Going back to Chiapas

Street of Villahermosa Zona de Luz

We were now getting loser to Chiapas, the last Mexican region before the Guatemalan border. Our last stop before Palenque and its striking temples would be Villahermosa, the capital of the Tabasco state, and a not so charming city to visit in the humid heat.

Giant heads can weight as much as 30 tons

Crocodiles in love

Everybody agrees that you can cross the city without making a stop at the Parque Museo de La Venta, a huge park in the middle of the city, where people can admire giant Olmec heads and other artifacts found on oil fields west of the city. The park is also a zoo, as the administration wanted to show animals that were sharing the everyday life of the Indians. After the visit, I was excited to take the direction of Palenque, a small city in the jungle, at the foot of the Chiapas Mountain.

Statue of a monkey

I was lucky enough to go there few years back, when I took my first trip in Mexico, and since then, images of the site, as long as memories of San Cristobal de Las Casas.
Upon arrival in the city, found a cheap camping at US$4. We cooked diner, drank wine, and went to bed in the tropical heat.

Palenque, old city in the middle of the jungle

Eventually, the morning after, we arrived on the ruins of the old city at 10, and visited the immense site. One can only visit part of the city, as the rest is still buried under the jungle. This is one of the biggest Mayan cities in Mexico, a possibly the most beautiful, thanks to the natural surroundings.
We then left for San Cristobal, a city in the mountain, at 7,000 feet from sea level.
It was an exhausting 7 hours drive, and we arrived, we agreed it was time to settle for a small hotel. We didn’t have warm showers since Monterrey, and even if you don’t miss it much, it is still a dream that you can realize once in a while. While driving in the streets, we found a small and a room in a simple hotel with a parking lot for US$ 25.
Can’t wait for the shower!

We now keep the hood open while driving, to keep the temperature down

And I thought New York was a zoo

Veracruz cathedral

The following day, we left for Veracruz. After few hours, we arrived in the city, as Cortes did in 1519. The only difference is that we took the direction of the Toyota dealership in the outskirt of the city, so they could give the car another look. After dropping the vehicle, we took a cab to the center of the city. This is a real harbor, with cargo and fishing ships. This is also a city all about music, and there is a big carnival there in February.

Musician on the zocalo

We walked around town, and went to have seafood in the fish market. After we were done roaming in the streets and visiting the cathedral, we took a cab back to check on the car.
The mechanics suspect the heat could be coming from the transmission, but were not really sure. Toyota exists in Mexico only since 1999, so my 1996 model is unknown here, and they don’t have parts if needed. The best we can do is to take it easy, not go to fast, and make a run to the Guatemala border where I gather there are older Toyota vehicles. I have to say, everybody from the Japanese carmaker here in Mexico has been very nice, supportive, and they didn’t ask us for any money.
Anyhow, one more time it was almost dark and we wanted to drive a bit more south. Even so we decided we would never drive at night, there was hardly one day we didn’t do it since we arrived in Mexico. We will have to start earlier in the morning and stop before dark each time possible.

In the zoo

Two hours later, we arrived in Tlacotalpan, and we could already see that the fishermen village was really charming. I parked in front of what looked like a park, and few minutes later, a man popped out of nowhere and asked us if he could do something for us. Of course we said, we just need somewhere where we could sleep. He came back few minutes later with a woman who told us there was no problem, and that there were also showers there.
At this point, we had no idea where we landed, but I could say there was something strange with the wildlife in the surroundings. As Nadia was fixing some diner, many different animals were screaming around us.
When the morning came, we realized we were in some kind of zoo, with many birds who woke us up at sunrise.

Tlacotalpan

After another shower (a luxury as I took one the night before as well) and checking up the car, we left and drove back to the center of the village, where we walked the streets, and discovered a splendid chapel with elegant murals.
Back on the road, we took the direction of Catemaco, a small town on a Laguna. We arrived there for lunch, and had some seafood and chicken empanadas.

The Laguna

After which, anxious to put more distance behind us, and trusting our detailed Mexico map and the GPS, we decided to go around the Laguna by the east route, which should lead us to a larger road leading to Villahermosa.

Lunch in Catemaco

We had no idea, but it was the beginning of what would become my first off-road experience. Little by little, the road became smaller and smaller, to finally become a dirt road.

View from the dirt road

45 minutes later, looking at the map, we realized we only covered a fifth of our way to the biggest road. And the dirt road we were on was getting worst and worst, forcing me to constantly shift to low range. In addition, we calculated we only had one more hours of daylight. Regardless, we decided to continue. If I already turn back here with these conditions, I will not go very far in my adventure. So here we went, discovering many small villages full of people watching the crazy foreigners going through. At one point we asked one of them how was the upcoming path ‘Is the road ahead worst of better than the one behind?’ and he just replied ‘Do you really think it can be worst?’ But we made it. An hour later, after sunset, we were back in villages where people actually had cars.

Night is falling...

Half an hour later, we asked in a house on the roadside if we could camp there. After realizing they would not be able to squeeze any money out of us, they let us set camp.