A one week ride, McAllen TX - Chiapas Mex.

Wonderful, thank you.

This has been an enjoyable read. Thanks.

thanks guys

we kept going for more lakes, beautiful, to go to every lake, of course need to ride in the bike, take the paved road, ride some km or less, take a dirt road some couple km and there it is, and so on and on...

here we are at the Five Lakes, they are five and into one of this one of the pictures, is a inner lake, but actually is a Huge Cenote, that interconects with the other lakes, actuall they all are naturally interconnected - undergrund -








on the far middle end of this pic, is the huge cenote lake




that is the Cenote Lake









Get set, ready, Go!

Montebello Lake










From here we finally went ot the last lake, which is a kind of extension of Montebello Lake, and there we found a super cheap shack for rent.












we had just finished dealing with the owner on the shack cost, and get us a dinner, etc.. and I turn my head and see JC already on the lake, he found this little toy boat.:huh

then after a little ride, JC returns and commands everyone to get into the water.. you must Go!




uuummm...OK!








sunset was coming








that was Fun Andy, you should have go




naah man. I'm pretty relaxed here!

After the kids had enough fun, they went for a shower and a country mayan supper.


the mulitas and the shack







infamous Pata de Perro










Supper time! 9:00 PM



Excuseme mademoiselle! I have to drink Mi Cafe de Olla Cabrones!









you don't get tired to show off, right pata de perro?



a view from the balcony of our shack






finally I went to bed and WTF!! Subcomandante Marcos is in one of the beds!!




I'm must be tired, better don't pay attention to that and get some sleep, since tomorrow we have a fun long ride to Palenque via OCOSINGO....

Next day after Lagunas de Montebello, we head to Palenque Via Comitan-Ocosingo-Palenque.
It was partially rainy, and I was not too prepared for rain (what the hell I'm riding to warm areas, to the hell with rain gear.... these were my thoughts before start the trip at Reynosa).... I had only a cheap soccer game rain poncho...

So toward to Palenque, we had flat tires, we had more road blocks:eek1, and had to pay some money to let us thru and keep riding, he had a motorcycle accident.... we had a runaway... shit! keep tuned..

Uff. Que belleza han visto amigos!


"The true delight is in the finding I out rather than in the knowing." - Isaac Asimov

very nice. keep them coming.

Next day took the Rt 307 to Comitan and from there took a secondary road that meets with rt 218 before Ocosingo.

About 5 km before get to Ocosing, there was a road block with a tree trunk and two guys asking for a "cooperacion" to aid their needs... (drink?)

me: How much to let us thru man?

guy: 10 pesos...

akward silent....

me: o...kay... here you go..

guy: thank you!.. go ahead...

:huh


after that, JC still was having trouble with his rear tire flat, so Andres, we were re-inflate it every some miles, so finally at Ocosingo we stop at a "Talachera" to get the flats fixed..




While waiting for JC and Andres, a guy washing his truck told me that we should get prepared for road block right after Ocosingo. It was beng held by teachers protesting against the Educational Reform, and that no one was being allow unless pay a fee.
He said they will ask you at least 200 pesos or more.

:eek1 crap!

so when Andres and JC were done, I told every one about it and I suggested to have in hand a 50 pesos bill, then another 50 pesos bill available if they wanted more, but not show a 200 bill, since they for sure would keep it all.

With that we got to the line of the road block, it was some 3 miles long, so we skipped the whole stuff and went at the very block point.

as soon as they saw us, they did throw across the road a very long 2x4 full of nails pointing up, and yell at us: stop! stop!
I'm second in the line, and see Efra in front that talks to a woman, looks like she is the one in charge to collect the pass, since she has a notebook and a pen... then I see Efra hand her money and go thru.

Then is my turn and same yelling: stop! stop! (like if I were in a sudden attempt to full throtle the KLR and take off over the de freaking nails...)

She started to explain me a bunch of me bla bla bla
I did not let her finished and asked with anger voice:

How much?

