Nuevo Horizonte and Finca Ixobel
3月27日, グアテマラ ⋅ 🌧 25 °C
I will start with the end: I was still quickly losing motivation on the bike, quickly tired on the bike, despite not having done that many kilometers and the temperatures being pretty good. So I will chill a day extra to just do something else and relax for a day in a beautiful location where not many tourists go: Finca Ixobel. Or, the location isn't that amazing, but the accommodation all the more so.
But the highlight of the last two days (yes, I am posting a lot of footprints!) was definitely a very small community called "Nueva Horizonte", which I didn't know anything about, except that it was only 33km from Flores and that I could sleep there. So I left Flores sometime around 11 or 12 on Thursday, found the very small town (if it is even that!) and, after having been led to my room, checked out the nearby cute little lake. There was a big group of other tourists there in town, all Guatemalans, and the tour guide was a guy from Belize who spoke immaculate English, so I had my first full conversation with a local here; nothing groundbreaking, just saying. However, back in "town" I checked out the Museum, museo de nuevo horizonte, which was incredibly detailed and well done. I found out the following during and after the museum (of which I don't understand everything yet...), but will summarize it here.
Nueva Horizonte was founded by men and women demobilized during the civil war to a small farm nearby Flores, having fought on the FAR, a communist guerrilla group, side during the civil war. They started a small community nearby, centered on community organization, and set up a museum in 2022 to showcase the history of Petén, the civil war, and the community. And here they did an excellent job.
It starts of with information of the old Itza-Maya culture—these were the people that also lived in Chichen Itza, and settled around Petén later —moves on the battles with the Colonialists, where they resisted for a very long time; something I already hinted at in the last footprint. Apparently, the Itza and Flores (or Nojpetén) were the last unconquered native kingdom to fall to the Spanish. Then, glossing over this part of history, there was a lot of internal fighting in the 19th century. But the most interesting is the modern history of the 20th century: after authoritarian and corrupt governments in which the United Fruit Company had something to say, when a social revolution took place around 1944 with the October Revolution, which led to the best period in Modern history in Guatemala: socialist government which led the country to a modern Capitalist state. But also, the government around 1951 tried to stop the influence of the United Fruit Company and the US, and tried becoming more communistic. That wasn't allowed by the US, and they installed one of their own authoritarian leaders into power in Guatemala with a CIA operation PBSuccess. Like they did in so many other countries.
Well, the civil war kicked off and lasted until the agreement of 1996, and the Museum showed a lot of pictures of camps within Guatemala, in Petén, of victims and refugees of the civil war. Truly impressive. I also got to talk with one of the artists who did some of the paintings in the Museum, and had a very brief talk with him about politics and the Museum.
Also interesting is that, in the Museum, I again ran into the guy from Belize mentioned above: he said that currently, in his opinion, Guatemala now has the worst president of all time. I didn't know who it was, but this is also interesting: it is the son of one of the most beloved presidents, Arévalo. People feel betrayed by him. I did some research though, and it turns out that he is mostly facing an uphill battle against a highly corrupt system, where the Attorney General, María Consuelo Porras, has constantly tried to obstruct him at every single move, and is considered highly corrupt. And as such, the promises of his campaign have mostly failed. He also lost a lot of popularity with the declaration of the state of emergency this year, which arose due to his actions against the Cartels, where no arrests were made. Conclusion for now: it seems like a premature or somewhat naive conclusion to call him the worst president, when corruption and crime makes his job rather impossible. But maybe it is me who is being naive.
Ok, that's enough of that. In the evening the town also gave a cultural presentation for the group that was visiting, and I was allowed to also join. I slept in a hall in which they put up a dormitory, and I imagine army bunk beds to be better: it was hard, with a rock for a pillow. Then the day after (Friday) I also visited a small museum of Maya pieces in a small city called Dolores, where they were super happy to have me as a guest. They showed me around and insisted on taking pictures of me: I think I look tired. Nevertheless, the Museum was very interesting.
