Tuxtla Gutierrez – San Cristobal de las Casas – Cascades Chiflon – Cuauhtemoc

3 days   |   260 kilometers   |   3650 meters elevation gain

I would have liked to be in San Cristobal de las Cases with Christmas but I simply cannot reach it in time. San Cristobal would have been the better option because it’s one of these nice touristy towns in the South of Mexico with possibly a lot of like-minded backpackers and travellers to celebrate Christmas with. I’ll have to settle with Tuxtla Gutierrez. A town that basically none of these above mentioned travellers visit, simply because it is a less polished town. The tourists that I meet here are only here because they are catching a flight from the nearby airport. Anyway, I’ll have to try to make the most of it.

On the night of my arrival I meet a German guy with which I roam the city a bit. We drink a beer on the square where every night they play live Marimba music. We have dinner together. Off to a good start with forming my Christmas-squad. However my German friend will leave town tomorrow to catch a flight elsewhere and soon my Christmas-squad line-up is empty again.

Christmas Eve! I’ll set out to buy myself some groceries in the morning. I miscalculate the weather completely and the wind cuts way too easily through my shorts and t-shirt. How did it get so cold suddenly? Whether they celebrate Christmas here in Mexico, you ask me? They sure do! The Spanish version of jingle bells is blazing through the speakers, the supermarket is bulging with people who are purchasing their last-minute Christmas food, the city is dressed up with blown up Christmas trees, balls and anything that has some lights on it. And I learn that with Christmas Eve everybody, just like home, is having dinners with their families.

Around noon I videocall with the home front. Everybody minus me has assembled in my parents house for the traditional Christmas Eve dinner.

It’s good to see everybody together but it also stings that I am not there. We have a great tradition at home to do a Secret Santa and make poems for each other and buy some gifts. I drew my father and made him a poem and bought him some gifts online that I’ve shipped to my brothers address. This way I could participate in the celebrations whilst looking at the screen of my phone to see how everybody was enjoying their night. Needless to say, but it’s just not the same. A strong feeling of homesickness is taking over. Even though I’ve been abroad during Christmas time more often, this year’s missing out is weighing a bit heavier on me. Those earlier occasions at least I was always with friends or a girlfriend. This year I am in a shithole of a city with nobody to celebrate with. I disconnect the videocall with the family.

“It’ll be lonely this Christmas
Without you to hold
It’ll be lonely this Christmas
Lonely and cold
It’ll be cold, so cold, without you to hold”

At night I meet a Mexican dude that talks too much and a nice young German couple to finalize my Christmas-squad. Not the strongest squad I could put together but I’m already super glad that I’ve found some people that were willing to play tonight. We eat tacos, drink a beer on the same Marimba square as yesterday and retreat to the hostel. There we find the family of the young night guard. Because he had to work on Christmas Eve the mom, sister and brother decided to pay him a visit at work. They sit in the lounge corner at the reception and have take-away food together. It warms my heart that they’ve found a way to be together. They ask if we want to join for a game of Uno and of course we play.

Christmas day. My stomach is not in its finest shape so I decide to book another two nights in the hostel to give my stomach some time to feel better. My thoughts go back to home where I would have slept over at my parents house and today we would have taken a nice walk somewhere, with beanies and scarfs against the cold. Instead, today I’m recharging my batteries, cleaning my bike and typing my blog.

Boxing day. In the morning I try pozol with Eduardo the Italian guy. Pozol is fermented corn dough mixed with cacao and made into a cold drink. It’s pretty good and we are surprised how filling the drink is.

Afterwards I pay a visit to the barber school in town to cut my hair. I decide to make a fun bike trip to El Cañón de Sumidero, basically the only highlight of the city of Tuxtla Gutierrez. At the entrance I’m told that bikes are only allowed from 06:30 to 07:30. What kind of inhuman and barbaric time is that?! I decide to lock my bike and pull my thumb out of it’s pocket to start swinging it around to oncoming traffic. Within minutes I’ve found a ride that is willing to take me aboard. A nice family with enough space in the back of their van is driving up to the various miradors overlooking the beautiful canyon.

Time to hit the road. Time to leave this disappointing city behind that accommodated me for a disappointing Christmas. I’ve been looking at todays route for a couple of days and it frightened me a bit. Every calculation I made spitted out an elevation gain that will be record-high. Better get to it. I have breakfast in the town of Chiapas de Corso and soon after breakfast the climbing starts. Due to my early departure this morning I think I have time to visit a waterfall that is not far from todays route. After that I have to take a dirt road that leads me onto the Cuota toll way and the real climbing awaits. Forty, for-ty, 40 kilometres of going straight up! No flat sections, no sections to catch a break and a breath. With an average speed of around 8 km/h that means it is 5 hours of climbing. Every break I give myself I have to put on another piece of garment. I first find myself under the clouds, then I start to emerge within the clouds and at the end of the climb I’m above the clouds. It is really though. After a second lunch I finish the last section and a little bit of down hill takes me into the town with the magical name of San Cristobal de las Casas. I’m broken but the adrenaline of the achievement is keeping me afloat.