Ten pesos

..another akward silence (from me)

I sliped the 20 pesos bill in my tank bag, took of my glove and diged for a 10 pesos coin.

Got the her, and she wrote it down on the notebook... and gave me a cheerfull:

go ahead!

:huh

that pissed me off more that the drunked guys before.

OK, just got even with the work load and now able to continue and finish this RR.


After the tires repair in Ocosingo, we headed towards Palenque.

This road is just Wonderful, so twisty, full of vegetation, mountains, rivers, you name it.

But....

But, some place about the middle point between Ocosingo and Palenque, JC was hit by a taxi driver when we were crossing one of the many little villages along the road.

I was driving #1, JC was #2, Andres #3 and Efra #4. We were separated each other by some 300 ft or so, but we could not see each other full time due to the so many twists, so I got to this village and see the cab entering to the main road (our road) without even look at the sides, so I honk to the assh... and he stops and I pass but getting a little bit on the oposite lane....
I keep driving and I dont see JC for some 5 minutes so I stop... next thing a collective transport stops where I am to download passage and the driver tells me that my buddy went down hit by a car.....

WTF???

I turn back as hell... thinking the worst...:eek1

I rode back as hell, thinking that the ride was over, that my buddy was down, and afraid of the worst sh..t.
I was doing high speed on the twists without thinkin on my own safety, just thinking on JC... oh sht.. when after some minutes I see a bike coming and I see is JC!!
Damn..! WTF? he is OK.!!?. we stop and I ask him what happened? he says he's OK, and I think the bus driver was wrong and was another some biker.. but immediately I see JC jacket and bike all beat up, his jacket torn and full of mud, the bike damaged on the right pannier and the signal lights twisted/broken and some other stuff broken... what happened JC?

he finally is able to talk and tells me that he got hit by a taxi driver, that he saw me when I just barely avoid the crash myself, and that after I passed, he flashes the lights and honked him, since the bastard did not care to look again for traffic and continued entering to the road...

then the driver saw him and stoped again to allow JC to pass, but at the very last second, the guy hesitated and let the car to go a little bit forward just when JC was maneuvering to avoid him, then with that little moving forward he did hit JC right pannier, and sent him on a discontrolled move, send him out over his bike... the bike did a 360 degree twist, JC flying over the road some 20 meters in front of the bike, and the bike dragging behind him..

he describes being draging himself on the pavement looking at the bike going after him.. and finally ending on the shoulder/ditch and the bike stoping right in behind him.. as he sees the taxi leaving the scene..

then he said he immediataly stood up and started to pick up the bike and the thrown stuff on the road when Andres and Efrain got there.. then he yells at them:

get that motherf..kr. red cab that hit me!

Andres and Efra turn back in a chase for the taxi driver...

Then JC regains his thougts, and evaluates himself for injuries, feeling that he's OK, turn the bike on again and starts riding behind Andres and Efra to get the driver at large...

it happens that in his dispair he took the oposit way, towards where I was..

So when I met him he was very confused asking me for the other two riders... (at this point I still did not know what have happend) So I tell him, I have not see them, they are behind me and you, what you mean?

then he realizes he rode in the oposite way and tells me the story. So we rode back to find Andres and Efrain and find out what was going on with their chase on the taxi...

So, we are riding very fast, when in one of the road twist we see Andres oncoming really really fast, and he see us and starts signaling desperately to turn Back! and follow him.. we (me) are thinking WTF?...

then right immediately shows up Efrain riding as hell also and signaling us as well very urgently to turn back and ride fast!!

WFT?

I immediatly (and JC) pictured a scene of bunch of mayans chasing Andres and Efrain to get them.. My first thought was (knowing Andres) that he got the driver and "LE PUSO UNA MADRIZA" (got him beaten very bad), so I think damn! the locals saw the beat up on the driver and they are chasing us back!

hell! I got to go quick!

