road from Palenque to San Cristobal de Las Casas

Oficial Alerta Chiapas

Facebook page that has all the protests in the state. Most revolving around Tuxtla and SCdLC. Includes today's toll booth closings and what they are charging to let you through.

The directions on line are good and will do a good job of getting there. It depends on the size of your rig to swing into the Rancho San Nicholas. I can check our GPS to get turn off for the back road if you wish.

Briansue - we met last year in San Miguel. No one was in attendance there a month ago. There were a few rigs but were told they had flown home for Christmas.

I will email the folks still at San Nicholas to see if they can can determine what size size rig can turn in at the gate

Reed and Elaine

Do you think a larger RV could get in their if we took that back road to enter?

I found the info on the ontheroadin website and looked at their Lat Lon on Google Earth but it does not look like they have it in the correct place. I converted their numbers to decimal and still can't find it. I tried looking on other maps and came up with another possible location. I used those numbers to look on Google Earth and then did a street view and moved up and down the road to try to find the place. I can't tell for sure where it is. But I can see that the road is probably too narrow for big rigs. Can anyone confirm?

N 16*43.719 W 92*37.649 Lat Lon at the ontheroadin website

16.7286500°, -092.6274833° converted Lat Lon

16.73437° -92.62322° possible Lat Lon - this is where one of my maps shows a barrio called Rancho San Nicolas and that also appears to be the name of the road - and it does connect to 190 - but I can't tell where any kind of campground might be.


16.73417 -92.62167 possible closer Lat Lon

Protesters took over the toll booths on cuota on Tuxtla side yesterday and were collecting the tolls for whatever their cause is. They were in a jovial mood. There were two Federal Police about 400 m from them looking bored and relaxed. We paid them the normal 50 peso toll as requested. Rancho San Nicholas is an excellent and quiet park for RVs less than 24' since you cannot go through the streets if San Cristobal to get there. Trailers would be impossible Power was good and each site has water. Most sites have a dump station. Wi-fi sometimes worked well but we could always use Telcel. We went out the back way which avoided the narrow streets and topes suggested by our birding guide Francesca Albini. This is about 400 m of dirt road and then good paved road down to Nexico 190 just south of town. Two other RVers at San Nicholas asked us to email them if this route was an improvement and we did. We would return
Reed and Elaine

Tequila wrote:
Roadblocks, protesters,go the long way
No Rv park in San cristobel now, we are using fair Grounds for caravans

Are you there now and protests are taking place?

Roadblocks, protesters,go the long way
No Rv park in San cristobel now, we are using fair Grounds for caravans

We are spending five nights at Rancho San Nicholas. This is probably the only RV park left in town. Canadian Rain birds and Churchs' book are correct; no trailers and rigs less than 24'. Have to be extremely careful on route to San Nicholas since the ropes can do real damage on some roads (we may require some fiberglass work when we return. There is a back route in and out that avoids the main town. The on line directions through town are good. The RV park is quite nice and quiet; everyone we have met have enjoyed it and it is a one mile walk to town square. Taxi ride in is between 20 and 40 pesos (to 2 dollars). Enjoyed our time here.

Reed and Elaine

We got to San Cristobal two days ago via Hermosillo and Heroica Cardenas. The road is adequate. There is bypass around north of Tuxtla.

Rancho San Nicholas is quite nice but the warning about small rigs in San Cristobal is real. The streets are narrow and even a Roadtrek 190 with a rear bustle is pushing it. The ropes are gigantic and have bee driven over very slowly and at an angle. We still scraped.

Inquired about taking road to Palenque and were told that it is not a good idea. Everyone we have met at RV park are headed south on Mexico 190!to Guatemala. All of them have high ground clearance pickup campers.

We finally met folks from US: Colorado and Massachusetts

The RV park is San Nicholas and we plan to be there tomorrow. We discussed this park with friends from Quebec, Germany and Spain-Italy and they loved it. The Germans hated the drive from Palenque to San Cristobal. The locals demanded, and got, up to 500 pesos at their roadblocks. Then they were held up for 10 hours at some road construction. So we are in Villahermosa tonight and take the road south from Cardenas
Reed and Elaine

Got further horror stories from German and Canadians. The German couple next door were stuck for 10 hours due to road closure plus a lot of stops demanding up to 500 pesos l.

Still have yet to see another Gringo RVer on this trip
Reed and Elaine