I find a hostel that still has a spare bed in a dormitory. I decided to just stay one night here because I wouldn’t know what to do here than just stroll around this town for a bit. On the one hand this is the highlight of Southern Mexico, but on the other hand I kind off know these towns with their boutique shops, overpriced restaurants and fancy smoothie bars. For me, a night and a morning here is good enough to see it all.

My body is telling me to lay down on the bed and take some rest, but my mind is telling me it’s starting to get dark and that there’s work to be done! The mind wins and I take a shower and go into the city to check it out. I feel that the people are really starting to change the more I get south. I see a lot more indigenous people on the streets here where the women dress in beautifully coloured traditional gowns. Also the people get more colour in their faces with blushes on their puffy cheeks. I do get why this town is supposed to be the pearl of South Mexico, it has a nice vibe. I get caught in the middle of a wedding parade complete with a marching band and fireworks. The happy couple is shining in the middle of the parade. Time to get back to the hostel to give those legs some well deserved rest.

In the morning I make another round through the city to give this city the time it deserves. Back in the hostel I prepare for leaving and just when I said goodbye to the hostel staff, push my bike outside and swing my right leg over my saddle to take place I notice that this time I can feel the cobblestones vibrating through my tires, frame, saddle into my but cheeks just a bit too much. A quick glance gives a quick diagnosis: flat tire. Why is it always when you’re ready to go that you notice a flat? Anyway, time to greet the hostel staff again and fix this hiccup. Now I also still need to buy a new inner tube. All of this makes my departure around noon. When I’m finally on the road, all the topes (speed bumps) are driving me crazy. They are literally every 200 meter and they are annoying shaped speed bumps that make you slow down all the way. At some point I deviate from the asphalt onto a gravel road. The golden hour has arrived and the twilight is beautifully lighting up the corn fields that I’m cycling right in between. Too bad this off-roading is taking me a bit too long and on top of that I take some wrong turns. Looks like I’m not going to adhere to my number one rule of camping to find a spot in daylight today. The plan was to camp near the waterfalls that I will be visiting tomorrow morning but I see a nice little football pitch just before the entrance to the park and decide that this free option will do just as well. Fireflies sporadically light up above the pitch. When I’m about to cook my pasta-dinner in the dark I suddenly see a guy approaching me in the dark. He scares me a bit. We greet each other and make some small talk. Basically we’re probing each other, sensing if the other part is up to any good. I tell him my story and that I was planning to camp here. He tells me that I’m on somebody’s terrain.

I tell him that I saw no fences and nothing that looked like this football pitch was somebody’s territory. He also tells me that he is guarding the terrain and property next to the football pitch. I don’t like how this conversation is going, I feel like this guy wants to see some money or something. Than he asks if I want a coconut from the palm tree that is on the neighbouring terrain. I hesitate but tell him that that would be nice. He brings out a big machete to cut down two coconuts and prepares them such that we can drink the juice from it. In the meantime I’ve gotten my pocket knife and have it ready next to me. Just because I have a wrong feeling about this whole situation. So after the coco nuts I’m thinking he’s gonna charge me outrageously for the fruit but nothing so far. He sticks around next to me. I decide to just start cooking because I just want this guy to go. But then I find out that my lighter is nowhere to be seen and I need a spark to get my stove going. Without lighter no dinner and I’m starving. I can hit myself in the head by now. So now I have to ask the guy if he has a lighter. He doesn’t, but he jumps on his moped to get one for me. Damn it. I don’t want this guy to do any more for me, because I think he is going to need some money at the end of this whole situation. He comes back with a box of matches and tells me to keep it. Damn it. He will add that up to the final price. He sticks around some more. Finally I just ask him straight to the point if he wants something from me. “No, we are amigos”. And then he leaves. And he leaves me behind bewildered and confused. In the end the only thing he did was giving me a coconut and a box of matches. So he was just being friendly then? Was I wrong this whole time? What about my intuition that something was not right here? I don’t sleep very well.

Turns out I’ve been camping literally 50 meters from the entrance to the waterfalls. I’m the first customer to Cascades El Chiflon and have the place to myself. A rough estimate is that I’ve seen maybe a 100 waterfalls in my life but still it surprises me how big and mighty the biggest waterfall in the park is. It is hard to get a good picture because the water vapor wets the lens.