Last thing: to get where I am now from Flores, I took the main road because otherwise it would have taken forever. Well, drivers here are crazy, and trucks can be very, very dirty (African level dirty). They frequently overtake before blind corners when you cannot possibly see what's coming behind, with not enough speed, where it could only go well if there were no traffic coming. Which they cannot know. It is really crazy and scary to see; I haven't seen an accident yet and I don't know how—just a dead dog freshly killed on the road.もっと詳しく
Flores and Tikal
3月25日, グアテマラ ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C
There is always something exciting about crossing country borders: will things be the same? How are the people? How safe is it? How are the roads? Did I miss the immigration office? The last question was relevant in this particular case, as the physical border was quite distinct from the administrative border: a 3 minute boat ride took me across the Usamacinta river, changing cash was easy (having the exchange rate saved on my phone helped in negotiating), but because the border crossing was so remote the immigration office was about 10 km up the road. Or, it was hard to call it a "road", as it was a rough welcome with hills across very very rough gravel. The video I uploaded isn't nearly the worse part— the bobbing up and down (this is actually a stabilized video) is what it was like for 30 km in total, and it got worse—the video was taken when I finally reached the immigration building after 10 km. Had something of a chat with the immigration officers who wanted to know about my bike, and not too far further up the road I got to the first real difference: Chocobananas in a small roadside tienda! I had heard if these chocofrutas, hadn't seen them anywhere in mexico, and in Guatemala they seem to be really a thing to be found throughout: frozen fruit, dipped in chocolate. Its really good, with no plastic waste either. Of which there is plenty.
The gravel turned better and eventually turned into tarmac, and I decided to make it a long day in the saddle. (It was hard.) Ended up in La Libertad, took a very shitty hotel, and found another new thing for dinner that I had been wanting to try: Pupusas. Basically, fried filled tortillas. Really heavy but a reliable vegetarian option(!) The hotel was a horrible choice though, as there were a lot of cockroaches walking around to greet me when I got back after dinner and there was mold on all the walls; a thing to note is to not rely on these shitty places and take time to find decent accommodation. For the rest part of the route, I have kind of planned ahead.
The next day it was only a short ride to a tourism hotspot: picturesque Flores and nearby Tikal. Flores is a small cute little island lying of Santa Elena, and there is only tourism here; tourism that makes it a safe option to chill for a while and have (hopefully) good food, opportunities to watch the culture mismatch (lots of Dutchies here!), and have a hostel with AC, drinking water, decent showers, and no cockroaches.
Flores used to be a maja city itself, Nojpetén, and was actually very long-lasting — a lot longer than Tikal — even withstanding attacks from the Spanish conquerors for nearly 150 years from the first attacks, until it was successfully destroyed (that's what the Spanish wanted after all, wasn't it?) Now it is a popular tourist town for checking out nearby ruins in the jungle, and that's also the primary reason I came here. For visiting tikal you have to lay down quite some $$, and there are multiple options, including (paying maximum price and) getting up at the inhumane hour of 2.20 am to do a sunrise tour and watch the sun rise from on of the highest temple. Naturally, because I have to do some crazy shit this trip, I went for this option; also to see if the hype is justified.
However, I fucked up the evening before by eating from the wrong street food stand (I really should have known better and not have trusted her), which upset my stomach and kept me awake until 12 am. Me worrying about food is really a theme I would love to do without in this trip. Hence, my preparation of the ungodly early pickup time was as bad as it gets, and although I was doing reasonably well at the start, I was barely able to stay awake at the end of the tour. And, I learned that I didn't know enough of food poisoning, bacteria, food-safety, etc; you're always supposed to learn something life-changing on trips like these so I count that in.
Alright, Tikal: the sunrise was nice indeed, I saw a tucan and yellow-breasted falcon waking up, and we were there before the loud monkeys got to do there thing. I also realized I thought the sunrise had happened before it did, apparently, because I thought it was done before it had happened. Our tour guide was the most enthusiastic you can imagine about the spider monkeys around and the different birds to be seen, and tried his best explaining the very cool astronomical layout of the temples that the Mayans set up: they are laid out so that by cross-referencing the temples and sunrise, the time of the year can be determined, and their calendar is really advanced and interesting. (However, I think he got some details wrong.) Also, the pyramids are set up to echo sounds, demonstrated with clapping; "Tikal" is interpreted to mean "the place of the voices". And having watched the National Geographic documentary on Tikal (and its fall) before also helped me bother him some more with some questions, which ended up being quite interesting. For example, one of the last rulers (chocolate head? I don't know his name) was massively obese, which was determined by scientists to be because of bacteria in the water around the palace. And here all or some of the temples are also actually layered, being built by multiple generations over previous generations to celebrate new battles, or just as acts of pure vanity. Not sure what else to say about Tikal, other than that it is really, really big, and I'm glad I visited it.
