Dont do it !!!! - Bethel Guatemala to Mexico Crossing to Palenque
 

Back door to Mexico - I headed for the border crossing at Bethel Guatemala... this is an unmaintained track for much of the way which leads to the river where I have to load the KLR650 on the canoe for a ride to mexico down river. Off loading on the mexico river bank was fun as the captain insisted i drive the bike over a plank on the bow of the boat, once balanced on the plank he turned it sideways so i could drive down off the boat and onto the beach. This was followed by a super muddy hill climb to the immigration office where i fish tailed like a mad man to reach the summit.

The bad part is the next day when i look for customs and there is none! Nothing at the Palanque airport, downtown or the city in the Playas De Catzaja north of Palanque. I had to waste a whole day driving 2.5 hours one way to the customs at the border of Guatemala in La Ceibo.

Although it was an adventure .... Lesson learned here is always cross at a fully equipped border. There are many legal river crossings from Guat to Mex but none of them have customs which really sucks.



:scooter:

Good to know. Did you go to any of the ruins on the Mexican side of the river? Yaxchilan or Bonampak? What is the highway that follows the river like? Places to stay while visiting the ruins?

The best place to stay if you want to take a boatride to Yaxchilan is Escudo Jaguar in Frontera Corozal Escudo Jaguar

The best time of the day to leave for Yaxchilan is shortly before sunrise : That puts you at the ruins before all the tourists arrive and before all the animals hide in the jungle for their siesta.

There are several places to stay around Bonampak , most of them run by Comunidades Lacandonas .

The road along the river "Ruta Fronteriza" , all the way down to the Lagunas de Montebello is pretty interesting and scenic .

There are 2 great places between Frontera Corozal and Montebello , Las Guacamayas and the waterfalls of Las Nubes

CENTRO ECOTURISTICO LAS GUACAMAYAS INICIO

https://www.google.com/search?q=las+...w=1680&bih=865

The highway is officially Mex 307 and it is a great ride to connect Palenque to these mentioned ruins' access points . It continues southeast to Benemerito de las Americas , then at Flor de Cacao it curves west to meet Mex 190 at La Trinitaria south of Comitan.
It is all pavement ,good to excellent quality and of course a pothole occasionally . From Palenque to La Trinitaria is about 540km but if you try to cover it in one day you will be rushing and grossly short changing yourself.
It does not actually " follow " the Rio Usumacinta but in the northern section it does run in the same direction at a distance removed from the water up to 20km as far as Flor de Cacao .
There is a smaller state highway, paved, running parallel on the west side of the first mountain ridge through farm country and small towns like Damasco and Cintalapa which is also pretty interesting It shows how jungle is being eroded by overpopulation which is seeping into the entire mountain area.
. Although it is parallel to the main 307 highway's northern section it completely bypasses the access roads for Bonampak ruins and Frontera Corozal which is the launch point for Yaxchilan ruins
........Decisions, decisions..... Or do the whole shebang and take an extra day or two .
Frontera has two tourist lodge hotels at the waterfront and several basic hospedajes in the village . Benemerito has a cluster of hotels and there are some tourist attraction jungle hotels accessible from the highway in the mountains as Guaterider mentioned and in the Lagunas de Montebello Villages west of the mountains like Tziscao and more archaeological sites


Access to the river at Frontera Corozal is on a 16 km spur highway and at Benemerito on the junction of the Rio Lacandon it is on the east side of town . About 14 km south of Benemerito there
is a paved shortcut southwest through rolling landscape to meet the west- bound section of Mex 307.
The foothills and River lands in this corner of Chiapas are rapidly being converted to cattle ranches and plantations of African oil palm trees.In the dry season raging grass and brushfires are quite common as a result of rampant burn -clearing here and in Guatemala , skies are often loaded with smoke .

At Flor de Cacao Mex 307 turns west and parallels the GT BORDER and crosses several ranges of the Lacandon mountains before reaching the drier plateau , very scenic with some very deep canyons at the border divide.

At four or five points along the route you can find places where the local people regularly cross the international border .
Foreign tourists are subject to different rules, even more so if travelling with a foreign vehicle and they are required to have official paperwork . When such paperwork is not performed at any of these small crossings one is required to go to the nearest official crossing which does, and for Mex 307 it means you must go to either El CEIBO or to Cd Cuauhtemoc.
As Alexleflur discovered this negates any reason for using these crossings with the excuse to save time or distance unless of course you wish to push the envelope and court later problems or are looking to have a tale to tell .
.

Thanks for the tips. Hope to get down there again this fall.

Let me know when you do bier

In the opposite direction there IS an immigration station - just as you leave Bethel. It does not import vehicles however. I made the crossing from Mexico to Bethel via Froterra in 2009. There's a store with Mickey Mouse painted on the side in Bethel that has a guest house that you can rent for the evening as well. I did not ultimately ever get my bike checked in with Guatemala but acted clueless upon exit and it was all good after little drama. Send me a message if someone wants more specifics.

Alexlefur 's advice still stands as better than acting clueless an a bunch of drama . The next person to try that may wind up with a ton more trouble than you were lucky to get away with .
Stick to crossings with proper processing facilities . El Ceibo is practically on the same road if you are coming from the north. If you absolutely must see Bethel do it as a side trip back and forth inside Guatemala