FORTIN TO COATZACOALCOS THEN SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS

We had a short trip from Fortin to our hotel in Coatz.....but I saw pineapples and coffee plantations. Of course the sugar cane everywhere. We left the highlands, went to the coast again on our way to San Cristobal de las Casas. We were on good toll roads but they were working on them about every mile or so. We were stopped once by the Federales but they just waved us on. We began to climb again into the misty high mountains, very beautiful, a high jungle.

At 11:45am we were stopped, outside of Tuxtla Gutierrez, in a long long line of traffic as far as we could see trucks and cars. We were told to back up and turn around and so Pete had to back up with large trailer trucks on either side. Then we turned and drove, along with the other cars, in the wrong direction on the highway. We were directed off and on to a dirt road in order to get all the way around the city and the disturbance. The dirt road scene was priceless. All of the residents came out and gave directions, waved us on along with their wives, children and dogs to help. It took a while but we finally got back on our way.

A few miles down the highway we came to a toll booth. There was a policeman there warning everyone about something that was happening in San Cristobal. We couldn't understand exactly what so we went on. About an hour later as we neared the outskirts of San Cristobal we again encountered this massive backup. Pete finally asked and found out that it was a teachers strike or demonstration and that's what the other problem was too. We heard the music, saw people watching and waited for about an hour for the speeches to be over. We drove on witnessing the truck drivers honking in support of the teachers. Wouldn't have missed it for anything. Chiapas is known for it's labor demos and protests.

San Cristobal is beautiful, clean and somewhat sophisticated. There are more tourists here than we have seen all trip. We found our hotel with our taxi trick. They greeted us and said we would be upgraded to another hotel. Well, okay. A map. We found it The hotel Escalera! Now, escalera means ..stairs...62 of them in this altitude! After the first trip up and down, no hand rails, I have gotten used to it so no problem. We do have a wonderfully large suite with a view of the city. If my sister in law reads this I will ask her to recall our hotel in San Miguel de Allende twenty years ago.

We tour the city tomorrow. I think we are gonna love it,