I'm not entirely sure yet if I'll leave tomorrow or the day after, in any case I calculated that visiting Belize by bike and doing some diving will make me short on time, so I have decided to go straight south to Semuc Champey. This way I won't miss the parts in Guatemala I wanted to visit.もっと詳しく
Yaxchilán
3月22日, メキシコ ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
I didn't do the full trip in one day, as I was tired and not motivated, and the 130 km I had planned was overly ambitious. So I visited a crocodile sanctuary somewhere along the route — I didn't see any, just some lakes and mosquitoes, but I did find company in a dog who showed me around—and went to another old Maya tourist village near Bonampak and treated myself to a cabin for the night. This particular Maya village, Lacanja Chansayab, has adapted a lot to tourism: souvenir shops and campsites everywhere, and lots of activities that are quite expensive. Visiting the local Maya site Bonampak is also only allowed by using their transport, and they wanted too much money for it so I passed. Did have a really nice cabin next to a waterfall there, where I made my own dinner and breakie because vegetarian food is so difficult for Mexicans.
Around this area — most certainly "the jungle" — there are a lot of interesting sounds. At the lodge there were birds making cat-sounds (I thought it was a cat...) And on the road to Frontera Corozal I could already hear the Bronchitis monkeys (aka "howler monkeys") screaming. And now, having lunch, I hear some sound of which I'm not sure if it is a bird or a monkey. (It was a parrot!)
I reached the border town Frontera Corozal at about 10, and saw a few tourist busses passing me, so I thought to be sure I would manage to join a tour for visiting the Maya ruins. I go to the right place, and the difficulty starts: first the guy asks 3000 something pesos. I tell him, in my broken and admittedly horrible Spanish, that no, I want to join a group; he tells me it's quiet today and there might not be a group. So I already know he's bullshitting me, because I saw all the tourist busses, but I ask to wait. Literally 3 minutes later he tells me that there is a bus coming and I can join; next I had to talk a bit off of that price, too, and I'm sure I still paid more than needed, but I was able to join a tourist group with maybe ten minutes of waiting time. Mexicans...
The boat trip is quite long with 25 km to the site by boat (we did see a croc) , but the ruins are beautifully situated in the middle of the jungle. You walk up steep walking paths between lush forest and hearing the monkeys scream, and then the acropolis(seses) suddenly appear. The family of Jaguars (they were all Jaguar head 1,2,3,...) built some pretty impressive buildings there with funky artwork (celebrating their greatness). By the way, all Maya cities used a lot of "stucco" for painting their buildings, for which they took and burned down huge parts of the rainforest for painting their houses. So they certainly weren't that environmentally friendly. Fun fact: using e-DNA scientists found that this also contributed to very bad water pollution (at least in Tikal), which might have contributed to the abandonment of the cities. And another fun fact: in Yaxchilan they found arrow-head remains in one of the acropolises, indicating that it was used as a defence "castle" during the last siege, and that was probably also when the city was abandoned. Lots of fighting, like I mentioned in the last post.
I could not imagine ending my last post in Mexicans without complaining about Mexicans: they guy from the boat told me "doce en punto!", which meant only one hour of walking around, but I was sure he said twelve, and so I hurried to get back at twelve for the boat back. And of course," twelve, sharp" does not mean twelve in mexico; I was the only one there. So I ran back up the (seriously steep) hill to have look at the acropolis (there are three!) that I hadn't found yet, and then also found the rest of the group. In effect, the return time was 12.40, and he told me another time. (There is no way I would not have understood "doce y cuarenta".) Figure your shit out, especially if you feign punctuality, *sshole.
Tomorrow morning I will leave for Guatamala and reach Flores in one or two days, where I will stay for a few days.もっと詳しく
旅行者Side note: I did enjoy it here, I just always complain about people everywhere all the time. Many people have been super friendly and, for example, gave me directions even when I didn't ask for it, and greet me on the street when cycling past. (Although some also give me angry looks.)
Toniná Maya site and zapatista villages
3月19日, メキシコ ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C
I was really close to stopping this trip and booking a flight home, given the food poisoning and especially the fever and forced bedrest. Luckily people from home supported me, and luckily things turned a bit better slowly. I left from San Cristóbal on Tuesday morning feeling fine again, just a tad weak, but definitely good enough to continue.
After a day of cycling through coffee fields with amazing views — and having a "gringo!" shout on camera — I decided to not go for weird rooms over a pharmacy that someone mentioned online, but to ask somewhere if I could camp somewhere. And after a (really beautiful) downhill my legs and body really screamed that it couldn't go on with the next uphill— that I did start—so I turned around and asked at something that looked like a Restaurant, a Restaurant with a big garden behind it, if I could maybe camp there. They were super accommodating (even if there was garbage lying around everywhere and the dogs were a nightmare) so I had a safe night of sleep. Turns out, this town was actually a "Zapatista" town, of local government and not following what the government says, primarily advocating for the rights of Indigenous people in the southern state of Chiapas. I ended up seeing a lot more of those towns — basically all the towns past Ocosingo. It's a bit of a rebellious community-driven anti-capitalist movement and a very local form of government, as far as I could understand, also from talking with the guide of the Toniná Maya site; more on the Maya site in a bit. (What definitely didn't improve from their self-governance and resistance is the quality of the roads.)
