Day Two, long but in the books

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Day Two:
Today was every bit as grueling as I thought the first day would be. We started out at 6:30AM but it took till around 11 for us to travel the first 100 miles of the 500 mile total.
We spent the vast majority of that time crossing the border into Mexico at Ciudad Tecun Uman. As you travel north along the Pacific Coast on CA-2 in Guatemala and approach the border there is a fork in the road—the sign to the left directs you to Tapachula, Mexico which we had to go through to get to the highway heading to Oaxaca and the sign to the right directs you to Tecun Uman. I figured that going right would lead you to the town itself which we had no need to see while the option to the left would lead to the border. Well, apparently only trucks are supposed to use that route. We would up as the only cars in a line of trucks which wouldn’t have been so bad had the Guatemalan emigration official not allowed to pass only so we could be turned around by the Mexican immigration official which required us to enter back into Guatemala which leads to our next adventure and lesson learned—more on that in a moment.
Backtracking to the fork, we now go to the right and do in fact enter the tiny little city of Tecun Uman with its small border crossing. First stop is Guatemalan emigration, again:
Lesson Learned: For those of us who laugh at how quickly we pass through border crossings because the immigration officials barely bother to look at your passport, let alone stamp it, that could come back to bite you. Although none of us had been stamped in to Guatemala when we entered, Dave and his daughter wound up on the illegal immigrant list in their computer system since they had no way to prove they were in the country legally. Fortunately, the head guy in the emigration office realized that there must be an error if 2 family members are legal while the other 2 are not if all travel together, applied common sense and let us depart Guatemala. For those not familiar with Latin America, that application of common sense at that level, without having to consult officials at headquarters in Guatemala City is rare. Not a lot of delegation of authority and decision-making power here.
After finally departing Guatemala, we cross the bridge to the Mexican side. First stop is vehicle fumigation. If you don’t want the inside of your car sprayed, just claim asthma—thanks to Dave’s son for that. Pay the fee, then proceed to Mexican immigration. Get stamped in and then welcome to Mexico, we’re on the road, finally.
After about 20 minutes we arrive at Tapachula, a smallish city inside Mexico—yes, this is the city from that sign at the fork in Guatemala just before the border. Signage here for the highway is poor. We spent about half-hour driving up and down through the streets looking for the highway trying to follow the different directions I was getting from about every other person walking on the street that I asked. We finally found it, but only right after going the wrong way down a pretty busy one-way street for half a block. On the road!
But the relief is short-lived. We soon encounter a customs checkpoint—why would there be a customs stop inside the country if you’ve already entered? Good question, if anyone knows the answer, please let me know. Here is where we have to complete the temporary vehicle import permit paperwork that we were aware of but figured we got away with since it wasn’t at the border. That took about half-hour. Now, with stickers in the window indicating that the cars are legal to drive in Mexico, it’s about 11 and we are finally on the road.
The highway is good, 4-lanes, well-paved and empty. A recipe for 80mph to make up for lost time. We zoom along till about 4PM with only a couple of stops for gas. The scenery along the coast is much like in Guatemala: lush and green. We passed by a rather large and impressive windmill farm.
The only things to watch out for on the road are the numerous Army, Federal Police and even more immigration check points inside the country—mostly searching for drugs, guns and explosives. For some reason, a man traveling alone in a minivan with Honduran plates arouses enough suspicion that I have to get out and open the doors and answer questions at practically every stop. It doesn’t matter that I have government license plates, an official passport and an Army ID card. Oh well, at least they’re trying. Fortunately, the stops are brief and I never have to open a bag. Now I know what profiling feels like.
All checkpoints and every two-bit town has a bunch of tumulos, retomblos, reductores de velocidad (speed bumps in English)—whatever you want to call them they are a royal pain in a** forcing you to come to almost a dead halt from high speed, and they are absolute murder on your suspension because you wind up slamming into the ones that are pooly marked or not marked at all—which are many.
Now we’ve reached the decision-point: continue on to Oaxaca, about 150 miles away through mountains which would put us there around 8PM—meaning 1+ hour of driving in the mountains in the dark.
Ok, we’re going for it. Driving the mountains was tough but the views were beautiful. I’ve added a picture but that doesn’t really do it justice because it was getting late, I didn’t really want to stop and take more time for photo shooting and the sky threatened rain. I really do wish it wasn’t so late and so far to Oaxaca because the sunset over the mountains really was worth some pictures. I’ve always liked watching the sun set over the ocean but I think this was better.
We arrived at the hotel at about 8:15PM, unloaded the bags, went to get some pizza and then to bed. Long day.

This ends phase I of the trip. Phase II, the sightseeing phase, begins on Day Three.

For those keeping score at home: it took us 13 hrs 45 min to travel 500 miles. Trip odometer now reads 936 miles.

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