Chiapas… a road trip.

I’m trying… I’m trying really hard to let go, to try to find a silver lining. I’m almost over it at this point, but still reserve the right to spew explicatives at some point along this post. We found ourselves outside of Chichen Itza with about a week to kill an nothing explicitly planned. We had originally intended to head West to either Huatulco or Puerto Angel, but I dropped the ball on the planning of this phase of the trip: I did not look into how we would actually get there. Turns out there are no direct flights or even indirect flights to get from Cancun to that part of the Pacific coast. Flights would have to stop-over in at least two different cities and they would cost us upwards of $1,300. We looked in to driving out there, but the roads are slow in this part of the country: a 23 hour trip driving flat out in one direction. Not exactly feasible. So we looked at a map, plotted a route and decided to kill at least a few days in the mountains before returning to catch our flight to the Caribbean. This seemed like a fantastic idea to me in particular, as I was sick of the oppressive heat of the Yucatan jungles. Some mountain exploring promised cooler temperatures and a change of pace from the tourist factory conditions of the Cancun area.

Our goal was to make it out to the the city of San Cristobal de las Casas, located high up in the Sierra Madre de Chiapas Mountains. It was going take us 3 days to get there, but at this point we were pretty used to driving around in Mexico. We started off by heading out to the coastal fishing town of Champoton (Google Map), 380 km west of Piste: a 5.5 hour trip. Champoton was a pretty refreshing change from Playa del Carmen in that there is absolutely no tourist infrastructure there. I think we saw a total of two hotels, neither one catering to either foreign or Mexican visitors. The town mostly follows a several kilometer stretch of rocky coastline where fishing boats return in the evening to fold up their nets and sell their catch along improvised little food stands on shore. There wasn’t much to see here, but the entire shoreline is set up as a very nice paseo where locals come to walk (and jog!) along, as the blistering sun retreats back into the Gulf of Mexico. This was the stuff of fantastic sunset photo opportunities… Not a bad start.

Next we continued on into the foothills, stopping at a shit-hole of a town called Palenque (Google Map), 300 km Southwest of Champoton: a 4 hour trip. Palenque was disappointing in so many ways. It’s a very tourist corrupted town, as it serves as a jumping off point for the nearby Mayan ruin of Palenque (for which the town was named). Food here was non-descript, service was comically atrocious, and just about everything was horribly over priced. We couldn’t help from feeling ripped off here (hint: foreshadowing), as numerous 2-for-1 drink specials failed to mention that the thimble sized drinks are billed at higher prices than some US nightclubs. Added to all this was an unbearable heat caused by too many people and a lack of any discernable breeze. We needed to get out of here and fast! The only redeemable aspect of this stop was a waterfall that we visited just outside of town called Misol-Ha: Very beautiful, and a nice pool where you can swim right under the falls.

We got out of town quickly the next day heading uphill to the town of San Cristobal (Google Map), 220 km Soutwest of Palenque: a 4.5 hour trip. This was Zapatista country, and you are reminded of this fact the entire drive up. To get anywhere around here you need to pass through heavily fortified military checkpoints, complete with armed soldiers and camouflaged pill boxes. These are not your typical Federales. Nominally the soldiers are here to curb the rampant drug smuggling coming up from South America, but one has to wonder if the 1994 armed uprising is still fresh in their minds (This is fascinating history, by the way). The roads here are quite windy and slow… “enhanced” by the numerous speed bumps (alternately called topes / vibradores) scattered through every town along the way. The locals here have a creative way to try and impose a “local tax” on people traveling through here. Every so often, a temporary road block is set up across the road consisting of a rope tied on one end to a tree and held taunt on the other… usually by a group of kids. If you actually stop, they will pester/demand that you buy whatever they are selling before letting you pass. Obviously the trick is to not stop, instead driving right through the rope… Accelerating and revving the engine actually improves results here. This game of chicken will usually end up with the road block getting dropped to the ground a split second before the rope gets ripped out of someone’s hands. We never actually hit the rope, but saw some being tied up and repaired at points, so I guess their timing is not always perfect.