The following day was again a lot of climbing, that would bring me to Ocosingo. I was warned of this place—two cyclists were murdered here a few years back—so I was extra weary. However, everything was fine, no weird looks, no weird faces, just a hectic (due to traffic, like every Mexican city we've been to except Oaxaca), chaotic, and not exciting city. Also asked for a quesadilla without meat there, and that wasn't possible; I really thought I explained well to just make one sencilla, but still ended up getting one with ham inside. It's difficult. Nevertheless I managed to get to the campsite near the Maya ruins: The Maya ruins that turned out to be closed for two years, due to land disputes between the owner of the land and the government. (I wasn't the only one not to know, I talked with other German guests and they also had no idea.) I was explained the entire story from a lady from Czech who came to volunteer here for a while and has a big interest in Maya culture (not the one we saw in San Juan Chamula, where the culture seems to be a tourist travesty of what it once was, and they just drink and have tourist-funded posh-ceremonies all day long), and she also told me seeing the site IS possible, just have to ask for a private tour and pay more.
That campsite was nice, but the campsite the following day (Friday) near Nahá—after another super heavy day of cycling—is even nicer. Really quiet with lots of birds around and a beautiful area. I also met two Belgium cyclists who did the same route as we did there.
So, about the Maya: I watched a documentary before from National Geographic, and researched wiki a bit to learn about the many battles between Palenque and Tikál, where one kidnapped the leader of the other and vice versa, and that many times over (slight oversimplification there). It was really a lot of wars and fighting, despite the beginning of Maya civilization probably having been unification through religion and worship. The guide also talked with some pride of how the Tonina rulers captured the palenque city, and how Toniná became the dominant city that got paid tribute to from everywhere around, because it was so powerful. (Except, as I understood it, fighting and diseases also caused all Maya cities in the area to fall apart and be deserted, except highland and places like Chichen Itzá that were farther away.)
In the town I am now in, Nahá, live Lacandon Maya who still preserved most of their traditional culture and habits, and live only in a few remote villages. (They do have blenders in the kitchen, and they seemed all to eager to let me hear it.) It's an interesting read on Wikipedia; and I did see some people in traditional white robes.
Tomorrow I will go to the border town of Frontera corozal, and visit another Maya site there (by boat), to then enter Guatamala the next day (also by boat).もっと詳しく
旅行者Must read about Zapatistas: https://www.cafe-libertad.de/zapatismus. They achieved a lot for their own social well-being, against military power of the government. It is said the region is more dangerous, but I didn't notice anything. (Except they do distrust foreigners and the state, I have heard.)
Continuing on
3月14日, メキシコ ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C
I am not sure if we have mentioned it, but Tuxtla Gutierrez was hot. 35+ degrees hot; and that's not ideal for cycling. So on Wednesday I left a little after sunrise (6.40) on a route around the canyon, to take a more scenic route to San Cristobal. And I planned something Kathi would have hated — I hated it too, partially — namely, small, steep, rocky, bad gravel paths, all to avoid the car road out of tuxtla. It was heavy and I was sweating even that early on. But at some point the single- and double-tracks leveled off and become a gravel road again, I entered farmland with a flock of cows, horses, dogs and Ponys all in one picture. (Sadly, the picture isn't worth sharing). Oh, and in a town a bit further up, I got my, and our, first genuine "oh my god, a gringo!" Shout. Worth it, I guess: it made me laugh out loud.
The route went back to the canyon and gave me amazing views, this time from above, and went to Osumacinta. From there it went up-up-up again, and it was already getting hot-hot-hot. So, I was suffering. Luckily at some point a few genuine mountain streams (with lots of water!) Showed up for amazing cool-down options. At one, before another big climb, I met some other local bikers of whom one spoke English, so I had a genuine conversation about cycling. (Well, as much as I was capable, given my fatigue, to hold a conversation.)
I made it to another shitty hotel in another small village where I got faces of disbelief upon asking for vegetarian food, and slept for about 10 hours.
