East to San Cristobal

We spent 8 days in Bahia San Agustin taking it easy, walking the beach and catching up on the blog.
From here we travelled  into La Crucecita for a couple of days to first meet up with fellow overlanders Marcus & Julie from Tuck’s Truck. Stewart had contacted them shortly after they arrived in Montevideo from Europe and had been following their travels north for the last 3 years.

Next was to meet up with our friend from Saskatchewan Blaine & Keri, who we had met here 5 years ago and have shared a few vacations here with them over the years. We joined them by the pool at their hotel before going to happy hour and for dinner with them.

We finally hit the road eastward.

We had decided to head to a beach where Turtles hatched at Flor del Pacifico, which was only about 50km/30miles along the coast. We arrived around noon but there was nobody around where we had planned to stay. We had a beer from our fridge while we waited for them to return, still nobody turned up. Then decided to go for a walk to the beach. The only Turtles we found were dead babies and one grown turtle that never made it back to the sea, the babies had been killed as they made the dash from their nest to the sea after hatching. They had been attacked by the local birds mainly Vultures.

After returning to our truck and finding that there was still nobody around, we decided to continue east towards Salina Cruz. It was close to 5pm by this time therefore decided to take a right turn off the highway about 10km/6 Miles north of Salina Cruz, it was about 3km/2miles down a dirt road towards the beach to a restaurant called Buena Vista where we had fresh seafood for dinner, they also allowed us to stay the night in their carpark.


Next morning, we went for a long walk along the beach before continuing east. We had planned on getting our engine oil changed at a Dodge dealer in Juchitan de Zaragoza, but when we arrived, we found the building where the dealership was supposed to be located it was in ruins, they had relocated to Salina Cruz. As we had just came from there and did not want to drive the 50km/30 Miles back we continued on.
As it was just after lunch, we decided to go all the way to Puerto Arista where we stayed walking distance to the beach at Jose’s Camping and Cabanas. We arrived around 3:30pm. After setting up camp and introducing ourselves to our neighbours who coincidentally had driven down and were from just northeast of Edmonton, near Redwater. This was a couple of miles north of where Stewart had worked for the last seven years, what a small world.
We took a long walk up the beach towards the center of the town, by this time it was 5pm. We found a restaurant on the beach to have some dinner and watch the sun go down.


We stayed at Jose’s for two nights before setting off to San Cristobal. San Cristobal was at one time the capital city of the Mexican State of Chiapas during the Spanish colonization; the capital is now Tuxtla Gutierrez. On the way we would pass many sets of locals running with a flame (like the Olympians) or sometimes just a baton which would be passed to the next runner. These were not professional or even amateur runners they were just normal citizens followed by chase vehicles. They were heading to a church of the Virgin of Guadalupe, not necessarily a local church, it may even be in the next State.

We made it to the campsite we had chosen in San Cristobal, which was located on the east side of the city. We were advised not to try to drive through the city and take the route around the south side as these streets are narrow. As we arrived just before sundown and the weather was cool with a chance of rain we did not venture out and chose to just have dinner and stay put.
Next morning, was initially cool and sunny but soon turned warm. After some breakfast we set off into town to see the local sites. As it turns out the main church on top of the hill at the end of one of the main streets was called the Virgin of Guadalupe, and a lot of runners were heading right here! This main street was closed to vehicular traffic except for the chase vehicles for the runners. Vendors had set up trinket and food stands along the sides of this street. Many of the local people were dressed indigenous clothes.

In San Cristobal, there was a fare amount of graffiti around the city.

4 thoughts on “East to San Cristobal”

  1. Great blog, I trees ting following your travels.
    Looks like a great adventure, especially meeting people from Redwater, our last encounter.
    Your looking well olde mate!

    Love the photos, just brilliant!
    Keep on posting!

    xox mick

    1. Susan & Darrel,
      Yes, we are trying too. We will look forward to visiting you both in Panama 🙂
      Stew & Cat

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