Hitchhiking the World: Chap 2 (Mexico)

---October 17th 2015---

At around noon on October 17th, I tackled the Mexican border. A first random check by the American border patrol, $0,50 to cross the bridge, and … no Mexican border! Oh well, here I am Mexico. I immediately notice the difference between the two sides of the river. I notice much more window covered with steel bar, concrete building with painted advertisement, and a lot more people all over the streets.

I started walking toward the end of town, not too sure how long the town was. After 1h out in this new country, I finally felt like I found a good place to lift my thumb. Immediately lifted, two construction guys approached me. Obviously, they only talked and understood Spanish. They tried to understand what I was doing, but I couldn’t explain it to them. After calling a few friends that “could” bring me to Monterrey, or so I understood, they ended up calling the police. And so I got my first ride, going the wrong way, and toward the prison. I felt a little scared as despite having tried to understand how to cross the border, I had the feeling I missed something. Once in the waiting room of the prison, they also tried to understand my goal. They finally got a hold of a translator which helped me explain everything.

The translator told me that there was very little traffic going to Monterrey from Roma, and that it would be easier on everyone if I were to take the bus there. Out of my budget, but clearly, I need a little preparation that I can only find once in Monterrey, so let’s make an exception. The bus was well organised, and as we got closer to the city, the nearby mountains slowly grew bigger and bigger to leave an amazing first impression of the Mexican landscape.

We finally got to Monterrey, and it is big. I take a look at my map and start walking toward the house of my host, José. When I got to where Google Map told me to go, I realized I wasn’t in the right place. Now what? I don’t have a phone, and no one seems to speak English. I look up in my translation book, and walk to the first person, trying my best to ask in Spanish to use a phone:

-Podría uso el teléfono, por teléphona un amigo?

-Inglés?

-Yes, I don’t know much Spanish. Do you?

In fact she did. I explained my situation, and she called José. After some confusion, my savior offered to drive me to where I was supposed to go. That was more than appreciated as I would have had a horrible time to find my way to the actual place.

So far, I’ve being in a Spanish country for 6h, and already, the challenge of the language barrier is showing. Let’s see how it from now, I’ve already did a little bit of progress with talking, but understanding is another game.

The next day, José Luis brought me downtown so that I could see the city of Monterrey and purchase a road map, important because if you can’t communicate with word, at least I can point my destination. As we were walking, José Luis told me his side of my story as I entered Mexico. As I mentioned, it wasn’t long to end up in the police center where the translator called José Luis. What I didn’t know, is that after I left, he called him again to make sure I was a good person. And the girl that helped me find his apartment was an intern to become a judge, so when she called him, he started noticing a pattern that every time he was getting news from me, it was through security. As for myself, every time he was communicating with these people, I could understand a word, so I could clarify anything. So when he told me all that, we started laughing of the wackiness of my poorly planned “introduction”.

The next day, I walked to the bus station, and went to Santa Catarina, a suburb of Monterrey, where I walked to the entrance of the Canyon de la Huasteca. Once in the park, I started hitchhiking, this time for real! My first ride, spoke English, which was nice. As for my second and third, “No hablas inglés”, but it was fun, really fun. Despite not understanding each other, we still managed to communicate, mostly by mimicking.

