Chap 19 (El Salvador, Guatemala & Mexico)

It was January 5th, 2pm, and I was back on track; on the road at least. It felt not only great to be back on the road, but also knowing where I was felt nice as I had passed right next to the airport on my first entrance in El Salvador over a year ago, meaning I knew exactly where to go. I got a first ride from a couple which had just picked up their friend, and together we went all the way to Libertad. Up to there, everything was a déjà vu, but from then on, it was all new territory.

To my surprise, my next ride was a car full of women, not particular in Latin America, but they gladly drove me all the way to Nahuizalco, a small artisanal town. All excited to be back in El Salvador, I ran around to find one of their famous atole (a sort of corn juice) which I enjoyed so much last time. It was already dark when I got in town, but the center was still very awake. All the palm trees were covered in x-mas lights, and in the center of the park was a huge x-mas tree. After talking to the police, I was told it wouldn’t a problem to sleep under the porch of one of the shop once everybody would have closed. This gave time to enjoy a little longer the beautiful yet exotic x-mas in the tropic scenery. But hanging around the park also reminded me of something I had noticed my first time in El Salvador; the people are extremely good. Everybody I would pass by would look at me directly in the eyes and say Hello!, but also quite a few people would straight up walk to me and start tackling. El Salvador is probably one of the friendliest country I’ve encountered in this trip, adding the surprisingly unique food, and the lack of tourism (they are all too scared to visit the country due to its reputation) El Salvador quickly became my favorite Central American country.

X-mas in the tropic, feels a bit weird

When all the shop closed, I got to the artisanal shop’s porch and through my bag on the ground. I asked one last time if it was ok for me to sleep there and once given the go, I tucked in a little ball and went for one of those homeless style night, no sleeping bag, no tent, and where everyone can see me. The night was long! My arm was numb, the floor was dirty and dusty, I and cramps in my legs; dogs kept on barking, followed by the chicken singing, and finally the cold started to settle in. Having brought a thermometer from home, I know had the opportunity to know what temperature it was, and within 4h, the temperature dropped from 35°C down to just 15°C. I may have been in the tropics, that didn’t mean I was out of the cold. Thankfully, as always, the Sun eventually showed up, and without a moment of hesitation, I got up and left. It sure was a hell of a “welcome back to reality” night.

My "Welcome back to reality night"

A few cars later, I reached Guatemala, and two stamps later in my passport, I had entered Guatemala for the third time this trip. I positioned myself just out of the border and started waiting. The more I waited, the hotter it felt, and eventually, I took a look at my thermometer and saw the needle hitting the 45°C mark, unbelievable. To get my head out of the game, I decided to juggle while waiting. Eventually though, a car stopped next to me, and the window lowered with a few dollar bills being handed to me. I was surprised, amused and happy to know someone thought I had enough skill to be paid, but now having enough money to eat, I refused the money. The lady, surprised, asked me why was I juggling if not to get a few extra buck, and I explained to her I was just a regular hitchhiker too bored to just stand there doing nothing. Amused, she opened the door, and told me to hop in. I said it once, and I’ll say it again: hitchhiking never seems to stop surprising me.

If you don't beleive me when I say 45°C, well there it is

A few cars ride after, including an ambulance ride, and a trucker who kept on picking up every guy holding a shotgun, I finished stopped my day at San Antonio Suchitepéquez. I decided to grab something to eat, so as usual, I looked for a small street food place, and as I got in line, I noticed I was getting extra attention. The locals looked at me a little shy up until finally someone got the courage to start talking to me. I played the lost tourist as always to make people laugh, and later in the conversation, someone told me I was one of the first white people they had seen. It felt great to be somewhere typical where seeing a white guy is still odd, not something common in Latin America. (Just to clarify the “picking up every guy holding a shotgun, in Central America, most trucker have security officer riding the truck to prevent robberies. Once at the border, these security officer need to hitchhike back to their home, meaning all along the road, you see them hitchhiking other truck always holding their shotgun on their torso. I said this late just to leave a little suspense). 

The next day, was most probably one of the most efficient day in a long time. Thanks to my thumb, I managed to get a hold of 14 cars, 10 of which were within under a minute. Needless to say I managed to reach Momostenango quite easily, and got plenty of time to get around the small park near the center. This little park was surrounded by neatly eroded pillars of red and white clay. But not only did I manage to reach Momostenango, which isn’t near any main road but I managed to reach the Mexican border by night fall. Therefore arriving late in the afternoon, I decided not to cross the border right away. There was one problem though. The streets were overcrowded with shops, and nowhere seemed like a good place to setup camp. Plus the proximity of a border didn’t left me with overconfidence for sleeping in the street. I looked around for a church, but couldn’t find anything, no abandoned house or bridge, and no firehouse. I had little to no option, but despite expecting a “no”, I still tried the police office. To my great surprise, they allowed me to stay in one of their room; it was a good thing since it rained most of the night. Therefore, there was a tiny little hole in the roof, just big enough for a drop of water to fall every now and then. I try to move my bed away from that drop, but the room was too small, so I just had to endure the drop for the better part of the night.

