The Cactus Trip Diaries

The battles between various SatNav’s and their ability to get things right has been reported on before. Usually, when we arrive, it is at the same spot. However, the ways of getting there differ tremendously. Alain’s mobile phone SatNav system speaks, a woman’s voice, and is as often wrong as mine, but mine is set to silent. The Aveo car comes with a very shiny dashboard. On the first day of our use of it, we bought a ‘dashboard carpet’ that stops the glare but introduces another irritant in that with the many Topez and potholes, the carpet frequently threatens to slip onto the floor of the car. We intend to buy double sticky tape at an Office Depot store before we return the car, but only if I can buy enough to stick the rest over the mouth of the lady inside the infuriating Dutch SatNav system. If not, she could go flying through an open window!………

Having seen enough in Villahermosa yesterday, we decided to move to another state and so are now in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, the capital of the State of Chiapas, another ‘first’ for us. We left the flatlands and drove into the mountains but made steady progress thanks to the use of the toll road – they have their uses and the cost converted to GBP are really not bad.

The attraction to come here was the Sumidero Canyon National Park. In the afternoon we visited the five miradors (viewpoints) that looked down on the river below us, offering some spectacular views. Along the road also grows an Agave, A. grijalva, named after the river. It seems that today the name A. kewensis is preferred. Whatever the name – we have its picture!

Tomorrow we are going on an organised outing to give Alain a break from driving. We’ll be picked up from the hotel, to join a party on a boat sailing through the canyon. It’s just a morning’s trip. By midday, we are back in our own car to drive back to Coalzacoalcos and fro there towards Tehuacan for the last few days and back to Mexico City. On paper and in images it looks to have been quite an epic journey! I’m sure it will take a while before we have digested it all, back in the UK!