6:15am wake-up time and we were packed up and on the bikes by 8:15. How do we take so long? Taking the busy road for 15k, we turned off on what we thought would be a bit quieter route heading toward Frontera Corozal, the border town to catch a boat upstream and cross into Guatemala. Mexico has been very beautiful, but the traffic is a bit much. Enormous trucks constantly pass us, often releasing fumes into our faces and pebbles all around. This is something I will not miss. With the turnoff, no luck. A few more hours with the trucks and traffic before we were able to remove our helmets and enjoy a road with only a sporadic vehicle passing from either directions. We did not take as many photos as we would have liked. Books about this area have expressed the concern locals have, believing a part of the soul is removed with a photo. Because of this, we opted to take few pictures of the land and rarely photos of the people.
Knowing there were few towns, we stopped mid afternoon when we saw a hotel and restaurant sign. A young man working on a building greeted us and offered a room that was way above our budget. Another option, a free spot for our tent. Our home for the night bordered a stream that originated as a natural spring a few hundred yards away. Such beauty and we could hear the monkeys and toucans off in the distance. It turns out this property is owned and run by a family that is trying to instill a way of life that is good for the them, the community and the environment, something fairly rare in Mexico. It is a ranch that is in the process of being turned into an Ecotourism spot. They grow and raise all of the restaurant food on their property, recycle and give jobs to the locals. Hopefully their place takes off and they can continue to provide great service and opportunities to bring people from around the world.
Waking early, we enjoyed their breakfast buffet of beans, rice, quesadillas, fruit, juice, taquitos, and coffee. Buffets are like heaven for cycle tourers. I think our stomachs are never ending pits. Although we ate our fill, Ryan had not been feeling well since we woke that morning. You can probably guess how this went. 30 slow k's down the road, Ryan was hunched over throwing up. Poor guy. I felt so sorry for him. We bought a soda from a tiny, almost falling down shelter in hopes of settling his stomach. While he sat on a bench outside and I walked the grounds for the owner, 30+ kids moved in formed a semi-circle around Ryan. An enormous smile crossed my face as I made my way outside and witnessed the awe struck faces of the local children standing still as statues with inquiring eyes on Ryan and our bikes. What I would give to have two minutes inside those children's heads as they take us in. I walked up and said hola with a huge grin, only getting a few faint smiles in return. Mouths closed, they looked at me with saucer size eyes accompanied with beautiful long lashes. The kids here are extremely adorable. Ryan reached for the camera and as he started to take it out, close to half the children grabbed their neighbors hand and started to hide their faces. I guess the local Mayan belief of cameras taking part of a soul has carried down through generations. This deep into Chiapas, Spanish is the second language that is taught in schools but not spoken at home, so we couldn't even communicate with our broken Spanish.
Ryan ended up lying on the side of a non-shoulder road, throwing up intermittently between sips of water, as we tried to flag down a collectivo. An hour later and still no luck. We rode a bit further before we made it to a cross roads common for picking up collectivo's. One man finally agreed to tie our bikes and gear to the roof and drive us to the intersection to Frontera Corozal where we caught another van to take us the rest of the way into town. Adventurous eating habits mostly result in great meals in Mexico, but this time Ryan's luck had run out. We had originally planned on camping our last night in Mexico, but with Ryan being sick, we had to stay in a hotel with a bed, bathroom and fan. This unfortunately required spending half our pesos on just our room and still needed to pay to get of Mexican as well as a lift up river to cross into Guatemala.
With no ATM, bank or way to exchange money, I ate ramon for dinner and conserved our water before purchasing more until we knew our expenses for the following day. Ryan laid in bed for 16 straight hours with an extremely high fever. To be honest, I was a bit nervous at this point thinking what to do if Ryan's intense fever did not go down. Little money, no hospital, broken Spanish and fairly remote. Ah, the adventures of traveling. As always, we were fortunate as Ryan broke his fever in the night and he was feeling better.