Entrance of the Canyon de la Huasteca

I rapidly had to face a big decision, do I try to hitchhike to Santiago through the canyon, or going around it. Based on some research I previously made, there was a dirt road going all the way across, a very big mistake of mine. I have to say, now that I’ve walked all the way through the canyon, I can safely say, it was a horrible idea. I had to walk about 45km to reach the next road leading to Santiago, nothing I haven’t done before (so I though). But the circumstances were very different. I may have had water (barely enough), but I didn’t have enough to stay hydrated; I could only drink when I would become fully dehydrated, and only a small sip. There was no water source along the “trail”. There was no other hiker, and I didn’t warn anyone I was going for that hike (probably the stupidest thing of that trek). And I didn’t do enough research, as I mentioned. I followed a dirt road for about 3h (15km) up until a rock slide blocked the way for any car to pass by. Up to that point, I was walking thinking that, if anything, a car would probably eventually pass, like on the pictures I saw of the canyon, but it wasn’t an option. Not sure where I was along the trek, I hiked through the boulders and got back on the “trail”, a dry river bed. After 4h of walking (20km) the night fell, now I can’t camp on a dry river bed due to flash flood, so as I walked, I saw an old ranch. I squeezed myself under the barbwire I through my tent. The first part of the night was very windy, and only having half a tent, it was extremely noisy, so I moved everything to the other side of the house to protect myself from that wind. Much better maybe, but being a trespasser, all night, I would freak out at any noise: something falling on the steel roof, steel rubbing on the dry river bed’s rock, a house, something in the house moving (probably a rat), etc. When morning finally came, I had, yet another decision to make, do I eat or not. Eating would cause dehydration, but give me a little energy, and I barely had any water left. I finally decided to eat a peanut butter tortilla, and then pack everything, and left. My body was starting to be quite sore, but I had no choice, and so I walked. Eventually, I reached a point where there was water, more precisely, an actual river. This meant 1 good thing, and 1 bad. If anything I can boil some water and stay hydrated, but if the river gets bigger, eventually, I won’t be able to keep on going. Furthermore, I realized that my lighter (to boil the water, to make it drinkable) was in my camera case that I forgot in the previously mentioned car, so I couldn’t even drink that water, no matter how thirsty I was. My body was getting more and more tired of the walk, and the walk was getting harder and harder as I constantly had to cross the river (getting my shoes wet, giving me blisters), and old barbwire were once again blocking my path, as I constantly had to jump over them. Suddenly, I notice a passage through the woods, so I walked in and realized it was the old car trail. I was so happy, no more rocks, water, Sun, etc. But everything comes to an end as the trail lead back to the river, and I lost it. Few minutes later, as the river was once more blocking my path, I got onto the other side of the river, in the forest, and there it was again, the path. I figured out that there was a path leading to the end of the canyon, bypassing most of the river, but I constantly had to look for it. Eventually, the river disappeared, which surprised me as the water was coming from nowhere and would eventually disappear again. Not long after that, the canyon wall started to close in and left me with climb through boulder, which wasn’t fun the climb with 45lbs strapped to your back. Finally, at last, I saw an actual road appear before my eyes, I was so happy knowing that this was the end, but there was one more challenge. A waterfall created a small “lake” going from wall to wall. Not too big of a problem on its own, but I didn’t know how deep it was, and I had my computer in my bag, so no way am I going to let water touch my bag. I stripped down to my underwear and crossed the water a first time. The rocks were hurting my feet, the water was freezing cold and the depth was about mid-belly deep. I got back to the other shore, grabbed my back and lifted it (which wasn’t that easy) and I started to cross the lake hoping not to slip or trip and fall. After a little rest, I went ahead and tackled the road, only to realise it was quite steep, draining the last of my energy, but as I got to the top of the hill, the sound of an axe pick broke the silence if the past 20h, and there it was, human live!!!

-Cuanta kilometra por la ruta 20?

-[Spanish I didn’t understand], said the old man before saying more stuff I couldn’t understand.

-Si? I said not sure what he said.

-Veinte minutos.

I was happy, really happy, but as I walked, I noticed that the tire marks were going in three directions, so I went to look for someone to ask direction, and suddenly, I saw a car pass, and at asphalt speed, HURRAY!! I got to say though, the mountains surrounding the canyon were definitely the most beautiful I’ve seen. They were exactly what you would want a mountain be: huge, steep, sharp and isolated.

I walked across town, and as I saw a young man on a motorcycle stop by me, I asked him for the distance to la Cascada de Cola de Caballo. He didn’t speak English, but after a few minutes talking, I understood that a truck with friends would bring me to the waterfall. And a few minutes after, a truck pulled over.

It must have being the most fun ride I had ever got. To start with, I was in the back of a truck with high wall, so all I could see were the trees passing over the truck. It looked as if we were zigzagging super-fast through a spooky foggy rainforest. And as I got up, and leaned on the wall to see where we were going, I got surprised by an incredible view of the valley form the top of the steep hills we were on. The road kept on zigzagging downhill on the side of this beautiful valley as we were getting bellow the clouds. What a magical moment!

