I made it to San Cristobal de Las Casas as planned, despite all the topes and occasional road block by the guerrillas. The Zapatistas are trying to get their voice heard by the Mexican government and to achieve that, they occasionally pose a road block and collect a toll to ride through their land.
In San Cristobal I learned that the fight is going on forever and it’s sort of a tradition and well, nobody really knows why they really fight. It started as a struggle for equality between natives and less native Mexicans. Long story short, that’s the kind of shit you get when colonizing lands that are already inhabited. Today the Zapatistas and the anti-Zapatista militia clash every now and then and after that have beers together (as said a local).
The town of San Cristobal is a very interesting place. Thriving with people from all parts of the globe and really rich in it’s ancient and more recent heritage. Perfect place to wait for Will, who was fashionably late. Gave me time to get some shots against Hepatitis and other diseases I didn’t want to get. And in Mexico healthcare is for free, so I think it was a good decision to wait till I got here.
Got some shots in the morning and then headed to the bar in the evening, meeting a friend of a friend who was in the area and well, we got some more shots. I must admit that was by far the worse idea I had on this trip yet…
Finally William joined me and we carried our way south, together at last. We were about to meet 2 more guys in Guatemala, one of them I already met, Jean, the crazy french. And there is to be another american from Alaska or so.
Our first stop will be in San Pedro de las Lagunas, Guatemala. As I have no maps for Guatemala, we have to navigate old school SAR (Stop, Ask, Ride).
The border crossing took us about an hour and a half all together. Get our money from Mexico (from the security deposit you have to leave when entering), get stamps, ride to the Guatemalan border and do the temporary importation and everything once again. This time with much less cash.
All in all was quite fun and while riding the few kilometers through La Mesilla everything felt rather different. We got into Central America.