The following day I wanted to reach San Cristóbal early, to enjoy coffee, a drink, and maybe buy new shoes (because mine are, excuse my Spanish, proper fucked). The only thing standing between Ixtapa and my destination was 45 km and 1550 meters of climbing (how does this only go uphill?!), on gravel. But, the scenery was very nice, starting from mountain waters and forest to hills covered only with greenhouses containing what looked like only flowers. I finally reached Zincantán sometime around 11, and was somehow surprised it was a shithouse town with nothing to show for. Yes, there was another parade and fireworks, and maybe there is indigenous culture hidden behind the walls, but for a supposedly popular day-trip town there was nothing for me to see— except maybe the flowers of the local greenhouses on the local market. Some places don't understand tourism well; it's more than just opening a stand and selling mangoes and flowers. I did have a brunch tostada there which was very good; it is just not amazing cycling food, and of course there was another climb to go for San Cristóbal.
But, I reached the destination, and visited two bike stores. And guys, I don't get it, and didn't mention it before, but bike and bike-gear prices here are way higher than in Europe. So I would have paid significantly more (like 1.5-2 times!) of what I would pay in Europe. I opted instead in asking a local shoe-repair guy to fix it, and he did an excellent job in an hour for about 8 euros. [Shrug]
I also needed another battery and some more ride snacks, and of course the best place to look for batteries (standard cr2032 ones) is at the market. The market where some young girls giggle constantly over a foreigner (gringo?) talking to them, people constantly walk in different paces and run into one another in way too small corridors, and the market where you just walk around until you find something; but you generally will find it if you search long enough.
So I will go for Guatamala while visiting one or two or three Maya sites on the way, which I should reach in a week. I would say the next post will be all about Mayas; that, and about crossing a bit more dangerous area in Mexico.
I also talked with a guy from a coffee store, and I had coffee upon arriving in San Cristóbal from a village that I am about to visit soon, tenejapa; he mentioned that the local way of drinking coffee is boiling the coffee, like we had it already when camping. He loved it—we were not amazed. Traditional is definitely not always better.
But first, two more days in San Cristóbal, not of my own choosing. The last time of puking wasn't enough, so said Mexican tap water (which I do not drink!) or mexico in general, and I got a slight infection going. Luckily, the closest doctor just one block away from the hostel spoke German(!) and said it wasn't malaria, gave me antibiotics, probiotics, and painkillers. Already feeling slightly better. Plus, this gave me a chance to listen to traveling/hostel people. Should I interrupt a conversation and object to their quest of finding meaning in life through traveling? (Would that be hypocritical?)もっと詳しく
Mexicans *eyeroll*
3月6日, メキシコ ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C
Another (and last) guest commentary by Kathi
Due to the gastrointestinal issues mentioned in the previous post we took the bus to San Cristóbal. It’s a cute little city which was founded by the Spanish and is now conquered by tourists. The mexicans adapted by opening souvenir shops and indian restaurants (not recommended), integrating christianity in their existing mayan religions, and figuring out that coca cola has magical effects; they didn’t figure out, though, to not locate the museums at the very far end of the city.
We educated ourselves on Mayan Medicine as well as Chocolate- due to the included tasting the latter beats the first. Apparently there is one thing I do have in common with Mexicans: chocolate is sacred to us. I just wouldn’t go as far as including it in my prayers or wishing to be fertilized by a cocoa tree.
„O divine chocolate, we grind it on our knees, we beat it with our hands in prayer, and we drink it with our eyes lifted to the heavens.“
Since the puking really messed with my stamina we only did a small biketour to Chamula. The one and only attraction there is the church, where they hold ceremonies including lots of shots of „pox“—the local high-percentage alcohol used for burping, sometimes alternating it with cola to save money— super strong incense, very off-tune music, and sometimes even chicken sacrifices. Luckily, on the day we went there were only families lighting candles, praying, music; and of course more fireworks. (Jacco thought it resembled a couple of drunks trying to have a party more than a religious ceremony.) The plan was to go to Zinacantan after that to buy some souvenirs at the market, but the odds (Komoot, which sent us on a dead end forest track) were against that.
So we went for churros and chocolate instead, Jacco had a mezcalweedbeerdrink, followed by a great vegetarian dinner.
We’re back now in Tuxtla from where I‘m going back to Austria tomorrow.
Yesterday we were supposed to do a tour to Sumidero Canyon but this time it was Jacco’s stomach that interfered with our plans. [I didn't want to leave the puking fun to Kathi alone --- A. d. Red]. At least the agency was very accommodating: „so you cannot take the tour. There’s no cancellation policy, but what you can do is take the tour!“. Uhm, no?! Mexicans....