Back on the road I decide to take a shortcut towards the Mexico-Guatamalan border. Although I wonder how much time I actually save with a cut-off like this. Every time I deviate from the asphalt the road becomes really bad, these are not the gentle gravel roads with fine gravel. Rough rock beds welcome me. It’s the Great Divide all over again. It not only takes a lot of time, it’s also exhausting. The concentrated steering and the pounding over loose rocks. Poor Koga Miyata.

Back on tarmac I eat half a roasted chicken for lunch. I finish today’s ride and arrive in the border-town of Cuauhtemoc. I find the cheapest accommodation in town and buy a beer to enjoy my last night in Mexico. I sit down in the park with my beer.

Unfortunately this method (white man, alone, park) has been proven extremely effective in attracting all kinds of scumbags that want money from me. After a couple scumbags that politely go away after a “no, gracias” one guy is very persistent and keeps showing up after I’ve had to find myself another spot to enjoy my beer in peace. There is only one remedy left and that is to retrieve to my shabby hotel room.

When moments later I want to leave the hotel again to find myself some dinner I find all the doors and gates of the hotel locked. Hmm this is strange. I try every door, but there is no way to get out of the hotel. I know that the family of the hotel is residing somewhere on the first floor so I start shouting for help. Five minutes later a window opens, somebody shouts to me that the hotel closes at 7PM. Wow, this is so strange. Why did nobody tell me? Why does the hotel close? And why won’t they just open one of the doors for me quickly so that I can get some quick dinner? I keep standing there to ask for somebody to please open the door because I’m hungry, but they just leave me standing. After half an hour I take my loss and retrieve to my hotel room. I guess that’s it. My last evening in Mexico. Hungry I fall asleep.

Dear Mexico,

You’ve been amazing. At the start me and Jacko were a bit scared of all the stories that were circulating about you. About gangs and drug wars. But you turned out to be kind and beautiful instead. Your people have filled my days with happiness and your food has filled my stomach with satisfaction. Your deserts were remorseless and your mountains brutal, but it was all worth it to see every inch of your beautiful country.

Thanks,
A bike tourist.

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7 Replies to “Mexico Part IX: Lonely Christmas & Last Days in Mexico”

  1. Wat fijn dat we jouw kerst toch nog een klein beetje hebben kunnen opfleuren
    En hoewel je laatste dagen in Mexico niet zo gezellig waren heb je toch een prachtige tijd gehad in dat grote land
    En je besluit met een geweldig mooi betoog over Mexico , super mooi geschreven
    Xxx

  2. Geweldig!
    Als ik een gelegenheid zie, zal ik jouw tocht weer bij collega’s onder de aandacht brengen.
    Bonne route!

    1. Ah wat mooi om te horen Sjir! Ja dat doe maar eens! Maar weet niet wat ASML er van vindt als er opeens allemaal engineers stoppen en gaan fietsen als ze al dit moois lezen 😉

  3. Ontzettend leuk verhaal wederom. En hoewel de laatste dagen in Mexico iets minder charmant zijn, heb je toch weer het nodige beleefd.
    Wij bij ASML blijven nog wel even doorwerken terwijl jij heerlijk geniet van je fietsavontuur.
    Enjoy en #staysafe #stayhealthy

  4. Iedere keer ontzettend leuk om je verhalen te lezen. Met een kaart in de hand probeer ik je route te volgen. Onlangs zag ik in een van de vele praatprogramma’s een man die een paar jaar geleden een zelfde idee had als jij. Hij fietste in twee jaar van Vancouver naar Ushuaia op Vuurland. Hij deed er twee jaar over en heeft daarna een prachtig boek geschreven over zijn avontuur. Als jij in Ushuaia (Fin del Mundo) finisht is jouw boek al klaar.
    Reizen door Mexico, zo weten wij, is onwijs leuk. Wij deden het met een auto maar met een fiets is toch een ander en intenser niveau. Geweldig wat jij ziet en meemaakt. !!
    Guatemala en Honduras zijn volgens mij nu zo’n beetje aan de beurt. Als ik goed naar je moeder heb geluisterd komen dan Nicaragua en Costa Rica. In Costa Rica volgt de grote reünie in Fortuna. Een mooi vooruitzicht.
    Marijn een geweldige voortzetting van je reis. In Fortuna veel plezier.
    Pas goed op jezelf !!
    Ellen e Rini

    1. Wat een mooi bericht om te lezen, lieve Ellen en Rini. Fijn dat het goed ontvangen wordt en ik bevind me inderdaad ‘as we speak’ in Honduras. Ik geniet van elke dag en hoop dat vol te blijven houden 🙂

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