Thursday, February 27, 2003
Bells, Bells, Bells from Hell - I defy anyone to
sleep late in this town. Bells at 6:30, 6:45, and
7:00. And they're frantic, loud, arrhythmic bells,
like someone told the bell ringer just ring these
bells as loud as you can for at least a minute. Oh,
yeah, just in case you're not up yet, bells again at
7:10. After the 7:10 bells I lay awake anticipating
more bells, then it started to get noisy from
activity on the street - Lord knows everyone in the
city is up by now!
We ate breakfast and caught a combi to Chiapa de
Corzo, the oldest Spanish settlement in Chiapas and
the departure point for boat trips into the Sumidero
Canyon. I failed to take Dramamine this morning, and
after the hour and ten minute trip, I was extremely
nauseous. The road was steep and dangerous coming
down out of the mountains. I knew I was in trouble
when we passed a sign almost immediately upon leaving
that said "continuous curves." The driver dropped us
off on the highway a couple miles from Chiapa outside
the village of Cahuaré, and we walked across the
highway and into town.
A waiter at a riverside restaurant called us a
taxi which took us to Chiapa de Corzo for 30 pesos,
where we secured a room at the Hotel Los Angeles. We
again had to pay extra for air conditioning - well
worth it - and it was hard to believe anyone ever
passed it up. It was 170 pesos for the room and an
additional 30 pesos for A/C, for a grand total of
about $18 a night. Actually, there were other people
staying there, and most of them did forego the A/C.
Well, bully for them.
Entering the Sumidero
The nausea passed with a little time and cool air,
and we were ready for a speedboat ride through the
Cañon del Sumidero. The Sumidero is a huge seismic
fault ranging from one to two kilometers wide, 20
kilometers long, and with walls over a kilometer
high. The Grijalva River runs through the rift, but
did not create it. Formerly filled with dangerous
rapids, the Chicoasén dam was built at the north end
of the canyon in the 1980s, making boat trips
possible.
El Cañon del Sumidero
We walked down to the embarcadero and waited for
enough people to arrive to fill a boat. They won't
leave without 12, and Tom and I were passengers eight
and nine. A few minutes later seven people showed up,
allowing us to leave with a seriously overloaded
group of 16. At least they handed out life jackets!
The last seven to arrive all worked for Telmex, the
Ma Bell of Mexico, and they were a lot of fun. The
cost is 80 pesos each for a two-hour trip.
Rock formation Arbol de Navidad
The canyon is wonderful, with tons of wildlife -
especially birds, storks and herons and others. We
also saw more spider monkeys and another cocodrilo.
We took tons of pictures, but it's impossible to
capture the beauty and scope of the place in a
photograph. Our driver took us in close for better
views of caves and formations and of the crocodile.
He took one of the Telmex guys to shore because he
was dying to pee. (They'd brought along some beer!)
The guy got back in the boat, and we hadn't gone 20
feet before the crocodile was spotted! And it was
huge.
Cocodrilo
Our only complaint was the trash in the river -
que lástima - primarily plastic bottles and for some
reason a surprising number of shoes. In fact, our
main complaint about Mexico in general is the amount
of litter. I'm sure they'll come around though. We
did. Think of the litter situation in the U.S. in the
early '70s.
The embarcadero
We wound down after our breathtaking boat trip
with a couple of cervezas at a riverside restaurant,
La Pasadita, a pleasant little outdoor patio place,
followed by dinner at the same restaurant.
|