After having explored the waterfall of Cola de Caballo, I hitched another ride in town, where 15min later, I made it: hitchhike a motorcycle ride, actually, two in a row. The first one brought me to the edge of town, and as a bonus, he offered me 100 pesos. Five minutes later, another one stopped, to bring my 20min down the road. Motorcycle rides may be extremely fun, but they are hard on your back as you got to hold the weight of your bag without any break. For the rest of the day, I got rides after rides up until I got to a small town at the intersection of highway 85 and 81, where in complete darkness, I through my tent a few feet to a train track. The herb may have given me a nice mattress, but the train and the very loud truck woke me up a few time.

The next day, I started hitching, but no luck, it took me 2h05min to get my first ride. But once out of where I was, I instantly got another ride, and this time to my destination: Ciudad Mante. I contacted Sergio though Couchsurfing, and we gave each other a meeting at the bus stop. It felt good to finally have a break after the much too long hike. He invited me for diner and supper, I got to take a shower, wash my much to dirty cloth, and got to re-hydrate myself, and it felt awesome!

The next day, Sergio drove me to the edge of town, where once more, I’ve let my thumb do all the work. My first ride brought me to an inspection point, where I had to hitchhike surrounded by soldiers (and there huge guns) looking at car passing by. Not long after, a first ride above the mountain to be dropped in front of a truck, which was driven by a friend of my drivers. So they asked for the trucker to bring me a few towns over. He not only accepted, but also proposed to pay me breakfast. Before I knew it, I was on a very remote road in the middle of the sierra to visit la Cascada de Minas Viejas. It was unbearably hot; all the energy restored from my indoor night was already gone.

The waterfall was amazing, but the most amazing was silky bleu colored river that flowed off of it. Being saturated with sediment (creating the silky color), the small rapid have accumulated the leftover sediment creating little naturals dams that eventually got covered with ferns. What a magical place.

The truely surreal Minas Viejas Fall

Rather than going back through civilization, I decided to take the small road, and what a reward. Mexican people are extremely nice people, and they pick you up very fast. By looking at my few experience hitching in this new country, I noticed that when I try my luck on major road, my average are very similar to those from the USA, but when I go on smaller roads, it’s an almost guaranteed stop by the second car (if the first one didn’t stop), making it extremely easy and fast to wonder around, and let’s not forget the magical view those small road are revealing.

I finally ended up in a tiny town in the middle of the sierra to go see la Cascada de Tamul, but didn’t have enough time to reach the waterfall, so some local guys told me to through my tent on the visitor center’s property.

The next morning I woke up to tackle one of my worst day so far. It is the 24th of October. To start, camping in a small town in the Mexico is very hard, mostly due to the abundance of noise. People screaming at each other, playing music way to loud, and the occasional driver who puts his stereo on the outside of his car rather than on the inside. Another reason is the temperature. I was sleeping in just my underwear, and still I was sweating, there was just no way to avoid the inhuman heat and humidity. Finally, all night long, I would wake up due to bits, or tickling. I just imagined it was my imagination, and so kept on sleeping. The next morning, as the roosters would call the sunrise (1h before the actual sunrise), I reached for my peanut butter jar, and as I opened it, hundreds of ants came out. It was hell! I took my flashlight, and realized they were all over the place; in my sleeping bag, my food, my cloth, my bag, etc. Still hungry, and not willing to lose my main food source (peanut butter), I tried to remove as much ants as possible from it, but I eventually gave up, and just made myself a peanut butter, banana and ants tortillas. It wasn’t that bad, taste wise. I then tried to kill as many ants as possible in my tent and when I was satisfied, I packed everything and left.

I hitch to the next town, even more remote than the one I was in (which was already pretty remote in the mountains) and started walking toward the waterfall. It took me quite a while to reach the river, but the waterfall was what I was interested in. Unfortunately, there was no more trails, so I got in the tropical forest where once more all hell broke loose.

The rain from the previous night had left all the leaf wet, so every time I would touch a branch, it would rain on me, the vines kept on getting caught in my bag, I kept on getting caught in the thousand thorns spread all over the forest, and I had to climb a mountain to bypass the river. All this to realise there was no way for me to see the waterfall as it was falling down an extremely steep canyon, that I didn’t want to get into, especially with all the difficulty of walking on flat terrain. I decided to head back to civilisation leaving the waterfall alone, and yet another very long and exhausting walk later, I got back in town.

