Prior to arriving in the magical little town of San Cristobal De Las Casas, the team was, my brother Sunny, our road dog Hippolyte from France, and myself. In fact, Sunny and I had gotten into a pretty ugly little bad-mouthing session one morning on the beaches of Oaxaca, and from that point all the way to San Cristobal we had been split up.
I arrived in San Cristobal solo, at night, and thinking I would be here for at least 2-3 days to rest. I figured I'd run into Sunny and Hippolyte, and assumed that as usual they'd be itching to bolt out of town as soon as they were rested up. I had accepted that I'd ride from here to Palenque solo. Boy was I wrong.
We are prepping to leave as I write this, and looking out the window I can count 7 bagged down bikes. There may be at least one more joining as well. Long-story short, my brother and Hippolyte met some cyclists on their way up to San Cristobal who told them about this travelling cyclist hostel in town known as Bici Nomada.
At Bici Nomada Sunny, and Hippolyte met some other touring cyclists:
Andre from Brazil who is travelling south from Alaska back to Sao Paulo. Here he is with Silvia who works at Bici Nomada.
Beto also from Brazil has been travelling north from Curitiba, Brazil to Mexico.
They both met here at Bici Nomada as well, and maybe it was the energy of all the touring cyclists in town but a big plan was made to cycle from here to Palenque as one large group, and we even got some new riders to join..
Lorena who runs Bici Nomada will be coming with us on her first long ride!
To add to the mix we made a friend in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, who decided to join us as well.
Benny bought a bike in Oaxaca, took a bus to San Cristobal, and is now a part of our team.
We spent more time in San Cristobal than any other stop on our entire journey, and according to the locals here that is a common occurrence. But as you can see in this video made by Ben, we have kept quite busy.. Check out Ben's youtube page here: Benny Vision
I don't usually stay at hostels but the mix between all the activity that was going on, the new friends we made, and this epic bike journey we conjured through the jungles of Chiapas, it was better to just ride the flow.. A big bonus to staying here was meeting and hanging out with the epic band Casa Verde Colectivo.. They played a show at our Bici Nomada party, and stayed the night. Not only are they amazing people but their music is off the chain:
Very grateful to have made such great friends here, and to have gotten to know a bit of this amazing place, San Cristobal De Las Casas, Chiapas:
This story wouldn't be complete if I didn't tell you about Masaru and Ruben... These two dudes from Queretaro were a big part of our time in San Cristobal.. They arranged for Casa Verde Colectivo to play, organised the party, and were a big part of our family here.
Masaru, Ruben, & Sunny:
(Photo By Andre Fatini)
A big reason for this update is because today we head off for the wild. We will be going into the jungles of Chiapas where paved roads don't even go. Paradise awaits us, and we will be far from any wifi or internet for at least 10 days till we get to Palenque. From there we split up: Sunny, Hippo, Ben, and I will head to the Frontera Corozal to enter into Peten, Guatemala, Andre will head for the Yucatan, Beto probably to Mexico City soon to get back to Brazil.
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