Checking In
After a very uneventful passage from Honduras - where we managed to make good time thanks to some decent sailing (and the fact that we ran the motor the entire trip) - we arrived in Marina Chiapas near the Guatemala border. The reason we didn’t turn the engine off is that we blew a fuse in the start circuit and used our last spare before we left the anchorage in Honduras. We knew that the fuse was blown because the windlass is on the same circuit and Grete was unable to raise the anchor.
Given that, we decided to just keep the engine running the whole trip at very low RPM so that we wouldn’t overwhelm our struggling coolant pump and wouldn’t risk blowing out our last fuse.
After we arrived, I spent a significant part of each of the first three days involved in the check-in process. Mexico is the most painful and also the most expensive country we have cleared into so far. Part of the cost and time is because Mexico requires all vessels entering the country to get a Temporary Import Permit (TIP) for the boat. In order to get one, you have to get a ride to the Guatemalan border in order to complete the paperwork. It makes the whole affair a bit of a hassle, but luckily the marina arranges everything here so I just had to follow orders, which I spent 22 years doing in the Navy and got pretty good at.
Coolant Pump
So, the coolant pump continues to haunt us. The coolant pump that failed in Costa Rica that we had to replace needed to be checked. I was pretty sure that I must have messed up adding the liquid gasket sealant when I installed it. I went to Auto Zone and got a radiator pressure test kit (which was broken, so I went back and got a replacement - I tried three out in the store and finally found one that worked) so that I could see where the gap in the sealant was.
When I pressurized the system, the coolant leak wasn’t from around the pump but rather from the pump’s weep hole, indicating that the pump bearing seals themselves had failed. I sent that info to the place we ordered the pump from and they immediately sent us a replacement. The trouble is (and we didn’t know this at the time), the import process in Mexico is kind of like clearing a boat in - expensive and slow. So we sat in Chiapas not for the one week we thought we would be here, but instead for close to six weeks.
The new pump finally arrived at the end of our time here in a package that was used for the filming of an Ace Ventura remake. I installed it but we won’t know for a little while whether we are out of the woods yet with this system.
Tour
Since we didn’t think we would be here long, we booked a guided tour to a few sights nearby, along with another family and some stragglers from the marina. The first stop was a small archaeological sight called Izapa. It is a pre-Mayan sight that was neat to visit with a knowledgeable guide but would have been disappointing if we had visited without one.
Next up we went to a local artisan chocolate factory for breakfast and a lesson on the traditional chocolate making process. It was delicious and fun and the kids got a chance to grind the beans into a nice chocolate paste that we all got to sample at various stages in the process.
Next up we went to an old coffee farm/factory on the Mexican equivalent of a commune (they are called Ejidos). It was really pretty and we got to sample the coffee that comes from this part of Chiapas. Dublin decided he wanted to try it too and it turns out he likes coffee, but I’m not dealing with this kid hopped up on a cup of Joe anytime again soon.
On the way back, we stopped at a tomale shop and watched the women making tomales. They make about 1,000 per day and over 10,000 on the busiest week of the year, which I believe is Semana Santa (Easter). Unfortunately, what they had in quantity was lost in quality. We bought 10-15 tomales and after suffering through the shrimp skins and pork bones for a half dozen or so of them, we fed the local trash pandas with the rest.
Our last stop on the way back to the marina was at a roadside fruit stand where we got the best mangoes ever. They have Ataulfo mangoes here which are delicate so they don’t export them. We are right smack in the middle of the season and they are everywhere. So, so good that we went back on our with a rental car a few weeks later.
The restaurant in the marina was also having Ataulfo festival the whole time we were here so we got some great ceviches and margaritas.
San Cristobal and Sumidero
When we first arrived here in Chiapas, our good friends Ryan and Andrea from Low Expectations told us that we had to go to San Cristobal and Palenque. We told them that we weren’t going to be here very long and that we wouldn’t have time. But, as I mentioned above, we didn’t need to simply re-seat the pump but we actually had to wait for a replacement. So, we rented a car for a couple of days and took a road trip up to the mountains.