JC is behind me and turns back first, then I in my desperation I kill the motor and I'm having a hard time to turn on the bike again...

While I'm working on turning the engin on, I'm constantly looking at my mirror, just expecting soon the cars or trucks trying to get us...
JC is riding already and slows a bit when he sees my trouble... then I managed to start on Pata de Perro and rev as hell....

I'm the last one now, and riding like freaking "Need for speed" movie :eek1

chekcing my mirror, and picturing the APOCALIPTO movie in my mind...

did you watch Apocalipto movie? when the mayan guy is being chased to get him killed? well, I felt the same... We were in Mayan territory you know?

Y Luego!

After some 20 min riding like if trying to win the Dakar Race, we got to the outskirts of Palenque and stoped.

Jc and I got to Andres and Efrain and wanted to know what the hell happened.

Did you guys beat the driver? no mamen!!

Then they said:

The taxi took a detour on a secondary dirt road and after a while we got the driver and made him pull over, Andres in the front and Efra in the back of the car... we dragged him out of the car and started asking him why in the hell he left the crash scene and left a rider down pretty beaten up...
the driver turned out to be a teenager or barely 18, and he got freak out and was very scared, he said he got scared and left.

Andres and Efra asked him to turn back with them to check on JC and evaluate the damages to pay for them and for hospital attention, etc...

then they saw that out of the blue, a bunch of locals started to appear around them, asking what the hell they were doing with the guy...

they explained the situation and so on, then another guy showed up and said that he was coming from the spot where the accident did happend and he did not see anybody down ( JC was left already.. remember..?)

so the crowd started going wild and accusign Andres and Efrain of harrasing the young driver (some of them used the word kidnaping).... blah, blah... and started to turn around the situation. Now asking our buddies to pay for the car damages and other sh..t.

After many argumantation, someone put hands on Andres' bike asking to leave it there as warrant....
Andres immediately talks on the Scala Cardo to Efrain and tells him they need to get the hell out of there asap.

Andres takes his GPS (an older version that looks lilke a Cell phone) and give it to the guy that is grabbing his bike:

here, take my cellular phone as warrant , letme go to check on my buddy and I'll return to settle this issue...

they have the bikes on iddle, so as soon as the guy lets go his bike, they rev it, hearing back many yells like: wait! dont go, you must pay! get them!!

At this point Andres and Efrain did not know that JC was in good condition, so they are too concerned to get to the crash scene to get JC and get caught by the mob right there....

then... in their crazy escape they saw us in oposite direction, I think they got some relief on their dispair when they saw us.


Well, this quick update and seeing that no one got that far on the chase, we continued more relaxed to Palenque.

Looked for a hotel to crash since the Archeological site was closed for the day...

We booked on one of the many hotels right on the driveway to the ruins, and started to chill out with a nice dinner.... beer.... a pool time... beer...

ahh!

So, after the crazy sh..t we got with incident and lacandones,

and the JC's bike miraculously in riding conditions...





we deserved a nice treatment...

the special sea soup of the house for me..









we even got treated so well that the bikes were welcome to dinner with us..

pool relaxing time...

JC was feeling not so good, he needed to grab a chair and put it into the water to seat on it... he felt some pain all over his body...

JC lets go to a doctor...

No I'm OK

sure?

yes, just the hits I got while crashing on the pavement and rollling over it, but I think that's all...




Ok then, lets get some rest, we all are too mentally exhausted we guess..




tomorrow we'll go to the piramids, you're OK?

yes! lets go!

Great reports- exciting. I read the thread at one sitting. Making me rethink my going to Chiapas in late October solo though.

Have fun traveling on.
John

Dont be afraid to go, as you can see on the tale, we got ourselves into the crap situation by being too agressive against the locals (we were in rage because of the accident) so we caused things to go out of control.

I think they are still waiting for Andres to get back to pick his "Cell Phone"

Other than that, we did not find any trouble. We crossed grounds ruled by EZLN, we had a pleasant ride thru the mountains.