Stalking the Mayans

Puerto Chiapas, Chiapas, Mexico

We have covered a lot of ground since the last update.  I will try to be brief...

Last week we took a half-day tour to "Chocolate City", a small town close to the Guatemalan border, famous for their chocolate-making abilities.  We visited a family owned chocolate business where they demonstrated, using traditional tools and methods, how the chocolate goes from a pod on a tree to an incredibly rich hot chocolate drink.  You can see a couple of the local women hard at work in the accompanying pictures.  We both agreed that this was one of the most interesting, personal glimpses into the lives of a particular family that we have ever experienced.

They have recently won international acclaim for their particular product (at a big chocolate showdown in Italy) and it really shows when you take a sip of the aromatic brew - could be very addictive.

 

After leaving the chocolate business, we travelled a very short distance back towards Tapachula, where we were able to visit the Mayan ruins at Izapa, considered to be the oldest know Mayan site, possibly the birthplace of the Mayan calendar which has had so much publicity lately.  Indeed, on Dec 21st of last year, many people made a pilgrimage to this site to await the arrival of the end of the world.  It is generally believed that that did not actually take place.

After leaving the ruins, we travelled the 11 kms back to Tapachula where we had lunch at a local Botanaro, a bit of a different approach to food and drink than we have seen before.  Basically what they sell is beer (or if you really insist, Coca Cola) at a very reasonable price (25 pesos - about $2.00).  With each drink, the price includes a snack (botana) of your choice, usually some small, cooked delicacy of some sort such as a tamale or bowl of soup or some seafood or other.  This place is really popular with the locals and is a very family oriented affair.

After a day of rest back on Sine Timore (that means working on boat projects), we left with our guide Arturo for a 3-day trip to the town of "San Cristobal de Las Casas", located in a highland valley (2160m) surrounded by pine forest.  When we arrived, after a 5-hour drive, we were greeted by a cold, rainy day.  Not surprisingly I guess, we were totally unprepared for the cold - we have gotten so used to the warm temperatures that we neglected to take any warm clothing, including any footwear other than sandals.  Our hotel, while quite new and modern, had no heat at all (I am not sure there are any hotels in San Cristobal that would have been any better), but it did have lots of hot water, so we used hot showers to warm ourselves up and somehow we managed to survive.

In the afternoon we toured a couple of nearby villages which were both very unique.

The first, San Lorenzo Zinacantan, is the main village of the Zinacantan people, part of the Tzotzil Indians.  Elaborate woven shawls and embroidered blouses are the order of the day here.  We visited the home of a local family, three generations of women all named Maria, where we observed the incredibly complicated weaving process and Susanne was only too happy to buy a shawl to keep her warm.  They were a very welcoming family.

The second village, San Juan Chamula, is the home of a fiercely independent Tzotzil group, about 80,000 strong.  This is their main village and is the center for some unique religious practices - imagine a Catholic church with fresh pine needles spread thickly on the floor and various small animals calmly awaiting sacrifice, while families clear spaces on the floor to plant and light many candles and hold picnics, where sharing a bottle of Coca Cola is a solemn ritual.  The rest of their beliefs are similarly bizarre, at least to us.

The highlight to any visit to this area is, of course, a trip to ancient Mayan city at Palenque, probably the top destination of the state of Chiapas.  The 5 or 6 hour drive up from San Cristobal is not for the faint at heart, as the drivers try to make time on the busy, twisty switch-back strewn road, with more tope's (speed bumps) than you could possibly imagine - it is just over 200kms.  We were with a group of Spanish speaking people and the driver did not speak any English, so we weren't really sure where we were going until we got there - but that is half the fun.

Palenque is a very impressive site, one of the best examples of Maya architecture in Mexico.  Although only a fraction of the site has yet been excavated from the surrounding jungle, what is already uncovered is amazing.  Because of the distance involved in getting there and back in one day, we only had 2 hours in which to explore the ruins.  We hired an English speaking guide (a history student) who was able to give us a quick understanding of the site and I think we did a pretty good job of climbing up and down the more important features - if there are stairs, we always have to climb them.  Fortunately the weather cooperated and we had a beautiful sunny and warm day in which to really appreciate the site.

On the drive back from Palenque, we made two more stops, at two different waterfalls, at Misol-Ha and Agua Azul, each of interest in themselves but we would have preferred to have been able to spend more time at the Mayan site itself.  All in all, a very full day, leaving our hotel at 6AM and returning at 9:30PM.

Since we had not had a chance to explore San Cristobal as yet, we were able to extend our stay for another day, giving us a full day to tour around and see this wonderfully eclectic town, and hear about its exciting recent history.  Only 20 years ago, this was the center of the Zapatista rebels, and is still a hotspot for sympathizers (and opponents) of same.  In addition to a thriving tourist infrastructure and an interesting population of artsy and politically progressive foreigners and Mexicans, it has a great selection of hotels, cafes, bars and restaurants.  In some ways, there is a very 60's hippy vibe to the place, with the associated drug culture as well, I am sure.  There were lots of international tourists about, but not many from the US or Canada.  The big items to bring back from San Cristobal are Amber and Jade, both available in quantity and quite cheap.

