San Cristobal to Guatemala Border

I spent a full day walking around San Cristobal exploring the city. I was originally going to take a trolley tour but the operator required at least two people and since it was raining so hard no one else came, off on foot I went. San Cristobal is well worth the stop. The narrow cobble stone streets are filled with interesting shops, restaurants and bars, the local Indian people walk the streets selling their bracelets and knitted sweaters, going it a tourist feeling. And since San Cristobal gets a lot of tourists English speakers are easy enough to find.

With my Mexican auto insurance expiring soon I decided to head to Guatemala sooner rather than later, but first I wanted to stop and see some ruins at El Tenam Puente. The turn off to El Tenam Puente was easy enough to find, even in the rain and fog. I noticed that my odometer was going to turn to 50,000km very very soon and this distracted me from watching the road. I drove right past the tiny entrance to the ruins and found myself on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. I thought the dirt road was just part of the route to get there, until it got more and more narrow and steep for almost 10 kilometers, then pavement, and small lake but no ruins. I finally came to a small town called San Francisco and realized that I was way off course. San Francisco was a neat little town, everyone had a pool fed from some natural flowing crystal clear water, and even the tiny little shacks had pools.

Back up the twisty dirt path back to the ruins was a fun off road adventure, I find it harder to go uphill and the road was quite wet. Once I was back on the pavement the rain started to fall so hard that I could not see so I headed for the gas station for cover. Once the rain stopped I headed for the border, stopping for lunch at a place called San Gregorio and had one of the best BBQ chickens ever. I made it to the Guatemala border easy enough but decided to cross in the morning as you never know what delays you can encounter.

I regret leaving Mexico so early and letting all the negative comments from other affect my decision to limit my time here (more on this topic later).

See my route through Mexico here http://www.spotadventures.com/trip/view?trip_id=282646

Links

The Fiesta Inn in San Cristobal was a great place to stay, very friendly and helpful staff, clean rooms and great food. www.fiestainn.com