My next ride brought me to the “town” of La Morena, where yet again, things didn’t go my way. Once dropped, I had to wait 50min to see a single car pass, and it was a motorcycle with already 2 riders, and overall 1h15min to see a first potential car, my personal record (so far). To add insults to injury, a dog came to pay me a visit by marking his territory on my bag. Hurray!! Not only is my bag dirty and full of ants, but now it covered in dog piss, and it got to my tent. Finally, I got another ride deeper in the sierra.

As I was waiting, I got hit my last bad luck of the day. As I was waiting, I noticed a lots of ants hanging on the side of my bag, and as I looked closer, I realised that my banana had being squished. At least, in was on a side pocket so it will be easy to clean it. And when I finally got the last ride of the sierra, I sat down to realise a huge 1 inch bug had crawled in my pants. Boy was I glad to finally get out of the hellish valley.

Finally, a little luck started appearing as my first taxi driver stopped by and drove me to the next town, and for free. I got another ride that bought me some Mexican pastries, which were amazing, and finally, once at the intersection of 85 and 120, as the sky was about to explode, I noticed a man cutting his grass with his machete that had an outhouse with a small roof that I could use for shelter. I approached the man and asked if it was a problem for me to through my tent in his yard. He not only didn’t mind, but offered me to sleep where ever I wanted on his property, gave me food and water (which I was very low on). I set up my tent under his garage roof, and 5 minutes later, the sky exploded in a massive rainfall with loud thunder rolls. It felt good seeing what I managed to avoid at the very last minute.

The next morning, everything was calm, so I packed my tent and got a ride to Xilitla. As we were climbing the mountains, we got between two layers of cloud, so I could see a few mountains stick out of an ocean of cloud. Once in Xilitla, I walked to Las Pozas, a sculpture garden in the rainforest that looked like the ruins of an old civilization.

The odd ruins of Las Pozas

Once out of Las Pozas, I managed to get a very long ride to Ixmiquilpan. The fun part was that even if the driver didn’t spoke English, we manage to talk for the entire ride. I may not being able to communicate in Spanish when I entered the country, but in only 7 days, I can see a huge progress, which is comforting. The road we took when up and above the sierra. All throughout the ride, we would zigzag the side of huge cliffs, with some of the most amazing view I’ve yet to see, but the most amazing thing was that once more, we got over the clouds and this time, a blue sky above us, making an already amazing view magical. When I got to Pachuca, I could find a place to sleep, and it was dark, so I walk along the streets until I found an abandoned house. It was locked, but the Westfalia in front of that abandoned house, also abandoned, was not locked, so I crawled in, and got to spend the night inside.

My one-star hotel

The next day, I had to cross the entire city of Pachuca to reach highway 105, which took me about 2h in extremely steep hills. Once on the side of the road, everything went really smooth. It took me 2 rides to reach la Prismas Basalticos, a canyon forged in basalt columns. Overall, three waterfall carve the canyon, as one more fall of the end of the canyon, to fall in a bigger canyon with another bigger waterfall. The unique rock formations found in the canyon are huge natural column of rock almost exclusively with a hexagonal cross-section. The formation is formed when lava solidify, as it passes from liquid to solid, the rock shrinks and crack in hexagonal (if the cooling is constancy). The pressure from the lava bellow pushes the hexagon up, solidifying at the same time and creating a multitude of column.

The ever amazing basalt columns

After the visit of the canyon, I decided to buy myself a treat. Too that point, I was travelling with the rule of not buying myself food, but realized that food is part of the identity of a country, and so decided to buy me some Mexican food. And I did not regret my decision as the food was excellent.

To head to my next destination, I manage to get a taxi to pick me up, for free that is, and also a long distance bus, also free, which brought me to Tulancingo. Once again, I had to cross the entire city by foot, which took me a good hour, and to make matter worst, it took me 1h10min before I could see a car stop, and for real, as 2 buses and 2 cars had stopped before not to pick me up. This car was a first for me as a clown was driving it, still in makeup. He was coming back from a party, and was heading home. He drove me to La Bóveda, where after 30min of standing in fog, I decided to head for a house in construction to spent the night as I wasn’t sure if the fog was going to turn into rain.

