San Cristobal

We heard San Cristobal was a pretty town with a lot to see, so we had booked two nights in advance before arrival. We woke up late this morning since we knew we had a full day to see everything we wanted, ate a breakfast of toast, jam, fruit and coffee, and headed out to explore the town. There was a 10k race going on around the town, so we sat to watch participants coming into the town square for it bit. It is interesting to see how many locals can afford to buy completely overpriced running clothes, camel backs, and other sorts of running gear in a country so “poor”. What a great feeling to see how large the upper class actually is. We weren't interested in seeing any of the museums around the town which are supposed to be great tourist attractions, and we had already gone to Sumidero Canyon which is the main day trip out of San Cristobal, so we walked around town and took pictures, bought some lunch and went back to our hostel to eat, went back out for another walk, watched a show going on in the town square, ate some local bread pastries and street mango's for dinner, and spent the rest of the night at our hostel. We started a campfire at the hostels fire pit and spend the night talking with an American guy and two German guys who were traveling along the same path as we were. We swapped stories and discussed traveling for the rest of the night. The American guy actually had an interesting story: he had just finalized his divorce a few months earlier but was currently on a trip he had planned with his wife a while before. They had already paid for the trip and then after got a divorce. So, they were actually on the same trip at the same time just two weeks apart from one another. She was two weeks behind him but trying to catch up with him. He was trying to avoid her since I gain she was probably the cause of the divorce. After a few drinks together, we made it to bed around 12:30-1a. 

While San Cristobal is a pretty town, it turns out there wasnt as much to do as we thought and we were looking forward to heading out the next morning. 

 One of the best things about being in Mexico...

Tuxtla to San Cristobal

We arrived to Tuxtla from OS pretty late, getting off the plane around 6 and finally hitting the road by 7. We don't particularly like driving at night but we had no interest in staying in Tuxtla and certainly did not want to spend another night in Chiapas del Corzo again, so we chose to head towards San Cristobal 1 hour away from the airport. In looking at the weather earlier, there would be a 60% chance of rain tonight, but we were determined to see how far we could make it before having to stop. The drive to San Cristobal was an easy hour staying behind cars to better get an idea of where pot holes and such would be. Arriving in town, the roads were suddenly soaked and we were happy to see that we had just missed the storm. No rain for us! We arrived at our hostel that I had previously booked without any problems, and were pleasantly surprised with the looks of the place. Not only did we get one free night since we had a motorcycle (world travelers by motorcycle or bicycle one night free), but the hostel was actually lively compared to the last few hostels we had been to. We got a private room with bathroom en-suite for two nights for 35 USD. Pretty good for a private bathroom. Right after checking in, it started raining pretty hard and we thanked our lucky stars that it had waited until we were done riding. We missed it again! We were hungry though, so we walked to a store a few blocks over in the rain to get some pasta and wine for dinner. We cooked at the hostel but with the hour we were the only ones hanging around the kitchen. This was our first time cooking our own food at a hostel instead of eating out.

Chiapas de Corzo to OS

We caught an early afternoon flight out of Tuxtla and were happy with the parking situation for our bike. Tuxtla airport is far enough away from town that we were assured there wouldn't be much riff raft eyeing our bike and felt alright about leaving it behind. We had a 5 hour layover in Mexico City before hitting Houston and finally home. Eric used this time to finish his application to Chico and I did some homework. These days are long, but helps on the mental transition from moto life to “real” life. 

Sumidero Canyon

We were told by the reception desk clerk that we should arrive to the boat dock that would take us to Sumidero Canyon around 9am, in hopes to get a boat by 10. The dock was only one block down the road, so we didn't rush to get there. Surprisingly there were no tour buses there and we were two of the handful of tourists that were there. We paid about 20 bucks total for a boat ride that would take us through the Canon and would take about 2 hours total. We shared the boat with about 20 people, 4 of which were English speaking Italians who we chatted a bit with and the rest Mexican. Where were all the other gringos? Sumidero Canyon is one of the top attractions of Chiapas, after all. 

 

Pulling out of the dock the driver of the boat/tour guide stopped to inform us that while we paid for the tour he himself does not see a dime of that money. He informed us that he works off of tips and counts on that money to feed his family, ect. After he finished, we were on our way. It took about 5 minutes to get to the opening of the canon down the river and as we drove through we passed another dock point which was obviously for much larger tour groups. That's where all the gringos go! We spent the next few hours taking photos the canon, wildlife, the river, and the dam at the end of the canon which was also the turn around point of the tour. Here, the tour guide stopped the boat, explained that this would be the end of his tour (even though we had the second half and way back to make) and asked for gratuity at this point. He passed around a hat which we all put some dinero into, and then took us over to a small boat which acted as a small snack shop where many of the tourists bought chips and drinks, and then quickly made our way back to the dock aside from an interesting stop into a small hole where we were able to see a large crocodile. 

  

I'm not normally a bird watcher, but there are so many interesting birds in the canyon that I couldn't help myself. Unfortunately, there is also a lot of trash in the river, so we often saw birds drying out in the sun next to a pile of trash like below..

 Monkeys in the trees

 Shrine in the cave

Our tour guide called this the Christmas tree of the canyon. I see the Christmas tree. But I also see an Indian face at the top of the tree

 Boat for snacks. This is actually a pretty good idea.

 

The time was about 12 when getting back to the dock, and Eric and I wondered what we would do for the rest of the day in such a small, sleepy town. We ate some lunch in the local market which was filling and tasty, and then decided on going to the top of the canon for a nice bike ride and some different view points of the canyon. We were glad we did. Apparently not too many tourists go to the top of the canon so the ride was peaceful and we only saw a handful of tourists in passing. What great views!

 

 Afterwards we ate dinner and hung around the town square people watching