Chiapa de Corzo is a great little town – I intended to spend only one night but nice cheap hotel, friendly owners with the cutest daughter, and nice vibe on the plaza and the waterfront, convinced me to stay for three. The “La Pila Fountain” in the plaza is interesting – Chiapa de Corzo was the first Spanish settlement in Chiapas, and this building is a combination of indigenous and Moorish architecture.
I managed to get caught up in the parade of Baby Jesus’s. The group marched all round town, accompanied by 3 guys on tin whistles, and a lot of sparklers. Wish I knew what it all meant!
In the morning, leaving the hotel where I’d been for three days, this little sweetheart, daughter of the owners, was sad to see me go… and when it was time for me to leave she just came up to me looking sad and took my hand. Very touching, I wanted to take her with me…
I had an interesting ride today from Chiapa de Corzo to Pichucalca. Nice twisty road with plenty of elevation then down to follow a big wild river for a while. I was riding in thick fog for a time, and this is when I came upon a body laying face up and legs akimbo on the side of the road. Actually partly on the road. I thought maybe he’d been hit by a car in the fog, and the driver had done a runner… He really looked dead – I thought I’d better stop to check, but wasn’t sure what I’d do if he actually was dead. I figured I’d wave down a local and let them figure it out.
For a few seconds when I got to him, I could see no signs of life and was thinking oh shit… then his throat moved a little and I started slapping him around. There was vomit on his shirt, so I came to the conclusion that he was dead drunk. Meanwhile I tried to wave down some cars, three passed but nobody stopped. I got him sitting up and he was talking, so figured he would be ok so said “adios”.
It wasn’t till a bit later that I thought maybe playing dead was a tactic used by the bad guys to get people to stop? And maybe that’s why the locals didn’t stop when I tried to wave them down?
I was stopped at this checkpoint just before Pichucalca. Most of the time I don’t get stopped, and I think the times I do it’s just because the guys are bored and want to check out the bike. That was the case this time, we ended up joking around and the commander at the post suggested I have a photo with one of the soldiers. This guy was a bit of a comedian. Mexico is safe in his hands!
New Years Eve in Pichucalca and I headed out around 10pm to see what was happening on the Plaza. It was really weird – everything was closed and it was almost deserted. I’d never seen a plaza in a Mexican town so deserted. I found a food cart with hamburguesas, so that was dinner. What did they all do for New Years Eve?
I was back at the hotel well before midnight, but then all hell broke loose at midnight with people letting off fireworks. Actually not fireworks – more like bombs. It sounded like a war zone. Just when I thought the explosions could not get any bigger, the next BOOM! would be louder again. The “bombs” are triangular packages wrapped up like samosas, and the big ones look like they weigh about a pound. Dangerous fun!
