Feb 12. Barra de la Cruz

Barra de la Cruz. 

Now we have decided to skip the adventure south and relax with a "vacation" for the trip north, our first stop is this little gem of a surf village. 

3 nights at "Pepé's cabanas and camping" for $4 per day (includes power, showers and clean toilets--all tiled)

Located just 1/2 km from an endless sandy private beach and a well known "point break" for surfers it is very nice. 

A "point break" is a point of land that juts out into the ocean causing the waves to curl in what is referred to as a "pipeline". The surfers can ride the edge of the curl in the wave for a great distance, rather than getting caught under the flopping crest of a large wave. It creates ideal surfing conditions, rarely found on most surf areas. 

This is my third visit here and Ade's second. She says they make the best shrimp cocktails on earth!  Served under the shade of a palapa bar as you watch the surfers challenge the on-coming waves--it does not get much better. 

Shrimp here is fresh almost daily. They are almost the size of prawns and delicious. 

Huge shrimp cocktail. It takes 2 people to finish it. 

The water this far south is the perfect temperature. Warm enough to make it easy to get into, but cool enough to make it refreshing.  

...definitely a location to lay back for a few days 

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Feb 11. Decision day

When we got up this morning we had every intention of heading south to Guatemala. Yesterday we changed bunch of Mexican money into quetzals (the Guatemala currency ). 

As we headed from the hotel to get on the freeway, Dahlia started missing again. Sadly Adrienne did not feel comfortable about travelling deep into Guatemala today. I must admit that I was torn between the decision of going to Guatemala or staying in Mexico. 

Our main problem is our Westfalia is made in Germany with an Audi engine. Mexican mechanics have had no experience with this vehicle. Similar units made here in Mexico have a completely different drive-train. 

Although Dahlia is having hiccups on a somewhat regular basis, I seem to know how to deal with it and she is running well at speeds between 110 and 120. However at idle, she often stalls-not great in towns. 

The decision was made to turn our adventure into a holiday. We have spent 46 days heading south. I guess we were enjoying ourselves a little too much and spending too long at each stop. To make Panama would require FOUR more solid 8 hour driving days; then it would be FIFTEEN more solid days of driving to get home. With only 60 days left it would means only TWO slack days between driving days. This sounded too much like work so the adventure has turned into a laid back holiday in warm spots on the Pacific side of Mexico. 

When we do it again we will have to focus more on getting to our destination quicker and taking "slack" time on the way home. Also, we would extend it from December to May to make sure we did not run out of time. 

Heading west to the ocean  our first stay is at Bars de la Cruz, a quiet little surfing village on the Pacific ocean.  This way if the car gave us any problem we would at least be on the Pan-American highway and it would be much easier to get assistance. 

 The decision was a bit of a pain because we had to head back to downtown and Cristobal and change our Guatemalan money back into Mexican money. Of course we did this at a penalty.

The ride from San Cristobal  to Texla Gutierrez  was interesting. It was approximately 50 km all downhill. We dropped from 7200 feet down to less than 2000 feet in that distance. Texla is a very big city, and it was very hot. At one point it was 40°. We can't imagine how hot  this town and area must be in the middle of the summer. The town services a big agriculture and mining area and seems to be very prosperous.

Next we drove through what must be one of the world's largest wind farms. For about 15 km. it there were many thousands of power generating windmills!  We could not believe how they could ever keep so many machines serviced. Another odd thing was the speed with which they rotated. It was much faster than any in Canada or the USA that we have seen. 

The constant wind in this stretch of road was rather challenging for car and driver. In one occasion I am sure we were thrust sideways on the road by a couple of feet!  The road was straight but I was constantly steering!

The 6 Hour drive into Bars del la Cruz had us arriving just before dark. We are located under a shade palapa only a short distance  from a well known surf beach. 

It is a Saturday and we are quite surprised how few people are in the two campsites. We were told that February is one of the busiest tourist months for Mexico. However, From what we have seen in the past couple of days the tourist industry must be hurting very badly. Hotels were almost empty campsites were the same, and traffic on the road was not very dense. Weather is great and we have been treated like royalty but I feel sorry for the thousands of people who rely on the tourist industry in this part of the country.