But things were ok again the next day so instead we took a Colectivo (small bus that stops in random places) to Chiapa de Corzo and did a boattour in the scenic, plasticfilled cañon.
And I must say, as much as I enjoyed this trip, there are certain things that are starting to get on my/our nerves (thus the title). First, people are super loud super early on and late at night. What seems to bother Jacco the most apart from that is the slow walking and not being able to pass--even though I explained to him that most Mexicans are approximately half his size; plus it’s frequently simply too hot to move faster. We also haven’t figured out the traffic rules yet, but when in doubt, honk. So some things we just accept with the explanation „Mexicans 🙄“. But who am I to judge. My tacos are still falling apart.もっと詳しく
Mierda que pasa
3月3日, メキシコ ⋅ 🌙 23 °C
After writing the previous footprint in Ciudad Ixtepec, there was another go-see-what's-up call: fireworks and loud music. Turns out to have been another carnaval parade with dancing and music on the streets, where Kathi also caught a useless little Cheetos bag that I am now using as a coin-wallet. After that, we had dinner in a US-style diner — or at least that's what we took it to be— to pay too much for a salad and a sandwich, so we went to a taco place afterwards for the main dish.
The next day was supposed to be a longer flat ride on the way too tuxtla, but after some weird gravel section I felt super weak, and was struggling to keep up with Kathi on the highway that followed. And we were supposed to follow that highway for the entire day with no alternative... So we changed course, decided to go to the beach, and figure things out there. Kathi also spotted a coffee shop in some town on the way, and of course a coffee break is hardly ever a bad idea. Then, when I was talking about the podcast I was listening to about the Anthropic vs Pentagon fight, another (white) guy who had just shown up started quite loud with "what are you doing here!?!". Initially, our reaction was to not start a conversation, but he seemed genuinely interested, and it turned out he was a Gringo from Florida who had moved nearby to a ranch (close to in the middle of nowhere) who just didn't expect any white people in THIS town. Because, according to him, there were a lot of sketchy people around; he even pointed some out to us. We were invited to visit him and his wife on his ranch, and they gave us some tips on where to go near the beach. It was an amazing conversation with them.
Coffee did wonders for me and we reached the, I must say, super uninteresting and ugly town of Salina Cruz; it was good the two people just mentioned gave us a nice beach location, because the town itself is really not worth it. We went to "playa brasil" and, after the price for a beach room magically went up from 200 pesos to 800 pesos when talking with some woman at the first spot we tried (she also didn't seem to notice or acknowledge the peculiarity of this abrupt and drastic price hike), we were allowed to camp on the beach in front of some beach restaurant. An amazing spot.
(Well... During the night I got scared that the waves were getting too close due to the tides changing, but that was fine. And in the morning, after the attached tent-view beach photo was taken, one of our first conversations was:
- "did the dog just shit on our tent?!"
- "yes. Yes he fucking did."
Not ideal.)
We had decided the evening before to go visit the people mentioned above this day and then take the bus to Tuxtla, but Kathi's movistar network again didn't reach to the beach, and it turned out that they, because they didn't hear from us [shrug] were going to a wedding instead. So, yeah, instead we decided to take the bus to Tuxtla, and cycle to San Cristóbal from there.
All of that went fine, until Kathi started feeling uneasy in the evening, and that unease quickly developed into a full-blown food poisoning with a full night and half a day of vomiting. According to some, "part of the foreigner price [of travelling in mexico]". We still don't know what caused it, because we shared basically everything. Ah, she also had her credit card sucked in by an ATM; Glück im Unglück, because of the food poisoning, we were still there on Monday to re-collect the card at the bank.
In the meantime, I checked out Tuxtla a bit: a much more modern city with not a lot of tourism, but big markets, food chains, and very very busy traffic. I had coffee with the locals (in a not hipster store, which I enjoy way more due to the authentic feeling), tried eating vegetarian but failed twice (once by ordering the wrong thing—rez is not arroz— second time by not getting what I ordered), and wandered rather aimlessly in the markets. Also tried understanding the Cartel situation and the who's-who of Cartel gangs and who's-where, and apparently we are now in a sub-gang (?) of the Sinaloa cartel.
We tried cycling today, as Kathi was looking better, but it was too early and we turned back. So tomorrow we are taking the bus to San Cristóbal and the cycling fun starts again in a week — alone. =(もっと詳しく
Getting out of the jungle
2月26日, メキシコ ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C
The rain in San Miguel Quetzaltepec did stop, just at the point we were about to say "fuck this/hilft ja ned". When I wanted to get some peanuts for the road when leaving, I nearly bought local unroasted coffee beans in a supermarket, which is a pleasant catch in multiple ways; I don't want to chew on coffee beans. (By the way, the coffee that you find in the rainforest, brewed locally, doesn't taste like coffee and is worse than the instant coffee we ourselves are making for breakfast.)