Some rides are planly wierd

The next morning, I got up and hit the road. It turned out to be one of those very eccentric days, as far as ride goes. I managed to hitch 12 cars, including 1 taxi, 2 city buses, 1 couch bus and 1 motorcycle. The odds of getting just one of those rides are hard enough, but to have them all in the same day, seemed impossible. I also got to visit la Piedras Encimadas, a forest in which you can find lots of huge rock towers.

Some of the few stone mushroom of Piedras Encimadas

That was my last destination for a while as Palenque is about 900km east of la Piedras Encimadas. My goal was to take the road passing through Xalapa, Veracruz, San Andres and Villahermosa. After a night in the ruins of an old house, where all night long, the dog’s barks and the 18-wheelers (very noisy, without mentioning that they create earthquakes every time they pass) kept me up most of the night.

The next day, I got very luck, as I got the ride from a guy who not only spoke English, but was also going the Veracruz, which I thought would take me at least a day, if not more. Furthermore, he also gave me something to snack on as we were driving to the Caribbean Coast. Just before the metropole, he dropped me at the entrance of a bypassing highway leading to San Andres. My first and second ride on that highway were very quick and brought me a halfway there, but once in Alvarado, thing slowed down for a bit as no one wanted to stop. Finally, I got a motorcyclist to stop by my side, and give a 1min ride across the bridge, where within the first 5min of waiting, I got an eighteen-wheeler to stop by my side, and he was going to San Andres. It is to say how a tiny little ride can have a great impact. People might think they aren’t going far, but 5min drive is about 15-20min walk, and carrying 45lbs under a hot humid Sun, they are very long minutes.

Against all odds, I got from Apizaco to San Andres in only one day, but thing got once more not as expected as I was dropped in the middle of a “dangerous” city, so said my driver and his brother, and it was after dark. I had no place to sleep, and no money for a hotel (due to my self-imposed budget), so I began to walk. As usual, I didn’t notice anything that could of scared me, as I noticed that Mexican are far from being as dangerous as Canadian and Americans claim to be. That being said, one thing did scare me, enough to have me hide for the night, there was no sidewalk and I didn’t anything to expose myself as I was walking along the side of the road. So I though better to sleep in-town for the night and keep on walking in daylight. After trying my luck on a few abandoned houses, I found a small forest in a ditch between the road and a concrete wall, and there was a place for me to through my tent away from anyone’s eye. The terrain may have being very rough, but I can lie down for a night, and that is all that matter when you travel on low budget.

Despite my body hurting a little bit, I slept quite well since no dogs barked, and no rooster sang good morning way too early like most nights. Now that I could see where I was going, I realised I was actually just a few feet from the end of town, which was definitely a good surprise. The rest of the day wasn’t so bad. I got a few rides, including yet another taxi and a couch bus, but the last few hours of my day were the one worth mentioning. After almost 2h on the side of the road, I got picked up by a guy that didn’t conversed much, probably didn’t help the fact I’m still not trilingual, but as we got to the city limit of Villahermosa, traffic hit us. So to pass time, he rolled a joint. At that point, I didn’t care much, but just a few minutes later, he got out of his pants a baggy of cocaine. He tried to get me to take some while taking some himself, now I like to try new things, but there definitely limits to the things I want to try, and this was one. At the moment he got it out of his pants, I told him to let me down. Immediately, he pulled over, and I got out.

Once out of the car, I walked of the side of the road, faster than traffic and on the other side of the construction area, I began hitchhiking again, but no luck got to me this time. So I tried to camp, but the field I had in mind got blocked by the owner. That same owner came to see me as I was walking and offered me water and a little bit of food, which was nice. Two-three houses later, my luck showed again, as another abandoned house appeared from the middle of all the broken down house in which the poorer Mexican usually live in. The floor might have being a little hard, but at least, it was flat, and there was barely any noise all night.

