The road from San Cristobal to Palenque, again, was great. i can't say otherwise. Mexico is a GREAT motorcycle country!
Although in this stretch i almost died. Yes, DIED. A stupid mexican kid in a red (i think....) VW Beetle thought it was a good idea to pass a truck where i was riding. Real close, i think there was about 5 cm. between the truck and the beatle and the beetle and me. And me and the road's shoulder. Pretty intense. I had to stop for a while to get my grips, shaking so badly i couldn't lit my cigarette. Jeez. I saw myself crashing. Some way to leave this paradise for another isn't it? Didn't see my live passing the revue though...
I met two other motorcycle travellers on the road. 2 fully loaded 1200GSA's from Quebeck. They cheated though ;-) took a truck to Texas and started from there to Honduras and back.
Some people have money and limited time, others have limited money, but time. Looking at those GSA's reminded me of the good times i had with my GS though. One day...
Still love my TTR though! Still reliable. Wouldn't change it for a bigger bike.
(Observation: I thought a simple small bike wouldn't have the rich gringo appearance. I was wrong. In these areas people don't see the difference between a eur. 4000 and a eur. 20000 bike anyway, so every bike is bigger than what you see normally on the streets here.)
about 60kms before Palenque i had a nice luch at a recreational area. Nice waterfalls. I think it was called Aqua azul.
I met Monica at the busstation and we went
to "El Panchan" a nice area halfway between the village Palenque and
the ruins. Lots of campsites and cabanas situated in a rainforrest.
Hot, humid and beautiful. Here's our Cabana.
Cool place to chill out for a while.
Palenque, the archeological site, sure is beautiful.
Yes! I really was here, in case there's any doubt.
Although the main
buildings are excavated, surrounding areas and buildings are still overgrown by
rainforrest.
This creates a beautiful atmosphere.
During the excavation lots of artifacts were found. Partially displayed in the Museum. Very special is the tomb of one of the great rulers. The moved it from the Runs to the museum. Quite impressive.
Guatemale is really getting close now.
I first thought of going to Belize and jump to Guatemala from there, starting at Tikal, another ruine site. We decided otherwise and backtracked to San cristobal and went to Comitan, were we visited a beautiful lake area.
From there it was an easy crossing into Guatemala at La Mesilla, stopover at Huehuetenango and finally, well deserved, a beatiful couple of days in Antiqua.
You can see all pictures of this part of the trip here.
Although in this stretch i almost died. Yes, DIED. A stupid mexican kid in a red (i think....) VW Beetle thought it was a good idea to pass a truck where i was riding. Real close, i think there was about 5 cm. between the truck and the beatle and the beetle and me. And me and the road's shoulder. Pretty intense. I had to stop for a while to get my grips, shaking so badly i couldn't lit my cigarette. Jeez. I saw myself crashing. Some way to leave this paradise for another isn't it? Didn't see my live passing the revue though...
I met two other motorcycle travellers on the road. 2 fully loaded 1200GSA's from Quebeck. They cheated though ;-) took a truck to Texas and started from there to Honduras and back.
Some people have money and limited time, others have limited money, but time. Looking at those GSA's reminded me of the good times i had with my GS though. One day...
Still love my TTR though! Still reliable. Wouldn't change it for a bigger bike.
(Observation: I thought a simple small bike wouldn't have the rich gringo appearance. I was wrong. In these areas people don't see the difference between a eur. 4000 and a eur. 20000 bike anyway, so every bike is bigger than what you see normally on the streets here.)
about 60kms before Palenque i had a nice luch at a recreational area. Nice waterfalls. I think it was called Aqua azul.
I met Monica at the busstation and we went
to "El Panchan" a nice area halfway between the village Palenque and
the ruins. Lots of campsites and cabanas situated in a rainforrest.
Hot, humid and beautiful. Here's our Cabana.
Cool place to chill out for a while.
Palenque, the archeological site, sure is beautiful.
Yes! I really was here, in case there's any doubt.
Although the main
buildings are excavated, surrounding areas and buildings are still overgrown by
rainforrest.
This creates a beautiful atmosphere.
During the excavation lots of artifacts were found. Partially displayed in the Museum. Very special is the tomb of one of the great rulers. The moved it from the Runs to the museum. Quite impressive.
Guatemale is really getting close now.
I first thought of going to Belize and jump to Guatemala from there, starting at Tikal, another ruine site. We decided otherwise and backtracked to San cristobal and went to Comitan, were we visited a beautiful lake area.
From there it was an easy crossing into Guatemala at La Mesilla, stopover at Huehuetenango and finally, well deserved, a beatiful couple of days in Antiqua.
You can see all pictures of this part of the trip here.
