My last morning in San Cristobal de las Casas I woke up early to climb the steps to the Cathedral. The sunrise was a little less than spectacular as it rises behind the mountains but it was a nice walk. I headed back to the hostel, had breakfast, and had some coffee before I packed my things to leave. As I was packing up the other hostel-goers started telling me I was going to get robbed out on the road I wanted to take. They were showing me some app that clearly said not to go the way I wanted to go. I didn’t believe them and didn’t really want to hear about it so I just jumped on Donkey and went for it.
What an adventure. My plan was to get all the way to Palenque which was about 6 hours driving the way I wanted to go. About 2 hours in I started seeing swarms of people walking in the road and I knew something was up. I saw a blockade of cars up ahead and they all told me to turn around. One guy said they would shoot me, as he pointed his fake gun at me and said, “pow, pow.”
I continued forward to find two big trees that had been cut to block the road and one little piece of the first one was cut out where people could walk under. I walked up to it to see if the bike would fit and figured if I just took the mirrors off it would. So I took them off and more people walked by and stared sadly at me as they told me not to go. I was just about to submit to my feelings of terror and turn back when the sweetest old guy hopped up to me and offered to help me pull the bike under the tree. I asked him what to expect ahead and he said, “oh no problem, they will just ask you for 50 pesos of maybe 100 because you are gringo.”
The happy old guy started pulling my bike for me, so I got at the rear and pushed. Once under the first tree he pointed to the way I should go to get around the next tree. He then said he had to get going because he was going for medicine for his wife in San Cristobal. He hopped away. The happiness I felt from his smile and warmth immediately faded at the dread of the uncertainty of what awaited me.
I started Donkey, drove the 2nd tree and continued forward until I saw more big rocks in the road blocking the way. I drove around the rocks and noted the burn marks all over the pavement.
Then I approached a little bamboo hut and as they heard the thump thump of Donkey some boys with guns crawled out and surrounded me. They looked mildly surprised and entertained as they said, “50 pesos.” I had hidden money in 6 different pockets of cash in different amounts so that whatever they charged I could pull it out in exact change because I knew there would be no change exchanged. They they waved me on and saluted me. The entire area was burnt with ash and had glass all over as if they broke or burned someone’s car there the night before. Man I wish I had filmed it.
As I pushed the throttle and Donkey responded my heart started to beat normally again.
I continued on and ran into some amber stores and bought some amber. Pretty cheap and some really cool pieces. A lot of pieces with bugs inside. The amber guy told me the way ahead was open and when I saw some big trucks I was relieved. I asked him what the hell was up with the roadblock and asked if it was mafia. He just whispered, “something like that,” as he shook his head and told me the way ahead was clear as far as he knew. I really didn’t want to deal with any more roadblocks.
After more rough hours of riding I finally arrived at Palenque. Immediately Palenque felt like an incredibly humid amazon town, the complete opposite of San Crisobal de las Casas. For the first time on the trip it just started to pour. Buckets and buckets fell from the sky. I felt myself get soaked to the bone.
Tomorrow I plan on driving around and exploring some local waterfalls.