After a well-rested night, I got back on the road, to start a very frustrating day. My goal was to take highway 125 to 195, and bypass all the major cities, but first, let’s find a ride! 2h15min later, after almost giving up, a truck stop by my side, I explained my plan using my not so detailed map and my broken Spanish, only to end up on the wrong road. Oh well, at least this road leads to the 72 which brings me back to my original plan. As I was waiting for that truck to stop, someone came and gave me 30 pesos which was nice. A few rides later, including a few waits, I got a ride with a guy going to the major city, Tuxtla Gutiérrez. I told him many time I didn’t wanted to go in the city, and wanted to take the back road, but I still ended up in the city. I realised later that the canyon I wanted to see was on the other edge of the city I was in, probably why he brought me in the city. But still not knowing that fact, I asked him to drop me at a street intersection with an arrow pointing north saying “Feria Chipas”, which I thought was the direction for the Canyon of Chiapas, but Feria means fair. So after an exhausting walk under the hot southern Sun, I got to a military road block. I asked for help from the military, and despite on speaking English, I only created confusion. One thing that I noticed is that when you ask a question in a language that you clearly don’t speak very well, people don’t answer with simple yes or no, but instead, they answer with very long and complicated phrase or try to understand why you are asking such a question, and not being able to reply, it only creates more confusion. My tone started rising toward the military confusing the situation more than it already was, so I eventually decided to take a detour from my already long detour, this time taking the small road from the mountain.

My first ride on that road was a pastry cook which offered me tones of pastries. A few second on the side of the road, another city bus picked me up, I didn’t know where he was going, and with all the confusion set-up through my day, I got out on the wrong road, and started, once more, to walk. Thankfully, some stopped only 15min in. The man brought me to my target destination: Copainala, where he gave 26 pesos.

Since all my electronic were dying, I needed internet to download the map of the mountains, for more precision on how to bypass San Cristobal, and I was craving to test more Mexican food, I decided to go to a restaurant in the small town. Definitely one of the best decisions so far. At the moment I entered, the cook came to see me: “Inglés?” He spoke English. He, Edgar Ramirez Riverce, invited me to eat, on the house. I got chicken wings, tortillas, pig meat, and some pasta, enough for my belly to almost explode. At the end of my meal, I asked him if he knew a place where I could sleep: a church or an abandoned house. After a few minutes, he told me he had no problem if I slept in his house. I got to take a shower, or at least, take water from a bucket of cold water, drop it on me, shampoo my hair, and take more water from that bucket to rinse the soap off. It may have being very basic, but after 8 day without showering (this includes being attacked by ants, walking in a wet and muddy rainforest, standing on the side of many very dusty road, sleeping in a very dirty Westfalia, and a lot of sweating), it felt amazing. Just a few minutes later, we started hearing thunder rolls, and out of nowhere, it started pouring rain like in rainforest storm, and the lightning were following one another by the second. I did not see that one coming, and you can only imagine how happy I was to have had a place to stay, with a roof. The family I was staying with for the night and a house in another town, and used the back of the restaurant to rest at night during the weak, and so it was very basic: no running water (for shower, to wash hands or for the toilet), and only one room where the four of us slept. Only a big and thick sheet used as a mattress from the cement floor, another for cover you, and one last folded for pillow. It wasn’t much, but despite the intense heat from early in the night, I slept like a baby.

The angels who shaltered me for the night

The next day, I walked to the edge of town where after 15 minutes of silence, a car stopped by my side. I asked if the road (dirt road) I was taking was connecting to highway 195, and my driver said yes, so I hopped in the car and went for a ride in the back road of the back road of Mexico. Once off, I walked for 30min before another car passed by me. Being full, I had to hold on to the structure of the car while the car was bouncing around the bumpy road, easier said than done with 45lbs strapped to your back. .Once at destination, I was told that the road wasn’t leading anywhere and that there was no way for me to keep on going. Despite my best effort to bypass the major cities of Tuxtla and San Cristobal, there was one thing obvious; I had to pass through both cities. So I, for the third time in 2 days, changed my path and decided that it would be easier for me to walk through Tuxtla than to bypass it.

