Thursday 21 February 2013

Minatitlan To San Cristobal

Spotless  ... in two ways, what a beautiful city and now we don't know where we have been .... or at least I don't, Ellens memory is betterererer than mine 

So ..... leaving the love shack we had a nice warm and dry day, milage to complete was 350 km, easy as.

We chose the Cuota road for this leg as the Libre is partly dirt and loaded with toppes through small town so would take two day for not much.

We paid in total 100 Pesos so about $8 dollars which was worth it to make the ground on mostly smooth road with NO toppes.

To be fair the view from out the window was pretty good too, once we got to Tuxtla we then got on to the Libre road which took us up to 3000 metres with a beautiful twisty road and views that were outstanding. 

Only a few road pics today 

Someone wrote KTM on the road but clearly can't spell KT



Beautiful day and backdrop with mountain ranges



A large inland lake we passed



Arriving in San Cristobal was sunny, warm and inviting, within 10 minutes of arriving we found a nice hotel called Hotel San Luis with a courtyard for Maya to play in, the rooms nice, Wifi and QUIET ... something to treasure in Mexico.



We decided that was the place, soon as we unpacked we decided that was the place for two nights!

Walking into town once in civilian mode we went to a recommended coffee shop, up till now Durango had the best coffee, now it was this place buy a country mile.



So good was the coffee we didn’t bother going elsewhere for the duration of our stay, of interest the coffee is locally grown as well so we are supporting the local, a nice feeling to be honest.

Around and abut we walked through town taking in the sights and at one point at the top of stair near a church we just sat and observed.....really neat watching the Mexican world go by.

Cool old bike



We like our shadows as they are taller than us 



Town in the evening



Like a boring old couple we went back to the Hotel San Luis with a bottle of wine, cheese and crackers (like Wallace and Grommitt) and caught up on our trip reports and purchasing stuff for Maya.

Also to our surprise we saw a traveller earlier in the day on a Yamaha Tenere, when we arrived back home there was the bike in the courtyard and its owner Eamon Molloy came back later on so we sat round chatting... till after midnight.

Morning arrived dishing up a beautiful day again. We set off to our favorite cafe this time bringing Eamon with us, again the coffee did not disappoint yet again reinforcing it being the best we had since leaving New Zealand.



On returning to the hotel we fixed the rear brake pads which were covered in oil from the burst pipe thus leaving us with NO back brake and hauling up on one single front disc wasn’t cutting it.

Took the pads out, took them out to the sandstone street and sanded the oils shit off, job done in two minutes.

I then helped Eamon fix his leaking carb with a quick needle and seat cleaning job and some new filters.

Maya stalking Aemons Tenere like a tiger in the bushes



After fixing Eamons bike Ellen and I went for a ride to a couple of local villages to look at them, it was a nice ride and on our return we returned for a Frappe Coffee treat at our new local.

Staircase to the top of the hill

 

Crusing back to the hotel was more writing and picture uploading before heading out for some Indian for tea which was very nice indeed.

All in all we absolutely loved San Cristobal, is was nothing like we thought and far better than our expectations to the point that both of us agreed it was the nicest place we have been in Mexico so far ..... did I mention it was quiet .... just golden!!!

Eamon had gone to the movies and on his return we decided to ride together to Pelenque etc ...... 10.31 pm, time for the old fella and felles to go to bed.

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