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Feb 10: Na Bolom

The We managed to get an 8 o'clock appointment for Dahlia this morning at the Volkswagen dealership. 

Amazingly modern dealership. 

Yesterday I downloaded the Google version of Spanish translation. It proved to be invaluable and talking with their service people. I cannot believe how this little app makes life so much easier. All I have to do is tell the telephone exactly what I want and then it is translated into Spanish text. I show this to the service technician, he reads it and all is good. You can even touch a button and it speaks IN SPANISH!!

He thought we had to replace one of the hoses that we had trouble with in Guatemala. He actually did not have the hose but sent me to the AutoZone just down the road and they had the diameter hose we needed. 

I took the old hose off and replaced it with a new one. Adrienne and I noticed that the old hose had something solid in it. We cut out what we thought was an obstruction. It was actually a ball bearing right in the middle of the hose that prevented air from moving through. We thought this must be the problem. I put the new hose on and started up the vehicle. It ran terribly. I could hardly keep it going. We decided that once again we would head back to the dealership which was only a few hundred yards down the road. It was quite a rough ride as the car kept going and installing for the complete distance. It felt like riding slowly on a lame horse! Finally we limped into the dealership again. I showed the technician the ball bearing and the new hose we had put in place.

Since this was a German made vehicle, they had no experience with it. He was thinking as I was. Perhaps we should just put the ball bearing back in the new hose. We did this and as amazing as it sounds, Dahlia ran beautifully. The technician just shook  his head and wished us the best as we left the service bay. 

With our 2 visits and the numerous employees that tried to analyze our problem, I am sure they spent a couple of man-hours on our situation. However they did not think they solved the situation so they refused my attempts to pay them for their time!

We decided a good test to see if the car would truly idle at lower speeds was to drive the slow and narrow streets right to the middle of town and head to Na Bolom, at the opposite side of the old town. Dahlia made it without a single hiccup--try to figure that one out. 

Na Bolom is now a cultural and historical landmark of Mexico and San Cristobal .

The atmosphere within the confines of Na Bolom alone is definitely educational, cultural, and almost spiritual. 

Time seems like it is almost standing still. In front of me is a group of students and an educator with a stack of books on the table. In one of the other rooms which is actually a church is a pianist playing like you might hear in the concert hall of a big city. 

A number of rooms  radiate from the main courtyard. Several of these rooms are set aside for local artists to display their work. Other rooms have the collections of artifacts related to the Lacandon indigenous people of the region. Also a couple of rooms are set aside with a personal effects of Frans Blem and his wife Trudy who founded the place.

The basic structure was built in the late 1500's but the Blems purchased it in the early 1900s and renovated it into a biological, Historical, and cultural center. Their goal was to fight development and retain as much of the natural beauty of the area as possible, and help the local indigenous people retain as much of their culture as possible. 

I am sitting in the middle of a courtyard surrounded by dozens of archways and columns with green plants beside every second one. With the sun shining through the open roof of the courtyard it truly feels like a special place to just lay back and reflect. 

One sad event just happened. Our camera died. Only the iPhone left to catch pictures on--very sad. 

...now it is back through town, pick up our 12 pound bag of laundry (at a cost of $2.00!), and find our Mansion del Vallé. 

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Feb 9. San Cristobal

Our hotel in the old city downtown is beautiful. It is aptly named the Mansion del Vallé. Service, food and Rooms are all top notch. All this and valet service for $50/night with most incredible margaritas that Ade has tasted. 

After the market, which goes daily, we lay back for a bit then Ade walked across the street to enjoy one of the towns garden squares. I decided to go for a bike ride down town and just explore. I sure miss taking the scooter. I think this is the last holiday where at least one  scooter is not part of the mix. It makes it so easy to explore where you are since you can easily keep up with traffic when there are crowded streets. 

Ten minutes into my ride, like an apparition, a big sign appeared in front of me!  It was a large Volkswagen Dealership. Just what we needed for Dahlia. She is running fine at high speeds, but since our little episode in Guatemala she often stalls while idling--a bit of a pain in towns. 

