Chiapas

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January 7th, 2005 - Whatta Day!

Jan 5: Villahermosa - Pichucalco 81 km
Jan 6: Pichucalco - Tapilula 55km (CRAZY day, and a very loonnnnggg story, read at your own risk)

Jan 5:
Got stuck in insane traffic outside of Villahermosa. But otherwise pleasant riding, banana groves and finally - mountains! Beautiful scenery, rolling hills, stayed in a mellow mountain town called Pichucalco.

Jan 6: In terms of insaneness, this day competes with even the most craziest days I've had in India.
The short story: Got locked into my hotel, got locked out of my hotel, my chain snapped, some of the steepest roads ever up beautiful mountains (I think I climbed at least 1,000 meters in one day - thats over 3,000 ft), five SCARY dog chases, caught a ride to Tapilula about 3km from it (the road was insanely steep) but randomly ended up at a Seventh Day Adventist University called Linda Vista, where I shared a room with a missionary and complied with the mandatory skirt dress code.

The long story, in diary form:

6:00 am: Woke up all psyched to ride mountains, but found the outside door to my hotel was locked. Knocked on all doors to no avail. Mentally debated the merits of rappelling down the rooftop but decided against it due to great risk of injury or police involvement.
7:30 am: Some guy appeared out of nowhere and opened the door. Left for a moment to pick up my laundry and returned to find the door locked again.
8:30 am: Finally left town on the steepest 3km I'd seen yet. Distinctly remember thinking 'I'm gonna die.' Heard something wrong with the chain, pulled over and one link was totally bent. Whipped out my mini-chain tool to fix it.
--Flashback to my bicycle mechanic class: The instructor, Maria, is trying to teach me how to fix a broken chain. I attempt to use my mini-chain tool but I would somehow screw-up each attempt, making the chains too stiff or losing the little pins that keep the links together. Maria gave me a handful of spare chains and I messed up each one. --
I figured it was like tweezing my eyebrows: when you tweeze too many hairs on one side, you need to tweeze more hairs on the other and eventually you're left without any eyebrow hairs at all. I pictured myself using the chain tool, screwing up link after link until there would be no chain left.
Sufficiently frightened, I decided to coast back to town and find a mechanic.
On the way back the chain snapped off completely.

9:15 am: Found a mechanic (they called him 'El Maestro'). I showed him my mini-chain tool as if to say 'look at this pathetic little thing' because for some reason I assumed he had a nice chain tool like the one at Broadway Bicycle. But no - he just banged the chain back together with a hammer. He didn't charge me a cent. Instead he presented me with a Spanish magazine which we went through laboriously as he excitedly pointed out each fine print paragraph that contained the words 'New York,' where the magazine was apparently published.
Had another cup of coffee in an attempt to regain that pumped 'Yeah, mountains!' feeling that I lost when my chain snapped.

10:30 HOLY SHIT, DOGS. My dog-chases today made my past dog-chases look like a friendly game of frisbee on a grassy lawn.
Since a bicycle is not a practical means of transportation on such steep roads, the Chiapas dogs are not used to them. Also, having an insanely steep mountain in front of you makes merely 'pedalling away' practically impossible. And when you've been pumping away on your lowest gear for hours, you're way to exhausted to escape.

Bad Dog Encounter 1: Caught me totally off guard. Many houses in Chiapas are built overlooking the road, most of them with dirth pathways leading from the road to the house. This dog must've been on the dirt pathway, because before I knew it there was a dog literally lunging at my leg and barking loudly.
I got away, and from then on brandished my bicycle pump in one hand like it was a gun.
Bad Dog Encounter 2: When one dog barks, the other ones come running. Two of them directly behind me, two more a short distance behind me.
Pathetic Bad Dog Encounter 3: Saw a couple dogs ahead on the road so I pulled over. To my right was an old woman drying coffee beans; she also had a dog on the porch. Even though she could barely walk, I hopefully figured she could save me when the dogs inevitably attacked me. Then her dog started barking which called the others to attention.
So there I was, staring up at a VERY steep climb, with four large dogs barking loudly (waiting to eat me), with the old woman to my right.
What did I do?
I froze. I stood there numb for at least ten minutes, scared shitless, totally embarrassed, and feeling utterly pathetic.
Finally all the dogs went onto the left side of the road, and I used my bicycle as a shield on my left side and slowly walked it up the mountain. They didn't come after me.
12:00: saw a cross on the side of the road with a little shrine, I'm assuming commemorating someone dead. The odd thing was that the shrine contained only 2 Coca Cola bottles. I really don't want to go out as Mexican roadkill.

12:30 ish: Damn, hard mountains. I paused to take stock of my weapons arsenal: a whistle, a cellphone with no service, a bicycle pump, and a swiss army knife. Again, I felt very helpless.

1:00 Stopped to take a break near a family selling oranges, but they didn't have change for my 50-peso bill. I stared wistfully at the oranges until they gave me a couple for free.

2:30 Goddamn roads. So steep. As I cruised downhill, losing all the precious altitude I'd just sweated for hours to gain, I reached a speed of nearly 50km/hr. The thought of having to regain all that precious altitude was very disconcerting.
Scenery reminds me alot of the foothills of Himalayas in Nepal, only here there's actually paved roads.

3:30 How many times can one's heart stop in one day? What is the difference between shock and cardiac arrest?
Really Bad Dog Encounter 4: This dog came after me but didn't stop chasing me!! I was screaming like all hell and trying to beat it with my pump. It was so frightening - it was literally lunging at my heels for a very long time as I - already completely exhausted - tried to pedal away. I looked back to see a woman come running after the dog, then her son came running after her, and then another kid... a whole long line of people trying to catch the dog that was barking at my feet.