We woke in the morning, found an independent boat owner to pilot us 30 minutes up river in a wooden river launch which saved us 150 pesos. The immigration officer did not charge us to leave the country. 2 pluses to start our day. We were not positive that people are charged to leave the country, but we think it simply depends on the person. This is the case in most of Mexico. Every person charges differently. Talk about profiling. We get charged all the time simply because we are tourists. It is definitely infuriating and something I will not miss, but it is just the way it is.
Knowing there were few towns, we stopped mid afternoon when we saw a hotel and restaurant sign. A young man working on a building greeted us and offered a room that was way above our budget. Another option, a free spot for our tent. Our home for the night bordered a stream that originated as a natural spring a few hundred yards away. Such beauty and we could hear the monkeys and toucans off in the distance. It turns out this property is owned and run by a family that is trying to instill a way of life that is good for the them, the community and the environment, something fairly rare in Mexico. It is a ranch that is in the process of being turned into an Ecotourism spot. They grow and raise all of the restaurant food on their property, recycle and give jobs to the locals. Hopefully their place takes off and they can continue to provide great service and opportunities to bring people from around the world.
Waking early, we enjoyed their breakfast buffet of beans, rice, quesadillas, fruit, juice, taquitos, and coffee. Buffets are like heaven for cycle tourers. I think our stomachs are never ending pits. Although we ate our fill, Ryan had not been feeling well since we woke that morning. You can probably guess how this went. 30 slow k's down the road, Ryan was hunched over throwing up. Poor guy. I felt so sorry for him. We bought a soda from a tiny, almost falling down shelter in hopes of settling his stomach. While he sat on a bench outside and I walked the grounds for the owner, 30+ kids moved in formed a semi-circle around Ryan. An enormous smile crossed my face as I made my way outside and witnessed the awe struck faces of the local children standing still as statues with inquiring eyes on Ryan and our bikes. What I would give to have two minutes inside those children's heads as they take us in. I walked up and said hola with a huge grin, only getting a few faint smiles in return. Mouths closed, they looked at me with saucer size eyes accompanied with beautiful long lashes. The kids here are extremely adorable. Ryan reached for the camera and as he started to take it out, close to half the children grabbed their neighbors hand and started to hide their faces. I guess the local Mayan belief of cameras taking part of a soul has carried down through generations. This deep into Chiapas, Spanish is the second language that is taught in schools but not spoken at home, so we couldn't even communicate with our broken Spanish.
Ryan ended up lying on the side of a non-shoulder road, throwing up intermittently between sips of water, as we tried to flag down a collectivo. An hour later and still no luck. We rode a bit further before we made it to a cross roads common for picking up collectivo's. One man finally agreed to tie our bikes and gear to the roof and drive us to the intersection to Frontera Corozal where we caught another van to take us the rest of the way into town. Adventurous eating habits mostly result in great meals in Mexico, but this time Ryan's luck had run out. We had originally planned on camping our last night in Mexico, but with Ryan being sick, we had to stay in a hotel with a bed, bathroom and fan. This unfortunately required spending half our pesos on just our room and still needed to pay to get of Mexican as well as a lift up river to cross into Guatemala.
With no ATM, bank or way to exchange money, I ate ramon for dinner and conserved our water before purchasing more until we knew our expenses for the following day. Ryan laid in bed for 16 straight hours with an extremely high fever. To be honest, I was a bit nervous at this point thinking what to do if Ryan's intense fever did not go down. Little money, no hospital, broken Spanish and fairly remote. Ah, the adventures of traveling. As always, we were fortunate as Ryan broke his fever in the night and he was feeling better.
We woke in the morning, found an independent boat owner to pilot us 30 minutes up river in a wooden river launch which saved us 150 pesos. The immigration officer did not charge us to leave the country. 2 pluses to start our day. We were not positive that people are charged to leave the country, but we think it simply depends on the person. This is the case in most of Mexico. Every person charges differently. Talk about profiling. We get charged all the time simply because we are tourists. It is definitely infuriating and something I will not miss, but it is just the way it is.
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