Help Support The Blog by Clicking Through to Amazon.com

Thursday, November 2, 2017

DAY EIGHT: Tuxtla Gutierrez to Tapachula


This was a day of Intra-Chiapas travel.  My last time not leaving a state for two nights was in Texas.  Chiapas, similarly, makes up the bulk of the border with its southern neighbor.

I had a bit of a crisis going on with tonight's lodging.  I wanted to be as close as possible to the Guatemala border.  One hotel had worse reviews than my least favorite hotel of the expedition (Zar in San Luis Potosi).  It was the only one on booking or tripadvisor that allowed animals.  I really didn't want to stay at this place but would obviously have to unless I wanted to chop up one day into two.

HOWEVER, about six weeks ago while planning this trip I wrote down the names of hotels which allowed animals and were along my route.  I found one, which was on neither booking nor tripadvisor, and messaged them on facebook.  They wrote back and said yes they'd take pets.  I asked them if they had vacancy and heard nothing.  I woke up, messaged them again, saying I am planning my lodging for the evening and I need to hear back from them.  Four hours later, after receiving no reply, I wrote to them, "On my way, hopefully you'll have room for me".  I had the Lacantum (badly reviewed hotel) as a back-up and I was happy to spot numerous 'Auto-Hotels' on the way into town.  Auto-Hotels are garages you drive into, and the steel door unfurls behind your car.  You then go up to your room over the garage.  Their main clientele is guys who are cheating on their wives.  I would imagine everything is done via credit card for privacy, so Chucho and I would likely be fine in one of those.

The day was mellow with a few unmarked speed bumps, which thankfully I spotted in time.  There was a ten-minute stretch of pretty bad road.  I took every safe opportunity to go into the oncoming traffic lane to enjoy some smooth asphalt.

I was stopped at a military checkpoint again and questioned.  They had me get out of my car and open up the back.  He lifted one thing, felt a black plastic bag with his hand and told me to go.

When I filled up with gas, I was told their terminal doesn't accept foreign cards.  PEMEX which stands for Petroleros Mexicanos, has a near-monopoly on 'official' gas stations in the country (I saw a bp in Puebla and a place named Galgos today).  I was really skeptical of the guy and was forced to pay in dollars at a bad exchange rate.  I even negotiated with the guy on the exchange rate and he accepted, so I know he's keeping a portion of the difference.

About a half-hour from arriving in Tapachula, I went through a now-defunct toll booth and a guy stepped out in front of my car while I was going about ten.  He told me to pull over and I got a bad feeling despite a too-quick glance at official-looking ID hanging from his neck.  He and his buddy eagerly talked to me about crossing the border in Guate.  I figured these guys were border facilitators (we called them coyotes when my mom had a house in Guatemala City although that name has been usurped by human traffickers, the ones with willing traffickees).

One, Freddy, told me he could jump in and do it all for me right now.  I said dude there's no room for you.  He said I can have the dog and the suitcase on my lap.  I told him I was going to spend the night in Mexico and attack the border in the morning.  He kept pushing until I snapped, "I only stopped because you got in front of my car and I thought you were with the government".

Comically the simultaneous replies were as follows:

Freddy: "No, we're not with the government".
Freddy-in-training: "Yes, we're with the government".

I'm still debating whether to meet Freddy at the border as he will probably save me a half-hour or so (he said he can take copies of my paperwork and get in line while I'm in another line) and I have a six-hour day not including border time.  Meeting him at the more northern border will cost me fifteen or so minutes in travel time.  He claimed I would be turned back at the border I was planning on using but as you can imagine my trust level in him is low given his strong arm tactics/ID subterfuge.  Plus, if I had to guess, his buddy will be there and want a tip as well.

For dinner I asked the girl up front about where to go and she pointed me to a place a couple of blocks away.  I crossed the street with Chucho and passed a sign advertising fruit juices for sale.  Right next to it was another, more faded sign advertising Pupusas.  I spoke with the lady and she is from Soyapango (probably the most dangerous place in El Salvador)!  She sold me five pupusas at ten pesos each, which is the advertised but still solid price. Her Mexican husband then came to the door and asked me if I believed in Jesus.  Wanting to spare myself a lengthy sermon while pupusas changed hands and cooled, I told him I did.

While perusing the facebook page of this hotel, a woman asked, on fb, where it was as she was terrible with directions.  The owner replied with metes and bounds style directions, then added it was where her father's sanatorium was!  That is so metal.

No comments:

Post a Comment