of three meters ? How to understand that the winning team was the one that died , sacrificed , and whose heart was torn out to offer it to the gods ?
I made my way back through the city of Merida ( Yucatan ), Campeche ( Campeche ), Ciudad del Carmen and Villahermosa ( Tabasco ) until I reached Tuxtla . It was 922 km , which demanded a lot of effort , especially crossing Ciudad del Carmen , where an infinite number of oil industry trucks drive at full speed without taking care of who is in front of them . The smell of oil is unbearable throughout the area .
The middle of rush hour greeted me as I entered Tuxtla , the traffic a battle as I looks for the Holiday Inn I ’ d booked , the other side of the city . Eyya was parked in front of the reception , covered , and secured with three locks . I enjoyed the huge bed with six pillows in the airconditioned room .
At ten o ' clock the next morning , after breakfast of chilaquiles and tamales from Chiapas , I was picked up by a driver-guide I had hired to take me to a pier where I boarded a speedboat for two hours to travel thirty-five kilometres along the Grijalva River , which originates in Guatemala , crosses Chiapas , Tabasco and flows into the Gulf of Mexico , with the intention of enjoying the journey through the marvelous Cañón del Sumidero .
The morning was cloudy . After a short course on " how to use a life jacket and how to behave in the boat ", we entered the canyon by water , which is emblazoned on the coat of arms of the State of Chiapas . Sailing , I saw to my left a rocky wall a thousand metres high from where , at the time of the conquest , an entire population of a town immolated by throwing themselves into the rapids of the river , thus refusing to be subdued by the conquering Spaniards . A heroic people .
The tour was beautiful , I was able to observe the Christmas Tree , an incredible stone formation that resembles a gigantic tree , about three hundred metres high , and the crocodiles sunbathing surrounded by vultures that patiently wait to the side and at a prudent distance , to get a piece of leftover food .
Back at the hotel and after a short rest , I went for a walk in the main square of Tuxtla and to listen to the musicians playing the instrument called marimba at sunset .
In Chiapa de Corzo I saw the largest Ceiba tree in Mexico , called Pochola , which is more than six hundred years old . It is a tree that was and is venerated by the Indigenous people and that is why the Spaniards burnt it , but the Indigenous people saved a branch and from it grew the one you can see today . I can ' t imagine its size before it was burnt , it must have been enormous . In the centre of the square is a Moorish building dating from 1528 . A conquistador brought some Moors to build in brick , what could be defined as a quiosco . In Mexico , the kiosk in the plazas ( an octagonal building at a height of two metres above the ground and in the center of the plaza ) is used for the town band to play music on it in the evenings , the people dance around it .
I left Tuxtla at seven in the morning under a torrential rain that didn ' t let up until I parked the bike in the closed car park of La Estrella de Belen , a B & B in San Pedro Cholula , Puebla state , after driving 736 km . I treated myself to a couple of hours in the spa and a massage I had been craving for a few days , as well as eating seafood soup , octopus with rice and for dessert , a tres leches cake . The ride from Tuxtla to Cholula was exhausting .
In Cholula there are three hundred and sixty-five churches and the pyramid with the largest base on the planet , and on top of it , a Catholic church . It is a ‘ very ’ Mexican city , with extraordinarily strong ingrained customs and every day , a different saint is celebrated so you never stop hearing church bells ringing and , above all , the infernal rockets , and explosives that the parishioners set off . Who knows why . Its market , a few blocks from the central square , seems to have stood still in time hundreds of years ago . The descendants of the Cholla Indians still maintain the same customs as they did four hundred years ago . The Cholla history is tragic : in one day , the conquistadors exterminated more than seventeen thousand Indigenous people . It is said that its streets were rivers of blood .
From any street in the city , you can see the Popocatepetl volcano , which is active and from time to time wakes up , covering everything with ashes .
I had the opportunity to taste the famous mole negro and mole verde , a spicy cocoa-based sauce that usually accompanies a piece of chicken ; I visited several churches which , throughout the year , are decorated with hundreds of colourful banners and witnessed a dance festival , enjoying the costumes and colourful outfits the dancers wore , as well as the strange and huge structures they wear on their heads .
Leaving Cholula , I stopped in Cacaxtla to see the Olmecas murals that still retain their pigmentation after 1,600 years and did not stop until I reached my home in the city of San Pedro Garza Garcia , in the state of Nuevo Leon , Mexico .
It was an enriching trip . Eyya behaved wonderfully , but I think I will soon sell it . It ' s too luxurious bike for the kind of adventure travel I crave . I ' ll buy a BMW GS 1200 and christen it : Mera . GM
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