2021 11 04 Tziscao to Comitan Birthday ride

Two or three weeks ago Ada and Andrew communicated with me about coming to Comitán for some biking adventures. They are riders from San Francisco and had seen some of my routes in ridewithgps. They were impressed with the variety of terrain and were taken with the idea of exploring here. They asked if there might be any bike rentals. I responded suggesting they stay with us and use my bikes.

Andrew was not a problem. He’s the same size as me and I have two touring bikes. Ada is a bit smaller and I was worried. So I contacted a friend with a big bike shop here. Although they don’t rent he offered his own personal bike as a borrow! I in return offered to trade for the duration of their stay with my pretty good mountain bike. So the pact was made. However I did some adjustment on mine to shorten the reach and with a bit more fine tuning mine worked perfectly for her.

Many potential ride plans were made. Meanwhile our birthday plans were falling through since most of the attendees were out of town. So we decided to combine. Making my milestone birthday present an epic ride with them. For which I am very grateful. In return for my guiding services they had to put up with my old guy pace.

So we decided to start in Tziscao which is the principal town serving the various villages and locations in the state and federal park known as Los Lagos de Montebello and simply wind our way back to Comitán though rural roads and villages. This region bordering on Guatemala has it’s own microclimate that supports the growing of high altitude coffee. And part of our route would pass the farmer from whom we buy our coffee for the roasting business.

We left the night before. Planning a stay in Tziscao and a moderately early morning departure. María was kind enough to take us in the pickup and returned home about 5am to attend to daily life and construction management in Comitán.

Finding a breakfast place open about 7am we stoked up for the trip and did a brief side visit into Guatemala. Though none of the local vendors were open yet it was pleasant having the place to ourselves. Here there is a lake known as Lago Internacional since the Guatemalan/Mexican border passes through the middle. In his excitement Andrew rode off to one side of the lake to a small but friendly military encampment and Ada the other. I in between. Fortunately it’s a small lake enough lake that with gestures we could meet again. Cell phone service being dominated by the Guatemalan carrier. One picture shows Andrews dashing up the hill to get to the well photographed monument division between the two countries where Ada had been waiting.

After proceeding onward our first stop was at the iconic picture pulloff where all tour buses bring their clients for a view of the lake Tziscao that fronts the Guatemalan mountains. Then we did our deviation from the normal highway route. Going first to Cinco Lagos and then climbing up through the coffee villages (see the climb profile on the linked map at the 10K point). We dropped back down and met up with the park road on the other side

Proceeding along the park road we arrived at the final parking lot. There a small nearby village has some food stands and various local women take turns offering a repast to visitors. There we also encountered a local sport biker. I make the distinction because plenty of people use bikes as everyday transportation and for carrying of supplies. We exchanged pleasantries. He took pictures of our clearly not local bikes and we proceeded to a cenote area for a swim outside the park boundaries.

We eventually made our way to the small village of Ojo de Agua where we buy our coffee from a local grower. We’ve actually had a working relationship with Gilbert and his family for 10 years. Unfortunately his entire coffee crop was destroyed completely after “La Roya” fungal disease hit a few years back. But he replanted (twice) and last year he had his first harvest of a resistant strain known as Geisha. Sold for about $20 US a pound in the US. We bought his entire production last year and will do so again this year.

After cruising his property and picking a few oranges and bananas (while munching the pulp off ripening coffee berries) we were refueled so we could proceed through the lovely open pine forests of this mountainous region. Finally we arrived to the edge of the agricultural plains and the village of El Triunfo bordering the two distinct ecosystems. We stopped for lunch.

The final 30K or so of the trip was dominated by agricultural service roads, crops, and plodding cattle. Finally arriving in Comitán just as a rain shower broke. The weather putting a final point to what had been a lovely full day of riding.

María met us with dinner and a birthday cake and we celebrated with our home grown IPA.

The pictures in this post are a mix from all three of us. The best ones being theirs.