Today is my last day in Mexico. I will go into Guatemala tomorrow. From the sound of it, Fiona will get off this caravan in Guatemala. She told me last night that she was thinking, ‘you know, I will visit South America for my 40th birthday.’ I’m rushing through a lot of places and she wants to take her time. I am going to be spending a bit more money, but hopefully I meet someone in Tikal who wants a ride down to Costa Rica or something. Otherwise, I actually did enjoy traveling alone and perhaps it was meant for me to travel alone. I seem to be getting a lot more out of this trip that way.
I forgot to mention that apparently, the road from San Cristobal to Palenque is fairly dangerous. There’s the mountain passes, of course. We did 30 mph on average, and it took us a full 4 hours to go through 120 miles of mountains. But about 12 miles north and south of Agua Azul is infamous for armed roberries at night. So we were in heightened security mode when we were riding through.
So it was with a lot of surprise that almost drove into a rope blocking the road to Agua Azul. We didn’t know what the hell was going on, just that the entire 2 way street was blocked. I didn’t really know what to think, because all I saw were little girls, not armed bandits. It happened that the kids wanted us to stop so that they can sell us some fruits for money. After some hesitation, they let go of the rope and it flattened on the ground for us to pass. This happened twice yesterday and once today. I don’t really know what to think of this experience. All I know is that I did not like it and I don’t know why anyone should have to do that to survive.
Selling things on the road is not new, though. Almost half of the cities, large and small, that we pass through have people waiting to sell vegetables, snacks, and such. The bumps here, called topes, are plenty in numbers. Every village you pass through has one at either side of the village’s boundaries and sometimes several in between. Topes are tall enough that most of the time you have to come to a complete stop, and most villagers use this opportunity to sell things. Sometimes, we pass by an entire shop of clothes set up next to topes.
We arrived at Comitan around 2 PM today. The drive was fine, and didn’t seem very long at all. If I was alone, I would have driven into Guatemala today. But Fiona wanted to mail some postcards out, and I wanted to make sure I have everything straight. I used a few more minutes from my phone card to call home. Also, I went looking for a dentist. One side of my bottom wire had come off, so I walked around looking for one. I found one that looked good and started waiting outside with an old man for the dentist. Apparently, people here work at sporadic hours. This one wast open only between 4 to 8 pm. At 4:30, the guy was still AWOL, so I went looking for another one. I think today was the national dentist’s day off or something. I knocked on 3 straight dentists’ doors. One of them had a sign saying that he’s only working between 10 and 11:30 today, and the other two didn’t answer at all, even though their posted hours said they’ll be there. Finally, on the way back to the hotel, I found a dentist while just making sure that the roads were clear. He shoved the wire back in, but it’s pretty bent up now. He said a few things I didn’t understand, and I paid him 50 pesos for his troubles. At least it’s in, but I’m not sure if it’s doing any good, all bent out of shape. That dentist’s visit must have been the most random one he’s ever had. He didn’t speak english, I didn’t speak much spanish, and he dropped a few utensils, I started moving the light and the cap came off, and when I tried to give him the 50 pesos, it just dropped on the floor.