We started cycling /pushing our bike up more than 10% hills again and realized that it actually was a rainforest. We just didn't know how big it was. As Kathi put it on day one: "wow, this is endless 😍". And on day three: "wow, this is endless 😵💫😭". The riding was frequently beautiful with amazing vistas, but we really wanted some signs of civilization again: not having to ask around for food, having power, maybe even internet reception. We have already given up on expecting good or decent roads, though.
We camped twice, first by asking a farmer if we could acampar on his land for a night (between the f*cking ants), and the second time by following a river downstream and, again by asking, camping on a beautiful spot next to cocao beans and seeing tucans in the morning. We did have to cross a river by foot for that one, though. And we might have gotten ripped off by a jungle grandma we stopped at for lunch.
The initial road we planned went straight through the country, and we deviated from that to now go through a shorter route, close to the Pacific ocean, to tuxtla. On the way here, ciudad Ixtepec, we found the end of the rainforest and with that again dry and hot lands. We both had no idea however, that the rainforest that we were in, stretches all the way to north of tuxtla, so we will catch up with that again in about 4-5 days.
Today, the rest and restocking day, we had among other things some good tlayudas, huevos, chilaquiles, and horchata. We visited the local market — as I learned an excellent way to see culture and local people — where, as in so many places, the first row of stores were all selling the same stuff, chicken, then all vegies, and then some other stuff. The way of organizing (?) these is just remarkable.もっと詳しく
A mix of everything /entering the jungle
2月23日, メキシコ ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C
Starting from oaxaca on... which day is it again?... we had two more "must-see" tourist destinations to visit: Mitla and the Hierve el Agua. The first was must-see it because it was on the way anyway; the second because after the excruciating climb up there, anything becomes worth seeing by virtue of being the reward of the journey.
Actually, Mitla was a bit of a let-down with a very small archeological site and very few information — but I had Mexican "pizza" (tlayuda) with grasshoppers and Kathi a maassive quesadilla which was the highlight of the town for us. The climb to Hierve el Agua never got down 10% and was 600 meters of climbing, the descent to the town was so rough it also destroyed my jacket, and we were passed by multiple tourist busses going there (stupid tourists) but it _was_really nice there. A small pool, "waterfalls" of hardened calcium, and amazing views. Just bad facilities.
At that point we decided to not do any tourist-trap hunting for a bit (consciously or unconsciously), and we had even more climbing to do. Seriously, it just goes up and down continuously. We stopped early in a bigger town on the second day in a hotel with hot water (!), but the day to come was really an adventure.
First, I found out by accident that Kathis rear brakepads were through, and came to the very unpleasant discovery that Sram Apex 1 brakepads are not the same as sram apex 2 brakepads. I would like to post the meme of Bauke Mollema yelling "FUCKING SRAM!" Here. Luckily, it seems to work. Then came the dogs. These f*cking dogs here are really a nightmare, and as bad as in greece. Then came the rain, sometimes when pushing our bikes uphill, and the rain doesn't come in small doses here. We decided we have now visited a Rainforest: it is still raining while I write this (Monday morning).
In the late afternoon, soaking wet, we came to San Miguel Quetzaltepec, where we first wanted food and then a hotel. We asked around for food and were pointed by people to literally abandoned buildings. While having given up, and looking for the hotel, some guy said "how are you" without laughing, which we were grateful for, as it is generally a sign of speaking English. We asked for food, and he let us into another empty looking building, up two flights of stairs, to a room with two chairs, one table, and a big kitchen. Yes, there was a woman cooking there and she served us Mexican hot chocolate and Tamales (with chicken, which I ate because sometimes you don't have a choice). A very weird experience. We did have the Mexican thick cinnamon-spiced hot chocolate which was amazing.
Then we got to the hotel—a real shithouse—without electricity, where the lady asked 200 pesos which is way overpriced. She even asked for money for toilet paper when I asked for that: I refused the kind offer.
While now still hoping the rain lets off, another "communist" announcement in some native tongue is blasted through the local loudspeakers.もっと詳しく
Oaxaca touristy things
2月19日, メキシコ ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C
As the improper tourists we are, we had a bit of stressing around town to do to find spare batteries for my water purifier, electrolyte powder, and cooking alcohol. And we might have gone to thirty stores in total asking around for those things, but we got it all. First things first.
