RECAPPING OUR TIME IN THE STATE OF CHIAPAS

Its been a long time since we've posted and we've been busy!  We've really tried to pack a lot into this month so we have been go, go, go - not how we normally travel at all.  To put it mildly, we have loved the state of Chiapas.  The mountain scenery, pine forests, the towns and cities have been nothing short of awesome.

TAPACHULA
Our first stop in the state was Tapachula.  This was where we ended up after entering Mexico.  We were here for only two nights.  Just enough time to get our vehicle permit, find out that we couldn't get a regular tourist permit and to get a good nights sleep.  In the evening, we took a walk around the city, had some tasty Mexican food and sat in the center square soaking up the atmosphere.  Even though we were still feeling a bit sorry for ourselves we were really happy to be back - we love this country.

TUXTLA GUTIERREZ
Lots of military checks along the highway (six in fact).  We were searched four times and questioned twice. These guys never let us drive by, we are always stopped.  They usually start out so serious with us and by the end they are usually laughing (at us).  Imagine these guys with their big machine guns trying to pet Anna.  When they first pull us over, theres usually two or three military personnel and by the time we are ready to go theres a crowd around the truck, that we need to wave adios to.  These guys are always nice to us and we never mind being stopped by them.  In fact, we are glad they are there.

Tuxtla is a big city with all the big city conveniences.  We couldn't help but indulge in many Starbucks and enjoy a combo meal at Burger King.  As well there was an Autozone nearby where we conveniently waited out a rainstorm at Justins request.  We ended up spending a second day here relaxing after our long drive and figuring out a route for our time in the country.

SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS
What a drive!  From about 1700 feet to 7200 feet.  All up hill for over forty-eight kilometers. A really nice, but very slow drive with sometimes zero visibility up into the mountains.  But it was worth it, San Cristobal is a beautiful colonial city.

What we weren't prepared for was the cold.  Our first day there, after settling into our hotel, we went to go wander the streets in shorts and t-shirts.  Soon after, we turned around to go back to the truck to dig out our bag with winter clothes.  Shoes, socks, layers - yuck.  Its been a long time since we've been cold.  I guess we should of clued in after seeing a fireplace in our room.

We spent four days in the city, definitely not enough time.  Everyday we wandered around, checking out shops and drinking delicious Chiapas coffee.

fresh roasted Chiapas coffee

The best part of the city, we thought, was the market.  We have been to tonnes of markets on the trip and they usually are somewhat smelly and chaotic.  Not this one, it smelt divine.  All sorts of fruits and vegetables, drying herbs, spices and teas.  It made us wish we had a kitchen or at least a fridge.  Not that we would know what to do with even a quarter of it.  We walked out of it with full stomaches and just a couple of pesos poorer.

When we pulled into Mexico, it looked like Christmas - everything was decorated with green, red and white. We wondered what was going on, you could tell the country was gearing up for something.  So after some great detective work, we found out that Mexicos Independence Day was coming up.  We were pretty excited to see what was going to happen.  This is Mexico after all and they know how to party.  So after a day of watching them set up sound stages, lighting and flower displays we returned that evening to partake in the festivities.  Just when the show was starting to get good, mother nature decided to flood the streets. Everyone ran for cover and we ended up under a door way for about an hour.  There were rivers in the street - ankle deep water.  This doesn't work well with electricity as we all know!  We were soaked and ended up leaving for a hot shower.

a lake in the streets

PALENQUE
Next was a drive that was suppose to take four hours that took us nine.  An absolute beautiful drive through little villages with a backdrop of mountains and mist.  Other than the thousands of topes and rain that had washed away portions of the road, it was a spectacular drive.

we pulled over here to wait out a rain storm

More police checks along this road, one that was kinda interesting.  After being pulled over we thought there was something different about these guys.  They looked like cops, they acted like cops but their uniforms had no identification.  All they had on was an all black military style uniform and a bullet proof vest.  There were no cop cars around (that we could see) and they were heavily armed.  So when they asked for our identification, Justin asked them for theirs first.  "You, no policia," as he's pointing at them.  "No policia ropa," meaning in our bad spanish, that he doesn't have the uniform on.  So after a couple of snickers from his co-workers and them waving their hands at him, telling him to show us his identification, he forked over his and we forked over ours (and he was absolutely a police officer).  Oops.  How do we get away with this stuff.  They explained to us later that they don't wear id for their protection and their families.  They were really nice guys and understood our hesitation - and they got a laugh out of it as well.

We made it to Palenque and the next day caught a collectivo to the ruins.  We've seen a lot of ruins on this trip and these ones are definitely up there in our favourites.  What was unique to these ones was that we were able to go inside and see crypts.  Set into the jungle, these are impressive.

the royal bath at Palenque

The rest of our time we spent wandering around the town of Palenque.  According to our guide book its not much to see but we really liked it.  We loved walking up and down the streets, sitting in the square and drinking Chiapas coffee observing people going about their day.  We ended up in a shop that sold mezcal, run by a cute old man.  He worked his magic on us and we spent about half an hour tasting every type of mezcal he sold.  The last one he gave us Justin tried first and said, "Now thats got some meat and potatoes."  Once I tasted it I thought my insides were on fire.  It WAS fire in a bottle.  We left slightly tipsy with two bottles in tow.