San Cristobal itself is a pretty cool town… an old colonial settlement established high in the mountains at 7000 ft. There is some amazing scenery surrounding the town, great for hiking and such which we unfortunately did not have any time to do. We did however go to a nearby canyon called Sumidero, and took a boat tour along the river through towering rocks on either side. Very cool.

Just when we were getting ready to make our way back to Cancun, the unthinkable happened. Ana had gone downstairs to check us out of our hotel, and I was busy packing the remainder of our stuff. When she returned I could tell immediately that something was wrong: “Don’t panic… stay calm… stay calm. The car is gone.” Of course, this immediately set me in a state of panic. The entire car!!! I had figured that we might get some clothes stolen at some point… some money maybe… perhaps even the laptop. We had contingencies for all these things. But an entire car? Would we have to pay for it? We were technically insured through our Visa card, but who knows when it comes to actually collecting on a claim. I couldn’t believe it. We had parked directly in front of the hotel door. How could this happen?

We made it down to the police station (thank God Ana speaks Spanish) to check, and sure enough our car hadn’t been towed that night. The officer there told us that these things happened pretty often and that the car was probably on an Indian reservation by now (either that or Guatemala) because the police don’t have jurisdiction there. So no hope of recovering the car. Meanwhile our credit card had already been charged $9000 USD because the police had to inform the rental company to create a police report. So we were officially screwed. No hope of having the insurance deal with Thrifty Rentals directly. We would have to hope that the insurance panned out and reimbursed us for the (substantial) cost of the car. F’in Brutal. If this wasn’t bad enough we were now some 1200 km away from Cancun with no mode of transportation to catch our pre-paid, non-refundable, outbound flight. So in addition to the car we had to buy another $750 USD worth of airline tickets. Like I said… I’m still trying really hard to keep some perspective.

For those who are interested, here’s the rundown on car rental collisions and/or loss:

• In order to use your credit card insurance, you must decline the Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) and Loss Damage Waiver (LDW). The rental agreement must also be paid with the credit card (Visa).
• In the event of a collision, there is usually a sizable deductable that comes out of you own pocket when using the CDW/LDW… something like $1000 USD.
• In the event of a total loss (or theft), you are responsible for paying 20% of the cost of the vehicle out of your own pocket! Yes, CDW/LDW is a horrible, horrible option to sign up for.
• In almost every country outside of the US, your credit card (at least ours) is the primary insurance carrier. In the US, it is the secondary insurer after your normal car insurance. Typically there is no deductible to pay for a claim, unlike normal car insurance and CDW/LDW.
• Seems too good to be true? There are a couple of large catches. First off, there is a lot of paperwork to take care of… all while on the road in a country where you might not speak the language. You need a police report, the original rental agreement (don’t leave this in the glove compartment!), a damage/loss report from the rental company, and a credit card statement showing the rental agreement and the car amount to be reimbursed. Secondly, as you might have guessed, you need to float the cost of the car while they sort things out. Who knows how long this might take. Your credit limit might not even be enough to cover this. Will they only pay some sort of equivalent blue-book value, or the price paid for the car (as the rental company will charge you)? We’re still waiting to find these things out.

Here’s hoping that this incredible bout of bad luck means that we will have hassle free travels from here on out. I’m pretty sure that we’ll get reimbursed for some amount… and I’m hoping that it’s the full sum. We’ll see. It’s probably not going to be that easy. In the meantime, here are some pictures of our travels through Chiapas:
http://picasaweb.google.com/richmosko/Chiapas

…there’s not a lot of pictures after the incident, but hopefully you all can forgive us for not being in the picture taking mood.

Tags: Chiapas,Mexico,San Cristobal,Palenque,Champoton,car,driving,theft,insurance