Just a few rides after, I got back in town, where against all odds, I got a ride almost through the entire city. When I was dropped, I saw the canyon of Chiapas and thought it would be a good idea to go visit it while I was in town, and boy did I regret thinking that. I walked for about 1h in town, asking people for the street name to reach the canyon (which I could see), but despite knowing where the canyon was (north of the city), and seeing it, every time I would ask someone, they would look at me with confusion and point south. I asked at least 10 people from Tuxtla, and none of them knew where the clearly visible canyon was. After 1h of pure frustrating confusion (caused by the lack of knowledge from the local, plus the last 2 days of going the wrong way because of that same lack of geographical knowledge), a poor old man passed by me asking if I needed help, and when I told him I was looking for the canyon THAT WAS NORTH OF HEAR, and confused pointed south, I exploded: started screaming, and swearing in French, while making lots of hand gesture, and walking away. Poor guy, he only tried to help me, but I just couldn’t keep it in anymore. Being once more far from the endless city’s exit, I made hand gesture while being in the obvious way of every car up until after 4 cars, one stopped. I got in and after explaining as best I could my frustration in Spanish, they told me they were going to drive me to the edge of town. These barely understandable words were so nice to hear, that instantly, my frustration left. After another ride to the road bypassing San Cristobal, a couple that saw me in the morning hitchhiking in Copainala, stopped to pick me up; they were going to San Cristobal. I tried for about 10min to explain I didn’t want to go there, but they kept on insisting, and not capable of fully explaining my situation, I hopped in asking to be dropped at the exit of the city. They ended up bringing me in town to see the historical city of San Cristobal, and after 1h walking through town, they brought me to the edge of town, while making sure I had a place for the night. That place was the emergency facilities. After a few minutes trying to talk them to let me sleep on the property, they gave me the go telling me to be up by 7am. So I put up my tent, and decided to eat the meal that was given to me by Doug, the guy with whom I stayed on my first night. It took 32 days for me to eat his food, and not because I was hungry, simply that I was trying to get rid of some weight.

The next morning, on my third ride, a young guy pulled over saying that he was only going 1km down the road. Knowing my spot wasn’t very good, I accepted. Once at destination, he asked me if I wanted to eat. I accepted, not knowing if it was an invitation or not, and after a very comforting breakfast, he told me it was on the house. It is to show how big of an impact a 1km ride can have.

After breakfast, I got back on the road to be immediately picked up by a clean white car. The ride very quiet as no one spoke. I didn’t mind much, but once in town, I learned the hard way why such a ride. The driver told me he was a taxi and I needed to pay him. There was no way I was going to spend money on a ride, so I argued with him telling him that a thumb up meant “I’m not paying for that ride”, and that if he was a real taxi, he would have had a sign saying it, or he would of told me when I entered. We argued for about 10 minutes before he gave up. I’m not one to argue, but, hitchhiking is hitchhiking, and if you want money, you tell me before I get in.

I walked across town, only to have… a taxi pull over. This time, he had a sign. I said what I always say when a taxi/bus pulls over: “Yo no tiene dinero”, and the driver told me not to worry.

A few towns over a truck stopped by and picked me up. He was going to Villahermosa, passing by Aqua Azul and Palenque. Despite telling him that I wanted to stop at Aqua Azul, he ended up bringing me all the way to Palenque, feeding me at two different occasions. I may not eat a whole lot when I hitchhike, but that day, I got my 3 meals. As we entered the city, I noticed an abandoned house, and after that third meal of the day, I walked back toward it. As almost expected, as I asked the direction for San Cristobal, The locals gave me, confused, the wrong way. Thankfully, I’m not that bad with direction, so as I was walking the wrong way I asked (knowing the answer) what was the direction to San Cristobal, only to be told the opposite of the previous answer. Lesson learned, in Mexico, always ask 3-4 person before going in a direction, because nobody seems to know where they go. It is understandable since most people don’t have car and only use public transportation to go from city to city.

The next morning, I got to Palenque where I fell for a hell of a trap. When I entered the park, they told me that it was 35 pesos for the ruins, but when I got to the actual ruins, they told me the 35 pesos was just to enter the park, and that I needed to buy a 65 pesos entrance fee. Having already paid a first time, I could turn back, so I had to buy a second ticket. Finally, once bought, they told me I couldn’t bring my backpack within the facility and forced me to pay another 15 pesos. I knew it was going to be expensive, but at least tell the price right away, rather than keep on adding and adding. After entering the park frustrated, I started walking around and the ruins were magnificent. Some still covered by the forest, some left as is, but without the trees, and some rebuilt.