3:31 My heart had just resumed beating when:
Worst Dog Encounter Ever 5: This dog was lazily lying in front of a house but it looked tame so I started to bike past it. It went APESHIT. I went into a state of mild panic and shock.
Since I was on the lowest gear I tried to get to a higher gear but since I was so scared my feet fumbled on the pedals while the big dog was RIGHT THERE, howling and barking... I was screaming sooo fucking loudly and yelling at the top of my lungs 'HELP! HELP!'
Nobody came.

3:32 Not sure if my heart was beating at this point. I was in such shock that I just sat on the side of the road, shaking uncontrollably and crying for a long time. Filled the pockets of my shorts with so many large rocks that it became difficult to pedal because the weight of the rocks kept pulling my shorts down. I didn't care.

The dogs had five excellent chances to eat me/kill me today, but they didn't even bite. This thought, however, does not comfort me in the slightest.

4:30 - I figured that I was about 5-10 km away from Tapilula. I pushed on another 5km, alternating between walking the bike and riding short distances. The roads are crazy- its like someone filled in the cracks of a steep staircase. I probably could've made it if I hadn't gotten such a late start or had to return to Pichucalco to fix the chain. When I saw a pack of dogs ahead (and a super-steep road, as usual) I decided to call it a day.

5:00 - Of course when I wanted a ride, it didn't come. Finally caught a microbus (a shared van-taxi type thing), and the driver, Alberto, convinced me to go to Rayon, about 12km past my intended destination of Tapilula (which was less than 3km from where I stopped. My map says Tapilula is at 1,000 meters. I cannot describe how crazy steep these roads are!)

5:30 The whole way to Rayon, Alberto kept saying something about some hotel at a Universidad with English speaking people. I wasn't sure exactly what he was talking about. All the microbus passengers got off in Rayon - the last stop. The hotel in Rayon looked dreary and the promise of an English-speaking university sounded so appealing that I decided to let Alberto drive me to the Universidad.

6:00 Once we're alone in the van, Alberto´s questions: Am I sure that I want to spend the night alone? Why am I alone? Where is my boyfriend? Why don't I like Mexicans? Am I really sure that I want to stay in the hotel by myself?
I kicked myself for making the stupid decision to have Alberto drive me, and I closely watched (knife in hand) to make sure that he didn't go off the main road.

6:30 There is a University - Universidad Linda Vista, a couple km outside of Pueblo Nuevo, but no hotel. Apparently Alberto just knew an English-speaking professor there, Professor Imer. We drove around campus for awhile searching for Professor Imer, then waited for him to finish a class. I'd given up trying to make sense of the situation.

7:00 Professor Imer turns out to be a very sweet music professor. I am passed on from director to director until it was determined that I'd share a room with an American missionary, Debra. The universidad was a strict Seventh Day Adventist school, with lots of rules, so I had to comply with the skirt dress code. Everyone thought I was the new missionary (who was supposed to arrive that week) but when they found out I was biking through Mexico I was treated like a celebrity. Apparently it was a Christian holiday and I'd arrived just in time for the festivites: bonfire, games, and loads of food. I met all the deans of the university who encouraged me to stay another day to observe the Sabbath with them... I declined.

January 9th, 2005 - Pickin' Wedgies

Jan 7 - 9
Universidad Linda Vista, San Cristobal, Puerto Escondito

So... after talking to lots of people I decided not to bike to San Cristobal. One, the roads are crazy; Two, the dogs nearly sent me into cardiac arrest; Three, everyone who I talked to kept on saying that there were 'muy gente mal,' very bad people, on the roads. Its not up to me to judge exactly how 'bad' the people are - everything could've gone totally fine - but I figured there was no point in risking it.

Anyway after dragging my bicycle up the mountain outside Universidad Linda Vista, I waited over two hours in a town called Pueblo Nuevo for a bus. When it finally came, the driver took one look at my bike and said 'No.' (Putting my bike on the buses hasn't been as easy as I expected, but I haven't encountered any major problems. Aside from the one asshole who made me take the entire bike apart, then charged me for it - even though the entire bottom of the bus was practically empty.)

So I approached a pickup-truck-type vehicle - I think they're called camions - and they tied my bike to the roof with a little piece of string. Eventually I ended up in the mountain city of San Cristobal.

Spent some time in San Cristobal, it's totally chilled out, lots of good places to eat, party, and hear live music. Good museums, too. But since it's a bit chilly (roughly equivalent to Boston in the spring) I decided to head for the beaches.

Took a 14 hour overnight bus to Puerto Escondito on the South Pacific Coast. I'm going to spend the last couple weeks biking up the coast as far as I can get...

Men with large guns: 3 (On the road to San Cristobal, hiding in the bushes. Probably military. There's a heavy military presence around this area for obvious reasons... this is the heart of the whole Zapatista conflict)

Flats: Still 0

Answers to Questions:
1) Men with blond hair and blue eyes that I saw a couple weeks ago were called menonites (thanks Basil). And according to my Mexican friends they immigrated here awhile ago and for the most part have managed not to intermarry... apparently they are also mostly self-sufficient in terms of providing their own food from farming.
2) Those two Coca Cola bottles in the roadside shrine? This is my own conjecture, but at the Mayan herbal medicine museum in San Cristobal I learnt that Mayans use all sorts of herbs and SODA, of all things - to ward off bad spirits. Maybe the Coca Cola bottles are related?

Epiphanies:

1) The bicyle is the master wedgie-giver.

Non-epiphanies:

1) The post office is closed on Sunday. Now I have to lug around the weight of stupid Subcommander Marcos dolls and colorful Chiapas headbands.
2) I told someone at the hostel that when a song on my ipod skips (I ripped some pretty crappy CDs for my ipod) I think its the sound of a barking dog and I get chills. She told me I have 'Vietnam Syndrome.'