Tlanchinol 2004

Random Recollections

• As we drove from El Naranjo to Tlanchinol, we encountered several checkpoints with soldiers carrying rifles. I waved at them, but Jay warned me not to do so, afraid that I would anger them in some way.
• The roads in this part of Mexico were much worse than the earlier roads that we had driven on. Part of the reason was that we were at a higher elevation, and it was much wetter in this portion of Mexico. Also, there were no major population centers in this area, so the towns were smaller, and the roads did not get as much attention.
• The people in this part of Mexico are mainly descendents of the indigenous Indian tribes that preceded the Spanish settlements in the New World. The people are darker and shorter. The names of the towns are much harder to pronounce, but many have a musical quality to them when you say them out loud. My favorites were Tlanchinol and Tamazunchale.
• As we drove the final few miles up into the mountains approaching Tlanchinol, we were engulfed in the fog and clouds that make this area a cloud forest. We were unprepared for how dense the fog was. It seemed we could barely see past the hood of our car. The next day we discovered there were many waterfalls coming down the mountains at the edge of the road. We only saw two or three. Most of the others which were a distance of five to 10 feet from the inside edge of the road, were invisible to us. We couldn't stop because there was a significant amount of regular and truck traffic on the road and they were very few pull offs. Some of the pull offs were so engulfed by fog, that we could not tell if it was safe to pull into that area. We were quite glad to finally reach Tlanchinol.
• When we reached Tlanchinol, we drove all the way through town having difficulty determining where we wanted to go because the city itself was engulfed in fog also. We finally found our way to the town square which contained the narrow driveway to our hotel.
• Pulling our car into the courtyard of the hotel was an experience. We had to fold in both side mirrors before the car would fit through the opening. Jay and Laura got out of the car to guide Randy as he drove through the long narrow opening.
• We tried to find something to eat and finally found a small restaurant with an open door which was actually closed but they kindly prepared food for us nonetheless.
• When we returned to our room, we quickly changed and got into bed because the room was very cold and had bare concrete floors. It had a television however that carried the same soap operas that we had watched in El Naranjo. We continued our practice of telling the story in any way that seemed to fit the pictures, although Jay and Randy were getting a bit better about picking out a few Spanish words here and there.
• We birded the Lontla trail three times while we were in Tlanchinol. In the mornings it was often clear before the clouds in the valley below rose to engulf us. The valley below was quite beautiful and the vegetation was extremely lush and wet. Laura and Jay both got a number of good birds in this area.
• On the second afternoon of birding below Tlanchinol, I had reached my birding limit. We returned to the car for lunch and I decided to stay there, take a nap, and do some reading. I was reading from my Pocket PC when suddenly a pickup pulled up behind me. Four individuals got out of the pickup including a policeman in uniform. They came to my door, asked me to roll down the window, and started asking rapid-fire questions in Spanish. I was taken aback because I could not understand most of what they were saying. I heard the word "papel" and remember that that stood for paper. They were pointing at me and the only thing that I had in my hands was my little computer, so I told them the best that I could that I was reading a book on the computer. I was not understanding them and they were not understanding me. Finally, I realize that they were asking for my "papers." I quickly got my passport and that satisfied them for about 30 seconds. They started speaking rapidly again and I had a terrible time trying to understand what they were asking. They asked if I was alone, and I told them that my woman and a small child were in the forest. They asked (by making hand signals) if I could call them. Luckily, Laura and Jay had taken one of our portable family radio service radios. I just hoped that they weren't out of range. After a few tries, I was able to raise them and asked them to return. Jay was reluctant, but I told them that the people that were questioning me were insistent that they do so. Jay said that it would take about 30 minutes which I communicated to the officer and the people he was with. I was becoming concerned, because they were irritable at times (probably because I could not speak the language), and because they were obviously not going to leave until Jay and Laura returned. There was a large man in plain clothes who seemed to be dominant and was also the most irritable. Indeed, it took about 30 minutes before Jay and Laura returned. During that time the men stood around talking to each other, occasionally laughing, and looking from time to time at me. I felt like I was in some kind of trouble, but had no idea what or why. While we were waiting, an ambulance pulled up beside my car and four other men got out. Now I was really becoming concerned. Fortunately, there was one individual who spoke a little better English than all the rest. He said they just needed to ask us some questions. I asked him if we were in trouble, but he did not answer me immediately. He and several others went over to the original pickup, got in, started the engine, and started to drive off. I ran over as fast as I could and stopped them. I asked the English speaker if I was in trouble, and he told me no, no trouble. And then they proceeded to just drive off. I was still at a total loss. Just as Jay and Laura were coming up the last part of the trail, the older man walked to the side of the road, unzipped his pants, and started urinating. Jay and Laura walked up just before he finished. I guess they have different standards of propriety there. Anyway, Jay was able to converse only slightly better than I had been. He kept trying to tell them to slow down while they were talking, and they seem to agree, but when they repeated their statement, they did it only louder, but not any slower. Finally Jay had the bright idea of asking them to write down their questions. They found some paper and things progressed better from that point forward. The questioning was fairly nonspecific, but they made us agree to return to the police station on the town square in Tlanchinol later that day. We discussed it and decided to go immediately to clear up any problem as soon as possible. We followed the ambulance to the town square in Tlanchinol and went into the police station. There we discovered that all of the men were policemen, some in uniform, and some were plainclothes detectives. After waiting a short time, we were taken upstairs to the office of the police chief or his assistant (we never were sure which he was). He took us into an interrogation room, and asked us in English to sit down. That was all the English he knew. We still had great difficulties communicating, even using pencil and paper. After some time, Jay finally picked out the words "permito scientifico" and finally it dawned on him that they thought we were trapping birds and other animals. At that point it was a simple matter for him to pull out his bird guides and bird journals to prove that we were only bird watching. He knew the Spanish words for this very well and was able to explain our purpose and actions in short order. As soon as the interrogator realized that we were American tourists spending money in their fair city, he immediately ordered three coffees, and was very apologetic for interrupting our vacation. He also gave Jay the name of a scientist, a friend of his, in a neighboring town that was doing bird research in the area, and asked Jay to call him to report what we had been seeing. In the end, everything ended very happily for all, and I now have a great story about being interrogated in a Mexican police station deep inside the province of Hidalgo, Mexico.
• The second and third evenings that we stayed in Tlanchinol, we ate at a restaurant named Los Potrillos. It was by far the nicest restaurant we ate at in Mexico. We had seafood for the most part, and it was inexpensive (by American standards) and tasty. The service was fantastic. They had TVs mounted on stands against the wall near the ceiling and they were extremely thoughtful in tuning them to English-speaking news channels for our benefit. They gladly allowed us to photograph Laura and Jay with them in the picture. The restaurant was extremely clean and nicely appointed and we had a great time both nights.