Chiapas is the southern most state in Mexico and sits directly on the Guatemalan border. It is inhabited by mostly indigenous people of Mayan descent. It has been the scene of uprisings against the government, most notably in 1994 when the EZLN took San Cristobal de las Casas. The leader apologized to the numerous tourists staying there at the time saying, “we are very sorry for the inconvenience, but this is a revolution.”
I pulled into Tuxtla Gutierrez, capital of Chiapas, to find a hot and humid big city of half a million people, as well as Wal Mart, Applebees, HoJo’s, Autozone, Office Max, and every US chain franchise joint you can imagine. Excellent. Just what I need to get some stuff done on the bike and resupply my kit.
With so many amenities, I was set up in no time to do an oil change on the big KTM. Oil pan- 2 bucks, Rags- 2 bucks, foil – 2 bucks, 3 liters of Maxima 20W-50 – 20 bucks, 6 pack of Tecate – 3 bucks. Everything I need for a hotel parking lot oil change.
I do a little trick with the tin foil so I dont have to take the left fairing and gas tank off the bike. It makes an oil change on the 990 a 1 beer job where usually its about a 4 beer job. There is one screen in the oil tank that you cant get to using this method, but I never find anything in that screen anyway, and there is another screen that’s easy to get to and will give you an idea if you should check the screen in the oil tank.
All done, and it only took one beer. I’m getting pretty quick at the 990 oil changes now, 45 minutes, complete with clean up.
In addition, I also found something, or rather someone else in Tuxtla. My amiga Wendy! Hi Wendy! She lives in Costa Rica and came to Mexico to travel around a bit on the bike with me. She was here in 1994 when the Zapatista uprising occurred and was denied entry into the state, so she has always wanted to return. It was the perfect opportunity for her as I was here and she could travel with me on the bike. However now this bike is loaded up like a Gold Wing. This is definitely a time when I am very happy that I have the big bike.
It feels great to have a good friend with me after being on the road for so long. Its like being with family because she is pretty much is my adopted sister whether she likes it or not.
There’s not a whole lot right in Tuxtla of interest to tourists, but right out of town is the Canyon del Sumidero, an impressive fissure about 3000 feet deep. You can take a boat up the river, or you can drive up to the viewpoints. The entrance to the canyon is on this river at the town of Chiapa de Corzo. When we drove through Chiapa de Corzo hawkers were literally jumping out in front of the bike yelling “lancha, lancha” trying to sell a ticket on one of the boat trips. Apparently the boat trip is well worth it. Maybe next time.
As you pay your park entrance fee of 20 pesos (about $1.75) you can drive up to 5 different “miradores” or viewpoints. And the views are really impressive. Sadly the pics dont do it justice, but if you are ever in this area, you need to go check out the canyon, its well worth it.
Riding up to the miradores above Tuxtla………..
Its a fun little twisty road that takes you up to around 4500 feet at the rim of the canyon.
The views are well worth it………
Another view………..
We met this really pleasant and talkative guy named Alejandro while we were at one of the viewpoints. He told us that when the Spaniards came to conquer the area, the indigenous people were not too keen on being conquered. The locals figured that there was no way they could defend themselves against the Spanish military might, so thousands of them lined up at the top of the canyon walls and jumped 3000 feet to their deaths. Men, women, children, elderly, everyone. Whoa…..
Yup, it is a long way down there. I dont know how many BASE jumpers live around here, but if you want to risk landing in the river it would be surely be a great spot for BASE jumping.
After leaving Tuxtla, we headed to the old colonial town of San Cristobal de las Casas. Its a beautiful town of about 80,000 people that sits in the mountains at 7000 feet. It has nice warm days and cool, crisp mornings and evenings, a very nice climate. Here you tend to forget that you actually are in the tropics because of the alpine climate and topography.
San Cristobal is fairly upscale, but done very tastefully. There are many tourists here from all over the world: Europeans, North Americans from Canada the US and Mexico, South Americans, Japanese, etc. In a simple stroll through town you will see just about every nationality in the world represented and its not surprising because this is a very cool place to hang out for a few days, take it easy, eat good food and get out of the tropical heat.
There are plenty of hotels to choose from, budget to swanky, and many choices for a wide variety of good food. Tourism is the business in this town.
We met up with some other riders here as well.
Jeff from Spokane…..
Arno from Portland, OR………….
and Kevin from Toronto………
They were all riding solo, but had the same destination as me, Ushuaia, Argentina. However thier timetable is a bit more hectic than mine to say the least. Jeff has 3 more months before his wife threatens divorce, Arno donesnt really know how much time he has, and Kevin has about 3 months of money left. It was just a fluke that we all met up in San Cristobal. It was fun hanging out with these guys for a few days. They left for Guatemala while we planned our trips to the Mayan ruins of Tonina and Palenque in northern Chiapas…….
Saludos, Vince