Tag: Mexico

Guatemala Border Crossing at La Mesilla, on to Huehuetenango – 20220701

Border crossing day! 1.5 hours to get to the border from Comitan. Stopped 3.7 km short on the México side at the banjercito. They gave me my stamp out and a document to bring to the Guatemala side. No cost. Dudes were nice.

Entrance to Guatemala. 2nd border crossed!

Cross the border and immediately on the right is immigration. They gave me a form to fill out, my stamp, and I walked down like 30 seconds and they asked me to bring my bike around. They checked the Mexico doc and walked around the bike. They wanted the Mexico doc, drivers license, passport and reg. Super easy. Guy was nice.

Entry document. I have no idea why I wrote Nicaragua, but they didn’t care.

The border is pretty chill actually, pretty narrow entry and exit and the roads aren’t great. A couple shops throughout

I got one document from the Guatemalan side which cost 160 quetzales.

1 of 2 docs you get on Guatemalan side
2 of 2 docs you get on Gua side. 90 day verhicle permit.

Rather than get ripped off by the money exchange guys walking circles around me I walked 8 minutes uphill to get cash out of the cajero. One of my travel rules is to never exchange money, especially with people on the street. I got the paper and took off!

8 mins up the road you can get cash out of an ATM here

It was about 2 more hours to get to Huehuetenango. Overall it was a nice ride with amazing views but also some amazingly profound potholes that I dodged left and right. I’ve been to Guatemala before but I arrived with a really fresh perspective. Everything seems a little poorer yet a little more expensive.

The roads are generally in much worse shape than Mexico. I had remembered from before that the chicken bus drivers are all turdheads and a couple tried to kill me on the road already. Guatemala also has way more other motorcyclists than Mexico so I’m checking my blind spots much more because often someone would creep up on me without me noticing. I’ve found so far that people are a little friendlier here than Chiapas and more interested in what I’m doing.

Tonina Ruins, More Rebel Roadbloacks, and a Large Step Towards Guatemala – 20220630

Today I woke up a little late after a rough time trying to sleep. I slurped down some delicious coffee from the place I am staying, Casita Tonina, and hopped on Donkey over to the ruins.

My new favorite ruins

I was literally the only one there. Since I was on a motorcycle I arrived before all of the parades of tourists. I also think no one was going due to the mafia blockade between San Cristobal and Tonina.

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We both feel some type away about human sacrifices

Human sacrifices

Totally alone

I was literally the only tourist there for the entire hour I walked up and down the steps. By far my favorite experience exploring ruins, way cooler than the way more expensive and touristy spots in Guatemala.

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Tonina Ruins

Tonina Ruins

It started getting a little hot when I headed back and I started packing my things as the family as the Casita made me some huevos rancheros. The dinner was 120 pesos and breakfast 50. Both were amazing. I hopped on the moto around 11 and fired away certain I would have to deal with more roadblocks and BS today.

Man I got lucky. As I started riding and got about 45 minutes out I saw some big convoys of military trucks. I thought that was a good sign as the route was only 2.5 hours so I figured it was clear if they were heading through. But as I passed them and went around a curve I saw people with guns putting big logs again in the road. One dude was waving me over. I briefly pretended to go towards him and then I thought, “no f-ing way,” and gassed up and shot between the logs at full Donkey speed. I kept the gas in and after 10 minutes of riding Donkey hard started to ease up a bit.

I was pretty sure there would be a blockade ahead and I would be stuck between two blockades and shook with nervous excitement as the pavement whipped by. There were lots of signs saying it was a “rebel area” and I saw one other spot that was partially blocked off. I regret not stopping and taking a photo of the signs but the nervous excitement kept me a slave to the throttle.

When I drove through one of the villages there was a truck full of women with orange handkerchiefs in their hair and cars with loudspeakers that were going off at full volume. Immediately as I went by I heard the unmistakable sound of a gunshot. This was the first time in my life where I sat there and analyzed if something just hit me. I looked down at my body to see if anything was leaking red. I don’t know what was going on, but I saw all the locals peeking their heads out of their stores to fix their eyes on anything that might be happening in the street. I’m sure they are tired of this rebel BS. They seem to stand for nothing but anarchy.

I set my eyes forward and let Donkey scream at full volume as I shot through the little rebel villages.

I gassed all day and finally made it to Comitan where I took a much needed nap and my nap dreams of sugarplums quickly turned into a full night dream of sugarplums. Tomorrow I will cross the border to Guatemala!

Donkey always rearing to go

Ride from Palenque to Tonina – 20220629

Woke up around 830 and read my book outside the cabana for a little bit. I lazed around and finally started packing around 10 for 11 checkout. I got a message from the place I was going that the roads were all blocked going into Ocosingo. *sigh

Hard *sigh

So I went to the owner ladies at jungle palace and asked if they knew anything about it. They called someone and said the way was clear but I had no idea who to believe. I figured I’d give it a shot so I jumped on the motorcycle and started riding. The roads are a pain here as there is a lot of construction and they will just block things off for large periods of time. Like 30+ minutes in the middle of the day.

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Drone shot

View from the farmstay

My plan if I couldn’t get through was to head very begrudgingly to the Cancun area and drive down through Belize. I am desperately trying to avoid Belize. While the islands and water are the most gorgeous I have seen anywhere the Caribbean the spliff chain-smoking vibe was one I was trying to avoid on this trip.

Very happily, I made it all the way to Tonina and had the nicest day ever. I stayed at the prettiest little farmstay, run by a family that sell cows and rooms in their house. Casita Tonina. I caught up on some stuff on my computer and did a lot of reading. It was super relaxing and the universe gave me exactly what I needed that day.