Beautiful, but way too many tourist traps

From that point on, my target was Belize, or the town of Chetumal on the Mexican side of the border. As I re-entered the town of Palenque, I saw 3 hitchhikers, and after a few minutes trying to get a ride, a pickup passed by with the same hitchhikers sitting in the back. They tapped on the roof to tell the driver to stop, and so he did. The three of them were from Lithuania, and were hitchhiking from Canada to … you guessed it: Argentina!!! Once at the intersection where our driver let us out, we separated from each other thinking it would be best not to hitchhike at four. To give them a chance, I let them be the first hitchhikers as I walked further down the road. Ten minutes later, a car pulled over to pick them up, but didn’t have enough place, so the 3 hitchers told the men to go pick me up instead. An hour later, while stuck in traffic due to a truck crash, I started walking along the cars when my 3 amigos screamed at me. They had passed me!! I started talking with them to realised there ride was going all the way to Chetumal, so immediately, I ran with my driver to pick up my bag and hoped in the other car. Once in the car, another surprise was waiting for me, as the 3 new amigos were also road tripping to Argentina. At Escarcega, the 3 hitches left us to head north. As for Lucia, Jesu, Samuel and I kept on going.

Once at the intersection where we were splitting, I got out, in the darkness of the night, and started walking, only to realise that I was in a bit of trouble. In the not too distant distance, I started noticing lightning, and a lot of them. Over me the stars were shining to their brightest while in the distance the lightning were hitting the ground with force, what a sight indeed, but two question came to mind as I was enjoying the show: Is the storm coming my way, and if so where am I going to shelter? Once having turned the corner, I saw a well barricaded facility, and I notice the head of a guard in the window, so I made hand gestures to catch his attention. I tried explaining my situation with the lightning, but when I looked up the word to translate, I looked lighting, thus creating some confusion, as usual. After a little while my situation explaining in bad Spanish, and lots of body motion, he let me come on the property where I found a roof to sleep under. The only thing he asked was for me to be off the property by 6am. So the next morning, at 5am, I got up, packed my things, and got to the side of the road. The Sun wasn’t up yet, so for the first 30min, I was hitchhiking in pure darkness. Finally, a bus picked me up and brought me to the border.

I got to say, as a Canadian that have hitchhiked a lot in the United-States, and now in Mexico, I got to say that it is clearly time to stop calling out Mexican for being dangerous. When I told my previous rides I was passing through Mexico, I only heard bad things: I was going to get robbed, killed, that Mexican don’t have watches or nice clothes, that some Mexican pass through street machine gun killing everyone just for fun (and yes someone told me that in Texas), and the list goes on. I have hitchhike in the country, all over the country and for 2 full weeks. I have had to cross towns in the middle of the night, looking like a definite tourist, and even camped in towns, and never have I felt scared. Well it is not true, when I first got in Mexico, I was really scared of the people around me, but that is not because of the Mexican, but because of the amount of people constantly telling you how much they know how dangerous they are, and so without ever having meet them. What ends up happening, is that we heare what is on the news, which is always bad thing, and start believing this is the only reality, so either you don’t go to the country, and say without any knowledge, that it is dangerous, or you go to the country, and stay in your hotel, avoiding them because they look different then us, and once back, say they are dangerous people because you didn’t feel comfortable. If you did so, you cannot say they are dangerous, because everything is in your head. I believe that no one should judge a country if they haven’t truly meet the people, not the tourist guide, actually talked with random strangers. Also don’t say they are dangerous simply because you felt uncomfortable, if you haven’t being robbed, or anything, that shows everything is in your head. I definitely hope that those who are reading my emails will realise how great the world is rather than only focussing of the news.

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Country's Statistics

Number of nights : 16

Numbers of days on the road : 14

Percentage of invitation at night : 25%

Overall waiting time : 37h

Average wait : 22min

Longest wait : 2h 15min

Male vs female : 76% male – 2% female – 22% mixed

Total amount of rides : 101

Average spending per day : -7,96$/day

Place visited : 8