Day 27 – Tuxla Gutierrez to Palenque

Wow – what a day!!
The morning ride from Tuxla to San Cristobal de las Casas was
amazingly beautiful – the temperature dropped quite a bit – felt very
very nice. The road was excellent and San Cristobal was very cute. Had
a colonial feel to it with indigenous population. As Marc put it, it
was the first time we got a real feel for Mexican culture.
The ride then got really interesting.
It was only 100 miles to Palenque… we were warned that it would take
about 4 hours and that the roads were very windy… the sky was
gray… but we went ahead…
In the first half hour the rain started. We stopped to put some rain
gear on.
Then suddenly it got dark and it was only 6pm! The rain got really
heavy. After about an hour or two, totally drenched, going about 35
miles and hour, we stopped for a breather. Marc said that our
situation was pretty bleak – raining, dark, and in Mexico. I replied
saying that at least it wasn't cold.
We started riding again and I thought that the being in Mexico part
wasn't that worrisome… I was more worried about the road which I
couldn't see really well. I decided to risk my eyes a little and
lifted the visor up – we were going really slow anyway so the rain
drops weren't hurting that much. I also turned my rear view mirrors
down so that Marc's head lights weren't in my eyes…
Then I see a motorcycle light facing me on the right side of the
road… I turned the high beam off but then noticed that there was
something on the road. When I turned my high beams back on I saw two
men lying across the road and a pick up truck parked at an angle on
the shoulder of the road. One of the guys was moving… I saw no blood
and thought that they were too well aligned on the road to have been
thrown out of the truck, if it had crashed. I simply avoided the men
and kept on going… looked back hoping that Marc would not stop
either – which I was sure he wouldn't. I'm pretty sure it was a
setup… truly bizarre…
At an intersection we stopped briefly to make sure we were going in
the right direction and about 5 dogs came charging towards us… they
were fearless and ran along side us for a good 20 meters almost being
run over.
When we finally got to Palenque we stopped at a gas station – yes – I
was also almost out of gas – Marc started laughing almost
uncontrollably. He asked me if I had seen the "Entrando zona
revoculionaria Zapatista " sign and another sign from the "Federales"
with some warnings – I missed them completely. That obviously made him
even more nervous.
At one point a pick up truck made a U-turn in front of us… I thought
nothing of it because I saw the driver saying goodbye to a family on
the side of the road… we came to a full stop to allow him to make
the turn… I didn't notice that there was another pick up truck
behind us at that point. Marc was sure it was an elaborate kidnapping
scheme going on 🙂
One more – but this time it was reversed – I started to follow a pick
up truck – he would be my eyes ahead on the dark road – after a little
bit he started to slow down for no reason and started signaling us to
pass him – I didn't want to. So he accelerated and I kept up with him.
He repeated the slowing down and signaling and I realized that he was
scared of US! He probably thought it was strange that 2 motorcycles
were following him so closely.
In any case – we got to Palenque and found a nice hotel with
apparently good internet 🙂
Should have some videos up by tomorrow – they usually take about 4 or
5 hours to upload 🙂