23 December, 2000
Not surprisingly, it was raining when we awoke this morning. The temperature had seemed to go up a little, which was a nice change, and by mid-morning the sun was even trying to peek through a little bit. Steve tried to make some atole to warm us up, and thinks maybe he is getting the hang of it a little bit (his attempt yesterday came out a lot like pudding).
We set to breaking camp and cleaning up as much as possible so we could head on back to Esmeralda (we had told Mike we would be back by dark today). Over the course of the morning we ended up chatting with Luke, a kid from Oregon who had traveled down by bus to hang out for a while. He and his pal hadn't brought a stove so we loaned him ours for a while to cook some hot food. He gave us a potato and some good conversation- we considered it a very fair deal. We also met up with Isabella and Antonio a couple from Guadalajara on a twenty day camping trip through the Yucatan and possibly into Guatemala. This was their second night ever camping and they were eager to learn any and all tips and tricks for how to make the process go smoothly. Steve really enjoyed chatting with them about Guatemala and Mexico as well as trying to answer some questions about how to sleep drier and ant-free. The conversation also helped us realize just how much we like our Maggiolina rooftop camper.
We finally made it into town by about noon and did a quick update. The girl running the internet cafe was pretty nervous about letting Steve hook up the laptop, but with promises that nothing on her system would be messed up, he finally talked her into it. The connection was pretty miserable (all ten computers routed through a single 56.6K modem) but we managed well enough.
As we got into Sandy to drive back to Ocosingo the weather turned dark on us again so we decided to skip Misol-Ha, despite the waterfall there having an excellent reputation. We'll just have to come back some other time. Rain and cold make for lousy waterfall weather. Made it back to the Ranch in time for another great meal and went to bed happy.
24-27 December, 2000
We really lucked into the deal we've had for the last several days at Rancho Esmeralda. We've been helping set up for breakfast and dinner and occassionally lighting the candles in the outhouses and in return we eat their fantastic food and most of the time just hang out. The ranch sits on about 26 acres with a bit of land dedicated to coffee plants, a bit to camping, a bit to horse corals and most of the rest to macadamia trees. The cabins came as an afterthought to make money while the owners wait for their macadamia trees to get big enough to yield a profitable crop. But make for a very nice, albeit rustic, place to spend a few days.
The mornings have been cool and foggy, some days even with a little drizzle. We did have a couple of fabulous days of about 80 degrees and clear blue skies. Christmas eve was a little bit crazy, all of the Mexican staff were given the evening off so it was just the five of us with 50 guests to take care of. Not so bad, really, but it was a fair bit of work to finish preparing the food (wonderful chicken with mole) and keep the drinks flowing. We had a great time though. It kept our minds off not being in front of a fireplace with a Christmas tree and family. Beebee has decided that there is no good reason to spend the Holidays away from family ever again (and Steve agrees).
The owners of The Ranch are currently looking for a manager couple and we thought we might have a go at it, but having been there for a few days, we realized that although beautiful, the ranch is just too far away from anything and that we would be better off spending our time getting to know Costa Rica instead of Chiapas, Mexico, where we have no intentions of ever living. It was pretty enough and relaxing enough that we may stop in again for a visit someday, especially if we can work the same sort of will-work-for-food deal.
The only real downside to the whole visit there was that towards the end we both seemed to come down with a little bit of digestive distress and what one Mexican medical book describes as "accelerated intestinal transit". Must have been some water somewhere or maybe some of the food in Palenque.
28 December, 2000
We left Rancho Esmeralda late this morning after chatting with Anna and Franz about good beaches on the Pacific Coast. They enthusiastically recommended Zipolite so we agreed that we would meet them there for New Year's Eve. Our destination for the evening was San Cristobal, about a two-hour drive. We were both still feeling a little under the weather. Since we were sick and San Cris is cold this time of year at 7,000+ feet, we opted to hotel it. The search for an affordable hotel with parking took us the better part of two hours, thank goodness we took time before to have a late lunch. Turns out there's a quaint little vegetarian-friendly restaurant, Tierra Madre, where we got soup and a huge piece of quiche for about three dollars, US.
Once we found a hotel, we took a tremendously hot shower and Beebee crawled into bed. We made a little dinner in our room, for which Beebee reluctantly awoke, immediatly going back to sleep afterwards.
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| Our hotel, Posada Isabel, in San Cristobal | Sandy, just barley fitting in the garden parking |
29 December, 2000
We felt much better this morning, and walked out of our hotel, planning on a quick breakfast and then the drive to Tuxtla Gutierrez. On our walk to a restaurant, we thought that since we bothered to drive up to San Cris, we should see the town a little and decided to stay another night. Ok, the spectacularly beautiful day might have played a part in that decision. We ran into Anna and Franz in the middle of our great breakfast of granola, yogurt, juice and coffee for Bb and tamales for Steve. We talked with them more about beaches and San Cris. We had a great day walking around, doing an update and shopping for a jacket for Bb. She also bought a wool scarf for Steve. We stayed out in the town all day and well into the evening. It felt great and we finished off the day by trading some of our used books for new-to-us fiction.