I swear, it looked straight when I took it

We ended our stay in the state by figuring out that yet again we were in the wrong time zone.  I don't know how many times this has happened to us.

Coming up, our time in the state of Veracruz.........

the biggest flag we have ever seen

IT WAS SUPPOSE TO BE EASY

Our plan was to drive north through Central America as fast as we could and get back into Mexico.  No sight seeing just drive, sleep and eat.  We were going to basically duplicate our original route right down to the hotels we stayed at.  We assumed that the drive was going to be fairly easy and uncomplicated.  We never learn.

COSTA RICA
We knew we had to turn around at some point but actually pointing the truck north was a lot harder than we thought.  We believed that this was going to be the hardest part of this section of the trip.  But soon enough as everything started to go awry, we quickly forgot about it.

NICARAGUA
We took a wrong turn and ended up taking the worst road of the entire trip.  It was horrible, full of craters and mud, we could at most manage about ten mph.  It took us about three hours to navigate and was four wheel drive all the way.

after this the road got progressively worse - no photos

HONDURAS
You may think the following sentences will be full of complaints, after our last Honduras crossing but we didn't have any problems.  We were stopped three times and waved through one check point.  We showed all original documents, we were polite and they were very nice in return.  They only thing they asked to see was our license and registration.  Makes us think we were the problem last time.

at the border, crossing into Honduras

EL SALVADOR
It is such a tiny country, you think it would be easy to navigate and especially so, because we've already crossed it but not for us - we still managed to get lost.  The first day, we ended up taking two wrong turns that added hours onto our drive.

The next day we intended on crossing into Guatemala but that didn't happen.  As we were driving along we heard a bang and then smelled smoke.  We came to a stop and saw that the trans brake/emergency brake was on fire.  This ended up being a four and a half hour roadside repair.  All of the bolts that held the backing plate, backed off causing the trans brake to jam resulting in all of the bolts being damaged.  If we had the proper tools, it could of been repaired and we would still have an emergency brake.

wishing he had his old tools

actually got to use the emergency triangle

After that we were in no shape to deal with a border so we drove to the nearest town to find a place to stay. All we could find were auto hotels so we picked one and headed for the entrance.   This would be our second time staying at one and very different from our first experience.  When we got inside our room, we noticed a mystery box attached to the wall - this would become a great source of amusement for us the rest of the day.  When we got inside the phone rang, we answered but couldn't understand anything that the lady was saying to us.  We hung up and then heard noise coming from the mystery box.  We opened it and ended up talking to her through the hole in the wall.  It turns out, these hotels are even more discreet than we knew. All you have to do is place a call for food, drinks etc, put your money in the box, close the lid, listen for noise, then retrieve your item from the box.  Its how you pay for the room too.  We loved it!

dinner is served

GUATEMALA
The plan was to spend three days and two nights in Guatemala.  At the border we were told we were not allowed to enter the country.  They said that we needed to be out of the country for three months before we could reenter with the truck (after September 18th).  Big problem.  We were also told we wouldn't be able to cross back into El Salvador - not sure how true that is.  The only way they would let us in was if we paid $200 USD and then they would give us a permit that gave us 24 hours to cross Guatemala.  With no good options we paid it and after close to five hours we were finally allowed to leave.  On another note we were told that sometimes they enforce this rule, sometimes not.  It just wasn't our day.

This started a marathon drive dodging truckers, potholes and animals.  For seven hours we drove - without coffee or food (except for some melted Snickers bars and warm Gatorades) and we drove and we drove.

MEXICO
We arrived in the dark to an empty border.  This could be good or this could be bad.  Turns out it was bad. We had the most thorough and lengthly inspection of the truck yet and they didn't want to let Anna in.  They said our paperwork wasn't good enough for her, but eventually they relented.  The worst part was that they wouldn't give us tourist status (180 day permit).  No matter what we said, she would only give us a 30 day in-transit permit.  (If you remember, in our last post, our intentions were to spend the rest of our trip in Mexico).  After flipping through our passports, she said that because we had already been in the country for a long period of time, she could only give us 30 days.  She called her boss and he said no as well.  We don't understand why she did this.

So with our paperwork partially completed, we drove to the nearest town to find a place to stay.  We treated ourselves to a really nice hotel and finally had our first meal of the day at 10 pm that night.

very tired

The next day after getting our truck permit we began looking into changing our FFM status.  We were told that potentially they would change it.  We would need to exit the country, cancel our current paperwork and try again.  But exit the country where?  We can't get into Guatemala, staying in no-mans land wasn't very appealing and we would need to find a new border to enter at.  And it might not even work - they could give us a three day in-transit permit next time.  We don't even know if this information is correct.  We still can't find any information supporting why she could only give us a in-transit permit.  So very frustrating.  So instead of wasting our already dwindling days by trying to find a way to stay longer we're just going to make good use of the days we have.

getting the truck import permit

So no more leisurely pace for us, we have to step it up a notch if we are going to do all the things we want to do in this country.  We're still a little upset about the thirty days but we now have a new plan.  Stay tuned...

huge tamales and mole sauce - yum!

we're still so happy to be here