miles in our bravado was fading as we approached two guys on a 250cc bike coming the other way.  ”Oh Si Senor, no problemo, continue on.” Ooookay. A few more miles the road was starting to deteriorate, making the Haul Road look like a super highway.

Just about that time we came across a large group of men all gathered in the road and waiting for a truck to get them.  They weren’t sure what to do with us but their leader stepped forward and he spoke English.  Which was great until I noticed that not only was he holding a machete but his hands and the knife were covered in something red which looked like blood.  That was somewhat disconcerting, to say the least.  So, indeed, add the topes in and I think today we got at least a full measure of the Mexico experience.

Dinner was amazing! We had 4 different sausages, beef, corn tortillas! This plate was for two.

15 comments to Day08-Where are we?, Mon, Dec 6, 2010

  • Pat McGhie (RockyNH)

    Great day for you too!! Pretty colorful (and noisy) descriptions Lisa…

    I saw the detour… on the SPOTWalla, looks like back tracking was very wise.. good thing you ran into Machete Man!

    Pat in NH

  • John Parker

    You guys are awesome. I’m so glad you got off the beaten path and got to see some dirt. Heh heh heh.

  • Tom Botz

    Dean, what happened to 1,000 miles per day?? Or at least 800? haha!

    Lisa, I’m really enjoying your descriptions of the events! Also, don’t forget you can get air off the topes…

    Dean: Tom, this was never intended to be an IBA style ride. Our estimated daily average is ~250 miles per day.

  • Brother Tom

    Ha, ha, ha! I laughed my ass off when Lisa wrote that Dean had failed Spanish 1 three times – I also took Spanish 1 three times in high school. Thanks goodness back on mine and Dean’s days LOF was not required to go to Cal Poly.

  • Dave McQ

    On your little side excursion early today, I see that the point where you turned around to backtrack is named El Resbalón. That translates to “The Slide”, as in slippery! Reminded me of the road sign I saw occasionally, warning “Resbaloso”. If you see one of these signs, perk up – it means “slippery”.

  • chuck hickey

    Toepulls, Toupees, Toopollooties, Toepoes
    what, no Tadpoles, TeePee, toe sloth, toe tap, topo geegew, topiary or total hilarious?
    Can’t wait to hear the unexpurgated version of this trip – assuming you can find your way North again. Are you leaving bread crumbs?

  • Maura

    Vivir la vida a tope

    means to ‘to live life in the fast lane’

    So it works for you both ways!

    Enjoying your posts tremendously

  • jimmyv

    Great report and that food looks awesome – love those coffee breaks!

  • Jeff KB6SUP

    Yup, was wondering what happened there on the SpotWalla map. Sounds like a great time. Ride safe and keep us posted. Keep the daily mileage down and your spirits up. Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.

  • George Basinet

    The English name for Tope is ‘Sleeping Policemen’.

    Enjoy your trip.

    George

  • ¡Dios mío! Los topes del Diablo son malos.

    Larga vida a la V-Strom!yo

  • Ray D. KD6FHN

    So glad to hear you are doing so well. Please keep up the neat posts, it is like riding with you.

  • Thanks for blogging your little expedition (adventure). I love the point counterpoint style.

  • Joseph Yribe

    What fun; And brave adventure the two of you are on.
    Ray and Chuck told me about your trip, something I would love to do,
    but not on my KE6UPB “Under Powered Bike” a Honda SH150I.
    Good luck,
    Stay safe
    Joseph KE6UPB

  • Tirzah

    I am a few days behind and trying to catch up but I LOVE reading you all’s adventures! Lisa, I so identify with the Mexico sounds thing. When you’re in a city you can add drunks and Mariachis exiting the bars late at night and the ever present smell of fire all the time no matter where you are. Someone is always burning something. Did you actually stop in San Cristobal de Las Casas? It’s one of my favorite places on the planet so far. And to hear your descriptions of places I’ve been complete with brightly clothed munchkin women, randomly wacky decortations and incongruous music, and TOE-PAYS (every Chiapas team was intimately acquainted with them!) takes me back as I follow you forward on your adventure. Thank you. Be safe. XO XO

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