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| Interior of a church in San Cris, just before 5 o'clock mass | Beebee and the market scene in San Cristobal | How San Cris looks from inside a cafe while sipping a beer |
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| Just a street in San Cristobal | Steve and his new scarf that Beebee bought him. Sure is cold!! | Men doing streetwork in San Cris |
30 December, 2000
Back at the same restaurant for breakfast, but in a bit of a hurry today, as Beebee slept in until nine. The drive to Tuxtla was easy and we stopped just outside of town to take a two-hour boat ride down the Cañon de Sumidero. Beebee was less than thrilled at the prospect (she doesn't much like crowded boats), but she told Steve afterwards that, "It was probably better than sitting in the car waiting for you." Steve especially enjoyed the "probably" part of that statement. He, on the other hand, enjoyed the ride tremendously, but had hoped to see a little bit more wildlife in the canyon.
Speaking of wildlife, it has been a little disappointing how much we haven't seen in general. Sure we see the occasional beautiful bird and some exotic-looking critters, but Steve has been expecting to see wildlife in more of the vein of what he saw when he was in Costa Rica last… and so far that just hasn't happened.
Once in Tuxtla, We found lodging in what the guidebook and the sign out front called La Hacienda Hotel and Trailer Park. The reality of the situation was that it was an expensive (90 pesos), but passable hotel parking lot with not-level spaces to park and water and electrical hookups. The bathrooms were pretty clean and had almost-hot water. The place was acceptable for one night, but would have been a huge disappointment had we intended to spend a few days in Tuxtla.
We parked and grabbed a couple of bags and headed out to the Sam's Club down the street to get provisions for our beach camping. Sam's Club here is just like Costco in California and we felt weirdly transported. Just like being in the states, except everything is in Spanish. We got the impression that we needed a membership card to purchase anything, so we skipped out empty handed. It occured to Steve that if we ever had occasion to be in Tuxtla again we should just park in the Sam's Club lot, at least it was level. We walked on up the street to see what we could see, and low and behold, to Beebee's great delight, we found a shopping mall!! She's been craving a little luxury lately, like more than two shirts (one of which is usually dirty) to choose from in the morning. She drooled past the evening gowns and strappy sandals and on into the grocery store. They do that here in Mexico -- put supermarkets with everything you expect to see in Kmart as well as a full grocery selection, including produce, in a mall. Crazy.
We spent nearly two hours shopping and Beebee came away with a prize: a little red t-shirt with a white collar for 9.90 pesos. That's about a dollar and ten cents. She was very happy.
The following pics are all from our canyon tour:
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| Bluff | Gorgeous clouds | Reeds | Mexicans will put a shrine anywhere! |
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| Can you find the crocodile hidden in this picure? | More canyon | Have you seen so many vultures? | This waterfall creates some kind of mineral deposits that look a bit like a Christmas Tree | The end of the ride |
31 December, 2000
After a loud night (the parking lot is right next to a main city street and a near enough a stoplight that we were entertained most of the night by honking horns) we awoke and got on the road by 6:30. Tried to find some propane to refill our little tank as we both suspected that it was getting pretty low, but after trying three different places we gave up and drove into some wonderful sunny, hot weather. Yeah!!
We stopped for a quick lunch by the lovely Rio Copalite, that in the winter fills up the entire bed. Today, though, it was perfect for a dip.
Zipolite is wonderful. The Lonely Planet guidebook describes it as the best place in Mexico to, "…do as little as you like, in as little as you like, for as little as you like. The beach is clothing optional and as you get further west, bathing suits become less frequent. It seems more men go totally naked, and most women feel comfortable with their tops off. (And of course Beebee participated -- Steve, however kept his shorts on.)
We camped at El Tiburon, a little grassy area a few meters from the beach. When we got there on New Year's Eve, every hammock out front, facing the ocean, was full and people were everywhere. We had a couple beers and played some backgammon, then walked down the beach to find some food. Low and behold what do we find but a group of people roasting an entire suckling pig over and open fire on the beach. Holy cow, er… pig!. Rather primal, but if you're going to eat it, then you probably should be able to stomach killing and cooking it. The group was interesting -- one Spaniard, and three Yugoslavians sailing a double-mast through the Caribbean. We stopped and talked with them for quite a while, Steve was very excited to speak with someone with a Spanish accent for a change (softer overall, more lispy). We then found a restaurant and ate some fabulous fried fish and a couple of free "coco loco's" -- a rotgut rum drink mixed with coconut milk. Tasty, but lethal. We would have been happy to eat some pig, but they had just begun to cook it and it wasn't going to be ready until midnight or so.
Since we were tired and still a bit sick, we decided to forego any big partying and head off to an early bed.
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| Hammocks strung up at Tiburon | The coast just north of Zipolite | Steve and the coast in front of and to the south of Zipolite |