Los Riscos de Momostenango

In the morning, I had to tackle the borders. I got out of Guatemala without any issue, but the Mexican border was nowhere to be found. I remember having had a similar problem when I entered Mexico the first time, and I got in trouble when leaving the country, so I needed to find something. I asked around and finally realized the border was 4km down the road. 

I was now back in Mexico, my last exotic country, and my destination was Oaxaca, a small 700km away. With no time to loose, I got my thumb up, and started climbing the country. Without too much effort, I got a ride about halfway, to Arriaga, but despite an easy day for hitchhiking, my night wasn’t looking too great. The wind was strong, really strong. I saw an old abandoned police house, and decided to use it as shelter. I walked through the place but could due to the lack of windows; I could find true protection from the wind. Knowing this was still my only chance against that wind, I put up my tent inside the house and though my bag in for anchor. I went in and position myself to anchor the other side of my tent, and tried to fall asleep. The deep sound of the wind howling through the desert was strong, and keeping me awake as every gust would pick up the bottom of my tent and try to lift it. Unable to due to the weight of my bag and I, it would start whipping my tent around keep the stress level to a high. I managed to fall asleep a few time, but never for too long. Finally, at 3am, as I was still mostly awake, the wind started to calm down, allowing me a few hours of rest before waking up for my second day in Mexico. When I woke up in the morning, at around 7am, I tried to pack my stuff, but the wind was still strong enough to prevent me from folding my tent; I had to just stuff it in.

For my second day, I had to leave the main road and tackle the country side. The views were gorgeous but most of the rides were small. Therefore, later in the afternoon, I got picked up by pickup truck; and inside was a retired senate of Mexico. He was riding to Mexico City with his personal guard. It definitely felt weird to hitchhike with someone of its status. 

As the light was starting to fade, I was dropped on the edge of Mitla, a small town next to Oaxaca. Not having enough time to hitch a ride, I started looking for shelter, but the desert wasn’t too promising, and especially with decent wind. But after good inspection of my surrounding, I notice a tunnel beneath the road, made for animals. No clouds in the sky, no sign of any flash flood remains and perpendicular to the wind, I decided to use it as shelter. The rocky ground wasn’t too great, but I managed to find a few position comfortable enough to fall asleep.

Not too comfortable, but at least, its quite

The next morning, wasn’t too promising. I got on the side of the highway and waited… and waited… and waited. It took me over 2h to get a ride down the road. From that drop-off point, though, things got much better. I found a few quick rides down to Hierve el Agua. My last ride there was given thanks to two girls from Mexico City, Alexa and Yoyo. We walked around the petrified waterfall, and enjoyed an hour or two of relaxation. As we talked, they invited me to come see them once I would get to the capital. This was a great opportunity for me to visit what was for a long time the most populated city in the world, with it 21’000’000, positioning it 12th biggest city in the world. But before going there, I still had a little of tourism to do in Oaxaca.

The petrified fall of Hierve el Agua

Before entering Oaxaca, I had one last stop to do: Arbol de Tule. This tree is said to be the biggest diameter tree in the world. But when I got there, I was a bit disappointed, to see a tree that didn’t look much bigger than any sequoia. Still a pretty tree, I decided get in the park to see it from a little closer. I walked around the small church, and suddenly, a humongous tree appeared from behind the church. I have seen the giant sequoias, but this tree was on a league of its own. 

Sorry if the picture is a bit weird, but you cannot get close to the tree,
so I photoshopped myself to scale to have an idea of the actual size

After an hour looking at the tree, I got back on the road to finish the road toward Oaxaca. Once in town, I contacted Debbie (meet through Couchsurfing), and found a place to stay for the night. The next morning, Debbie brought me around town to try the local food. I ate quite a few samples here and there, but the one that truly was the most exotic was my Mexican Insect Taco. It was quite simply a taco filled with crickets and cheese. The taste wasn’t bad, but the legs of the crickets kept on cutting my mouth which wasn’t too great. It was now time to head to Mexico City, but before leaving town, I had one last stop: the ruins of Mont-Alban.