For this last day in San Cristobal, the weather was blessedly warm and sunny, although the evenings cooled off very fast.  From what the locals were telling us, this was a very unusual cold snap - the coldest it has been this winter - just our luck to have been there for it.  I guess it will be good training for our imminent trip back to Edmonton in a few days.

Another visitor spotted at Palenque

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Coffee to go

Puerto Chiapas, Chiapas, Mexico

It is winter here but you couldn't prove it by us.  Every day the high temp for the day is 33C and the low every night is 18, although inside the boat it never cools down below 20.  We usually get a nice breeze in the afternoon so with our bimini and the new side curtains that we had made in La Paz, it is quite comfortable sitting in the cockpit, reading or whatever.

What is not really comfortable is working on boat projects, of which we seem to have a few. My main project has been to try and debug the water maker. After following the suggested troubleshooting guide, which told me to send it to the factory, I have been in email contact with the manufacturer to see if I cannot attempt a repair myself. At this point I believe it is a user-fixable issue - just have to install the seal kit that I actually do have one of. The only thing holding me up is trying to locate some non-petroleum silicon grease (I seem to have already used up all of the stingy amount they supply with the seal kit), the only type of lubricant allowed for the water maker. I may have to put this project on hold until we get back from Canada, which will be early next month.


A more successful project for me was my modification to our Engel freezer.  The freezer works great but because of the location that we keep it in, it does not get much air-flow around it and it has to work very hard, which uses up a lot of power.  Recently we have taken to putting one of our cabin fans on top of it, to blow air into it, and it does help, but we keep bumping into it or unplugging it accidentally because of its unfortunate location under our bed.  I have now made a more permanent installation, using one of my spare computer fans, complete with a nifty on/off switch.  So far, this seems to be working like a charm.

As for our ailing Balmar alternator, we have given it to a local mechanic who says he can fix it.  He says that not only are the bearings seized but some of the parts on the inside are actually melted.  He says he has all the parts he needs, although it will cost around $100US.  Considering a replacement costs around $750 from West Marine in the US, I think it is worth a try.

Meanwhile, to keep ourselves busy, we are doing a little touring around.  We started small, with a walk about 1-1/2 km to a small resort hotel and restaurant - really the only place in walking distance from the marina.  The food was just OK and they charged us a cover charge just to go into the place, in spite of the fact that there were only maybe a half dozen people there.  We will probably not be back.

Marina entrance, where we wait
for the collectivo.

Next, we took a trip into the nearby city of Tapachula via one of the local "collectivo" taxis.  It only costs 16 pesos (about $1.25) for the 25 mile ride, but you have to put up with squeezing 18 or 20 people into a van that could comfortably hold 12 or so - always an adventure.  After buying a few essentials (Diet Coke and some new pillows), we took a regular taxi back - much quicker but the cost was 250 pesos.  Tapachula is more or less just a regular city with not a lot of appeal for a tourist.  The population is about 300,000 according to our guide book.  The do have a Sams Club, Home Depot and Walmart, so it will be a good place to do some provisioning when we are finally ready to leave here.

Today, we took a tour of a coffee plantation, about an hour and a half by air-conditioned van, on the other side of Tapachula.  Coffee is best grown at higher altitude, so the road was mostly uphill on the way there.  We had breakfast at the plantation, then were given a tour of the whole process, from picking the beans to finished products ready for shipping.  It was very interesting in spite of the fact that it is not really harvest time right now, so the machines were all idle.  The did serve some pretty mean coffee for breakfast.

While at the plantation, we also got a tour of their flower gardens.  They have started growing exotic flowering plants for export to the US and Europe.  It is cool to see how easy it is to grow these things in this tropical climate - just stick a seed in the ground and it can't help but grow - at least that's how it looked to us.

Tomorrow we are going on another short day-trip to see a chocolate business, then on to what is reportedly one of the most important Mayan sites at Izapa.  Later this week, or maybe next, we have booked a 3-day Mayan tour to San Cristobal and the Mayan ruins of Palenque and the Misol-Ha waterfalls.  It is so nice to have the boat in such a nice, safe place that we can easily leave it without any concerns about security, or weather for that matter.

As mentioned earlier in this post, we will be flying to Canada for a couple of weeks.  We leave here on February 22nd, returning on March 9th.  We strongly suspect it will be a bit cooler in Edmonton.

Challenging the Tehuantepec

Puerto Chiapas, Chiapas, Mexico

After our brief stay in Huatulco, at Marina Chahue to be exact, we were ready to tackle the most dreaded of all passages on the Mexican Pacific coast, the infamous Tehuantepec.

But first, a few words about the Huatulco area.  This part of the west coast consists of a series of nine bays and thirty-six sandy beaches.  The Mexican government, in the form of the Fonatur agency, is developing this area as a medium to upscale resort area - very much a planned development.  We walked around the area where the marina is located and into the local town of La Crucecita.  The town had a bit of a Mexican small-town flavour to it but overall everything felt a little artificial to us.