Before we left, I was trying to book a panga ride up the river through Sumidero Canyon. I had heard of it and seen a couple of pictures and wanted to go. The only booking info I could find online was for guided trips from San Cristobal and not anything that was geared toward people already at the canyon. I sent WhatsApp messages to several numbers I found with no luck at all. Then, I called a number and of course they didn’t speak any English so I tried to arrange it in Spanish. It was my first ever successful phone call in Spanish and I was very proud of myself.
We arrived for the tour and everything was great. The canyon is about half the height of the Grand Canyon, but instead of being several miles across, it is only a few hundred yards across, which makes zooming upriver in a panga at 30+ mph quite an awesome experience.
We also saw some monkeys and crocodiles along with tons of pelicans, which I didn’t realize lived this far inland. We didn’t understand basically anything that the tour guide said but got to spend a few hours enjoying this majestic site, which as the picture shows, Dublin found to be very thrilling.
We got to San Cristobal and checked into our hotel for the night. The rate for a room was $50, so we decided to get two rooms and gave the kids the chance to behave like big kids for the night. They handled it very well, including their utter joy at using the room to room phone. Fira remade the beds in the morning and they both loved having a bit of freedom for the night.
San Cristobal is a beautiful, colonial, mountain city at an elevation of about 7,000 feet. This meant, for the first time in a long time, we actually got cold. It gets down into the mid 50s at night and only as high as the mid 70s during the day, a stark contrast to 100+ real-feel all day every day at sea level.
The town is really pretty, with several beautiful pedestrian streets.
There are multiple huge central markets for handcrafts and food and things weren’t breaking the bank, so that was awesome. The architecture was similar to old Spain and the town is littered with many old cathedrals, many of which are now referred to as temples due to the heavy influence of Mayan or other Christian sects on the local religions.
We took a guided walking tour around town the next day and then headed back to the marina 6+ hours away by car. Our cats were very happy to see us and my eyes were in pain from all the driving we did in two days. It was an awesome short trip and left us wanting more.
Mother’s Day and 15th Anniversary
We were here so long that we had two holidays here. For Mother’s Day Grete didn’t want to do anything taxing so I made a huge pancake breakfast and that afternoon we ate at the fancy marina restaurant with the kids.
For our anniversary, we went to a really nice Argentinian steakhouse in Tapachula and had the best steak I have had in quite some time. We also just strolled around at the galleria afterward because the kids were putting themselves to bed at the boat and we could do whatever we wanted - but we are too old to want to do crazy stuff anymore.
Mirador el Posito
The pump still hadn’t arrived, so I looked around for short day-trip opportunities near the boat. I saw this viewpoint up in the mountains and we headed up. It wasn’t too high up, so it was still pretty hot, but the views of the mountain range were beautiful.
The mountains were completely embedded in the clouds which I think is pretty common here. The view from ‘the hand’ is basically of the Guatemala border.
On the drive back we stopped at a river crossing and waterfall to eat lunch. We had picked up a roti chicken and a big salad from Sam’s Club before heading up here. Grete loves a roti and I love eating at beautiful stops on the side of the road, so we both got what we wanted. We have gotten into the habit of letting the kids watch TV on their iPads when we drive now, so they also got what they wanted.
San Cristobal, Palenque and Agua Azul
We loved San Cristobal so much in our short visit that once we learned that our pump was still a week away from getting delivered we decided to take another trip up. This time, we found someone to watch our cats so that instead of a two-day trip we could take five. The extra time made it so that we could stay in San Cristobal longer and also have time to visit the ruins at Palenque and the cascades at Agua Azul.
We hired a guide for Palenque since we didn’t know any of its history and only planned to spend a couple of hours there. He spoke good English and taught us about the royal family and the archaeological history of the site.
We were not allowed inside King Pakal’s tomb, but we were allowed to go in the tomb of his wife, the Red Queen.
We walked up to the temple square and up the stairs to get a cool view over the temple grounds and surrounding landscape.
Palenque was built right at the start of the mountain range and right up against the jungle. Over time, the jungle has taken back much of the area and they are continuing to find more and more structures and history at the site and in the surrounding jungle.