My Mexican Insect Taco

I left the ruins late in the afternoon, which was great since I had very little mileage to do but couldn’t get in Mexico City for another day. I walked across town, and positioned myself on the side of the highway. Within minutes, I got a ride from an Italian now living in Mexico. At first, the ride was quite nice, but when we got to the toll, he decided to cut the line, but a bus driver didn’t want to let him pass. In a burst of rage, the guy jumped out of his car and started insulting the bus driver. Obviously the bus driver didn’t like that and through a few insults himself, but my driver didn’t except it and started punching the bus driver through the bus window. As for me, I was a bit traumatized, but couldn’t just leave the car. Thankfully, he did calm down. A few miles later, the highway was blocked because of a strike. Needless to say my driver exploded in rage again, but this time had no one to get it out on. His rage and lack of patience forced him to back track and to take an alternative route through a tiny dirt road cutting through the countryside. But our struggle weren’t over as a truck had decided to take this road as well but got stuck in tree branches blocking once more our road. The vibe in the car wasn’t at its best, and I didn’t know what to do. Thankfully, some local Mexican had machetes and cut down the branches. 

Since Yoyo wasn’t going to be in Mexico City up until the next day, I decided to leave the car before entering the capital. My best bet was to stop in Puebla, but being also a huge city, this wasn’t too good. But my driver was going all the way through town, meaning he could leave me right on the outer edge of town. Once the city fully crossed, I stopped right next to a gas station and through my tent in the fields. It turned out to be the first in 11 consecutive nights without a roof over my head. The sky was clear, so rain wasn’t to worry about, but the winter was felt as the temperature fell down to 5°C.

When I got up, in the morning, I knew I couldn’t enter Mexico City until later in the afternoon, so I looked at my map and saw Teotihuacan. I thought it would be a good idea to make the detour. Plus, while looking at the roads, I got in contact with Justine, a friend of mine from Montreal, which was in Mexico City as well. It turned out she had planned to visit the ruins as well, meaning we could meet up at the ruins. I packed my stuff, and ran to the road to pick a ride as soon as possible, but it took me an hour before a police officer decided to stop a car for me. I got to the next town, but had to cross it by foot to reach the other highway. I got a first truck ride, followed by a pickup, and a van, and a small truck, and I finally got to the ruins, but I got there too late, and missed her. I was sad to have to visit the ruins alone, but the site was still amazing. Out of all the ruins I have seen, Teotihuacan most be the most impressive, mostly due to its 65m high Temple.

Teotihuacan

After hitching a ride back in town, I now needed to cross part of the city to go to the airport, to meet with Yoyo, coming from Oaxaca. The thing that amazed me most was taking the train, as there is a train every 45sec. And despite a ridiculous amount of train per hour, they are all over filled with people; Mexico City is a kind of big that Canadian cannot imagine. 

Once her plane landed, Yoyo and I crossed town to her place, where I meet her parents, with whom we had a delicious supper, and finally headed for the bars. At one point during the night, some guy from the street came to are table tapping two little tubes in his hand, asking for some money in exchange for these little tubes. I thought it was some sort of lame music instrument, but in a burst of happiness, one of our friends paid the guy and I was given one of the tubes, while that friend took the other. I quickly notice the two tubes were connected to a battery; clearly it was a weird game. The goal of the game was to connect a few people together, holding hands while electricity flows through the tubes, and through every person holding hands. Every few second, the guy holding the battery would crank the voltage up, and the goal is not to let go of the someone else’s hand, topping voltage to 200V, a none lethal voltage (obviously it would also depend on the amperage). Yeah, Mexicans likes to get electrocuted and are willing to pay for it. The obvious problem with such a game is that electricity contracts your muscle making letting go of the bar very hard, so if you want to get electrocuted while visiting Mexico, please be sure to know the work “stop” in Spanish: “paro” or “alto”. And in case you were wondering, I got to 110V. 

For the next three days, I got to explore the city with Yoyo and Alexa. As I mentioned earlier, this 21 million people city is nothing like I could have imagine. The first thing I noticed was how inconvenient such a big city is, and especially due to the unorganised street pattern. For me, living away from the metro, the public transportation system becomes impossible to use, meaning you need to constantly take taxis. But, having extremely complex street configurations, a simple address doesn’t help a taxi find your house leaving completely lost if not with my host. On the other hand, even if people drive with little no good road behavior, there was little to no honking; it may be chaotic, but everyone knows their part, and it seems to work. As for the street, I must say being impressed as I thought it would be a lot dirtier. It may not have been Montreal clean, but the streets weren’t covert in trash like I’ve seen here and there during my trip. Furthermore, unlike most city I’ve had the opportunity to visit, Mexico City had little to no stray dogs, leaving the street less noisy. The final thing I thought about Mexico City was that despite its bad reputation, as long as you stay near downtown, during open hours, it is a somewhat safe city. My friends and I got to go out a few time, and in no case have I felt like danger was around the corner. All in all, I though Mexico City, was a pretty city, but not one I would enjoy doing with my own car.