After all that, we had time and energy to do sightseeing, drink some excellent local coffees — not instant like you get in the small towns — and have some amazing food. And we didn't even have the shits yet, after having had some cold rice drink (horchata) with ice, tacos from roadside stands, and icecream from the market. In oaxaca you will manage as a vegetarian; in smaller pueblos it is not always easy and we will resort to cooking ourselves a bit more often.
On Wednesday we went to the biggest archeological site around, the _real_ Monte Alban, which was a city more than 2000 years ago and has a lot of temples. Temples temples temples. And a ball court (unknown if they also sacrificed the winner to the gods here). Mostly, it was super hot up there, which robbed you of all energy pretty quickly. We are both happy to have taken a tourist bus up there, and not to have tried going up there on our own accord (least of all bike up there).
Today we did a Mexican (Oaxacan) cooking class, where we made our own tortillas, empanadas, mole, saw foodbunnies that were so cute but "not ready for eating yet", and drank mezcal. Good way to get ready for more days of cycling, in the direction of tuxtla.もっと詳しく
One battle after another
2月16日, メキシコ ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C
A guest commentary by Katharina Varga
After leaving the hotel in the morning we started the part of the route that scared me the most. Lots of uphill, somehow no downhill. What kept me going was the occasional coke from a small Tienda and the rush of adrenaline you get when a pack of dogs tries going after you.
So when we reached Santiago Apoala after a rare “wobbly bobbly” downhill section (which cost me a sandal and the sleeve of my jacket) we decided that we deserve a rest day. Came in handy that it was not only really beautiful there, but also a big carnival hotspot. So naturally the gringos had to crash the party.
The day after started as usual by pushing our bikes up a hill (yes, we also ride them from time to time) and ended in an amazing view, where we set up our tent.
Then came our last day before going back to Oaxaca. We stopped in St. Ines at what seemed to be a restaurant to get some breakfast. Actually we got invited by a family to join their brunch. Jacco asked one of the guys what they were celebrating. Turns out someone died. Oops. So I didn’t dare to tell them that I was a vegetarian and silently ate my way around the chicken they served us (sauce was pretty good though).
Today we treated ourselves by taking a zero elevation route to Oaxaca. The price was to nearly get bitten by a bunch of dogs- still worth it.もっと詳しく
旅行者Best conversation of the trip (Struggling up a steep climb) : - why would you put a river up a hill? - they didn't [we weren't there yet] - no who would put a river up a hill?! - they didn't - who didn't?! Ah, never mind...
Vamos a volver por el gato
2月12日, メキシコ ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C
Our first dinner in mexico was street tostadas served on a roadside stand by some grandma, and were — also due to the difficulty involved in eating them — an amazing welcome. We love the food; but we wonder how long it takes before we get sick of tortillas with beans. Certainly not yet.
Despite the many cars really stinking the place up, people are chill towards cyclists and most of all super friendly in general. Even with my broken Spanish (which kinda works, though!) I/we love the openness of los gentes here 🇲🇽🇲🇽.
We had (local) coffee at a coffee shop with a super cute cat, and either for the coffee or for the cat we might try return there after our cycling trip. Then we wanted to go up Monte Albán, some archeological site, but with my amazing planning we ended up going up the _wrong_ Monte albán: Monte albán Chico. Nice view, but not the same.
(Ah, and we had huge cockroaches in our first apartment.)
Today (12 February) after the usual problems with the first day of cycling, we started tracing the old railroad track that once existed between Oaxaca and mexico city: super steep, heavy, rough, hot, but partially very nice. We had planned to stop at a hotel that was listed on bikepacking.com in an village in the middle of nowhere next to the railroad that no longer exists and, despite our doubts on there being anything whatsoever, we found the hotel operational and the town not deserted. So more tacos and beans for us tonight =).
And also more (different) tacos and beans tomorrow for breakfast.もっと詳しく
Why are they all staring at us?
2月9日, オーストリア ⋅ ☁️ 2 °C
We are on the way to 🏜️fiesta mexicana 🌮 and had a blast carrying the bikes to the train station at 7 am. Either I look like a bum or something was constantly going on behind us, because we were getting a lot of genuine stares. (We just waved back.)
We are flying to mexico city, then to oaxaca (by bus), at which time the cultural education and colonialism can start.もっと詳しく
旅行者
You found me a souvenir! ❤️
旅行者I will try 😅
旅行者https://www.statista.com/statistics/809887/lati… guatemala ranks even worse than mexico, and that is pretty low.