A lot of the roads and buildings are less than 10 years old and it shows.  One of the big differences from other resort areas in Mexico is the lack of high-rise buildings and resorts - there is a 6-storey building height restriction for the entire area, in an effort to prevent it from becoming another Cancun or Acapulco.  Of course, we saw little of the actual resorts which were a bit too far for us to hike to in the intense heat and humidity, but from what we heard and saw as we sailed out of the bay, they were probably very nice.  If any of you are thinking of a resort getaway in Mexico, this may be a nice alternative.

Marina Chahue is a typical Mexican government-run establishment.  It is eternally almost finished.  They have created a nice paved lot for dry-docking boats but never bothered to finish the planned travelift to allow larger boats to be easily hauled out.  We watched an all-day marathon hualout of a 38-foot sailing vessel, using a variety of trucks, tractors and finally a front-end loader to drag it up the boat ramp. I would only use this facility if it was a last resort, but nice to know they could do it if they had to.  Note the promising looking Pemex sign in the accompanying photo - there are gas tanks and pumps and everything - just no actual gas or diessel to be had.  And it would be nice if they had decent washrooms and showers - they have quite a large building on the premises but nothing in it and meanwhile there is a single men's and perpetually locked women's washroom, with a bunch of security guys hanging around the doors, and a couple of completely exposed outdoor shower stalls.  They just don't seem to understand what cruisers are looking for.

The marina was fairly busy but certainly not full.  There were a few mega-yachts moored here, plus some local boats, and the few cruising yachts coming from or going to Central America.  Because of the large distances from the next port in either direction, not many yachts come here as a planned destination unto itself.  We were typical in that we were staying just long enough to get a good weather window for a passage across the Tehuantepec, and since that arrived at about the same time as we did, we did not linger here.

The Gulf of Tehuantepec spreads 260 miles from Huatulco (Puerto Angel) on the SW to Salina Cruz at its north head, down to Puerto Chiapas (formerly Puerto Madero) on the SE.  Separating the Pacific Ocean from the Gulf of Mexico is the 125-mile wide Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and the 75-mile gap in the Sierra Madres mountain range converges north of the head of the Gulf of Tehuantepec at Salina Cruz.  That's where the wind funnels through from the east coast, often creating gale-force winds with very little notice.  Winds in the 45 to 60 knot range are not unusual, accompanied by the resulting huge seas.  Thus, a strategy for crossing this body of water is prudent.

After consulting several cruising guides and authorities on the topic, it appears the only safe way to transit the Gulf of Tehuantepec is the "One Foot on the Beach" approach, hugging about 3-miles off the coast in about 100' of water.  This is a bit longer than just taking a direct heading across but allows you to remain in the lee of the shore in case it turns nasty - it makes a 215 mile crossing into a 245 mile passage, which is not really all that big a deal to us.  Of course, you still want to wait for at least a 2-day, preferably a 3-day, predicted weather window.  Fortunately, since these winds originate from the east coast, you can somewhat predict the likelihood of gales based on what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico.

For whatever reason, we had an ideal weather window predicted for at least a 3-day period, possibly much longer - most unusual for this time of year.  So we took advantage of the opportunity and headed out of Marina Chahue around 9:30AM on Wednesday.  As we headed out into the Pacific, some dark clouds appeared and we felt a few raindrops, but that cleared up almost immediately and we had a lovely, mostly sunny, very calm passage.

The down side to having such a fine weather window was that we had almost no wind to work with.  We put up the mainsail (the first time in a couple of weeks) and motorsailed in winds that rarely topped 5 knots for the first day.  We passed the busy shipping port of Salina Cruz during the night and saw absolutely no shipping traffic at all.  We did see a lot of the local fishing fleet however, all night and all the next day and night - had to keep a sharp eye on the radar at all times to avoid these large vessels (shrimpers?).

Still heading east into the sunrise each morning.

 

The conditions for the entire passage were benign.  Out of the total of 48 hours on this journey, we were only able to sail for one 6-hour stretch, on a beautiful beam-reach on the 2nd afternoon.  For the last half of the last night and early morning, we again picked up a favorable current and again had to virtually idle along to keep our speed down to under 6 knots.  We arrived at Puerto Chiapas around 9:30AM and were safely moored at Marina Chiapas by 10AM.



Threading through the Puerto Chiapas waterway.

Fishing is big business in Puerto Chiapas.

 

 

Because we are at the most southerly port in Mexico (we are only 14 miles from the Guatemala border), there is some heightened security around the port.  Before we were allowed to leave the boat, we had to wait for a visit from the local Port Captain and the Navy, complete with a drug-sniffing dog.  After a pile of paperwork, we were allowed to stay.

Marina Chiapas is brand new - this is their first year of operation.  The facilities are first-rate but there is little of interest around the area, which is quite industrial.  On the plus side are the incredibly nice showers - boy were we due!

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