The guide showed us the artwork that was on the lid of the sarcophagus of King Pakal and explained the interpretation that his body is going to the underworld while his spirit was rising to the heavens and the stars, sun and moon all around. Then he turned it on its side and told us how some people believe that he was an alien and that explains the precision of the buildings, etc. In this version, he turned the same drawing on its side and it looks like Pakal is on a space motorcycle zooming through the cosmos. It seems that many different cultures fall back on aliens and deities when their brains can’t figure it out.
Later on on the tour he was showing us another picture of how the sun god’s temple is aligned perfectly to let shafts of light through during the sunrise on the solstice. Dublin grabbed the picture and said, “And if you turn it like this, you can see the aliens coming into the temple.” We all laughed really hard, and I’m laughing again now as I write this. Dublin doesn’t joke often but when he does, he hits my funny bone hard.
I forgot to mention, the place I booked for us to stay the night we arrived near Palenque was right next to the park entrance. The place was a bunch of cabañas in the jungle which was neat. Many of them were in complete disrepair since the jungle takes things back quickly. The rooms had no air flow and no AC. It gets over 100 (and not dry desert heat) every day there. We had the hottest, sweatiest night of sleep ever and could not wait to check out in the morning.
There were Yucatán black howler monkeys in the trees singing to us while we ate breakfast. Unlike the howlers we grew accustomed to in Panama with the smooth calming growls, these things were a bit scary sounding.
After Palenque, we drove to Agua Azul, a series of waterfalls and cascades so that we could cool off. I had seen pictures online and thought that the water looked so blue because people used camera filters, etc. Nope. They call the place Agua Azul because the water is very, very azul. I took a picture but it isn’t anything like what we saw.
There is a paved walking trail along the side of the river so we walked up until we got to the top. The entire was was lined with small tiendas and restaurants and we were four of probably 20 tourists there that day. They were set up to handle a 1,000 people of more. Positive thinking I guess.
We walked back down to the bottom and then enjoyed a cold plunge that took our breath away. It was a great stop and rinsed off the heat we had accumulated in our sweat cabin the night before.
Next it was on to San Cristobol for the second time. This time we stayed for 2.5 days and got to explore a bit more than last time.
We visited a few more cathedrals/temples, two of which we had to walk up some largish hills to get to and were rewarded with great views back over the town and its surrounding farmlands.
The town also has countless murals scattered about in the alleys off the beaten path. Our walking tour guide on our first trip showed us a couple and we managed to find quite a few more on the trip.
And of course my Fira is a work of art too :)
While in town we gorged ourselves on local cuisine and the all-you-can-eat (-but-shouldn’t-eat-quite-so-much) buffet every day. All of us except Dublin have had various levels of the gurgly belly for a few days after the destruction we forced upon our digestive tracts. I got a few good runs in on the trip, once again visiting the local track for a spin or two.
We also took a small side trip from San Cristobol to the neighboring town of Chamula. The town has never been conquered by outsiders and the entire population speaks indigenous languages and follows those customs as well. The Spanish Catholics did build a large cathedral, now temple, that the people use to worship in their ways. The religion is a strange mix of Catholic saints, the Christian god, Mayan (and pre-Mayan) spiritualism and pantheism.
It is illegal to take photos inside, and if you are caught doing so your phone is likely to be destroyed, and you will have to pay a hefty fine. In addition, some people have been taken to jail. So, we have no pictures of the crazy scene we saw inside. The church has no pews, just a huge open floor-plan. Along both sides all the way to the main altar are statues of various saints. There is a lot of incense being burned. A lot, like it is hard to breath inside. In addition there were literally thousands of candles burning all over the place. Many are in groups of 10-20 on the floor, that ultimately melt together and form huge open fires.
The floor was covered in wax (which people were constantly scraping and scrubbing away), and pine needles. The place is a fire marshal’s wet dream.
Near the clusters of candles, there were people, kneeling on the floor and drinking Coca Cola or pox (the local distilled corn beverage - basically moonshine). They get drunk, and try to burp a lot to expel the evil from within. We didn’t witness any while we were inside, but apparently animal sacrifice is very common inside as well, usually chickens.
As I said, it was strange. Just outside there were lots of m-80s being launched into the air all around the town as well, so there were loud explosions going off all around. The whole place felt surreal and discomforting. After a little bit, we left and headed back to San Cristobol, and ultimately back to Marina Chiapas to install our pump and get back on our way north to the Sea of Cortez.