Hopefully she will get a new lease on life tomorrow. 

If all goes well tomorrow we will head to the back side of town and visit Casa Na Bolom ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_Na_Bolom )

This is one of the spots where Chay and I, along with a number of American university students, spent some time learning about the Zapatista revolt. It is a serine and mystic learning and mind retreat center. It evokes a sense of relaxation that is very real to visitors. 

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Feb 8. San Cristobal

San Cristobal:  ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Cristóbal_de_las_Casas )

We hit our first cool weather (down to 20 degtees C) in weeks as we 

climbed to 7,200 ft in altitude. The town is one of our favourite places,

with a history dating back 500 years! Super clean and neat with vibrant large town squares and very nice people. 

It was the home of the Zapatista rebellion (  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zapatista_uprising )

of 1994, where indigenous Mexican people were trying to get a fair deal in land reform. The revolt was put down ruthlessly by the Mexican govt. 

The temperature rarely hits 30 in summer and almost never freezes in winter.  They can grown anything from coffee to cabbage here--quite amazing. 

Regarding altitude, To give a point of reference, Canada's highest city is Lake Louise at 5,449 ft with less than a thousand residents. San Cristobal is at 7,200 ft and population of 190,000 residents, making it about the size of Kelowna and Westbank combined. 

Never have Adrienne or I seen such a vast array of booths and venders at a market. It would take 3/4 of a day to view every vendors goods!

Chicken are sold either cooked, raw, or even live!  It was not uncommon to see a lady walking the market with 3 live chicken under her arm that were heading home for "processing". 

Even on a Thursday morning the town is pleasantly alive with activity and there are even people in the massive, one block square cathedral. 

Tom

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Feb 8. Tonino ruins

 

Left our beautiful campsite for the short 100 meter bike ride to the Tonino ruins ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toniná )

This is truly an unbelievable site. For many years the rulers of this enormous site even dominated Palenque. 

The royal family of this city ruled over thousands of acres of productive farmland. They were also very successful warriors and dominated the Mayan world for many years. 

One interesting part of the ruins was the "ball court". Here teams from other cities would challenge Tonino to a game similar to soccer. The losing team would have a rather unfortunate fate of becoming human sacrifices to the gods--hence the expression "play your heart out" ??

Other pis of the ruins

After Tonino, it was a mere 105 km trip to San Cristobal. However it took over 3 hours. The road was so twisty, hilly and narrow that Dahlia never got into high gear!

We must have almost stopped on each of well over 100 topés!  Everywhere there was a dozen houses, there was at least 3 topés. In one kilometre spot we counted 12 topés--very slow travel!!

Some pretty sections

...some clear cuts

We often followed Colectivos. Instead of vans they were trucks loaded with payin passengers!

Reaching San Cristobal was like a breath of fresh air. A vibrant, clean, well organized ancient city whose birthplace took place 500 years ago. 

Today there are 180,000 residents who honour the great history of their city. Although I have been here on two previous occasions the town never always is a highlight for me. There are several vibrant town squares that are alive at night in a friendly and entertaining manner. 

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Feb 7. Long day

Arrived late at Tonino

The best campsite value in North America.

For five dollars we got a campsite, some distant live music beautiful evening. One hundred yards from the Tonino Ruins, fabulous view, great lawn, washrooms, fire pit, hammocks and palapa!  Amazing. 

In the morning, We left Tenosique at 8:00.  Yesterday, The border Lady said we should be there by 9 o'clock. We arrived at the Guatemala/Mexican border at 9 o'clock and went to the Mexican border station. After showing our papers to them, they said we didn't really have to come back--A total waste of two hours driving time. Oh well I guess that's the reason why we should learn some more Spanish. 

At about 6:30, in the dark, we pulled into Tonino. Long day of travel but worth it as we saw some incredible jungle mountain vegetation and scenery. 

One stop called Mistol Ha had a 90 ft. waterfall crashing into a 200 ft. Swimming hole with a cave behind the falls. Wonderful spot to cool off. 

While there we met a couple of Australians who New the Okanagan well as they travelled through it last year--small world. 

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