The Road to La Garrucha

After our first visit to the Caracole of Oventic, we were primed to venture further into the backcountry of Chiapas to find the remote Caracole of La Garrucha. We got some directions that indicated that it would be about a 4 to 5 hour drive from San Cristobal, through the city of Ocosingo and beyond. So we headed out and cruised the windy mountain roads through lush green countryside that featured an assortment of men, women and children (occasionally a 5 year-old carrying a baby!) walking along the road, pickup trucks filled to overflowing with families or workers, little roadside stands with snacks, fruit, gas in carboys (no pumps), lumbering trucks, flying buses that barely fit on the road, dogs sleeping, transport vans zipping tourists out to the jungle, incredible vistas with billowing clouds, horses, quite good road for the most part, but inexplicable sections of missing pavement here and there and endless vicious speed bumps sneaking up on us and shredding the bottom of the car with a horrible sound that made us look back, half expecting to see a trail of car parts. After a few hours, we began asking for directions to La Garrucha, but only got vague answers and quizzical looks, maybe because some people didn't even speak Spanish (Tzotzil and Tzelzil are common indigenous languages spoken in these parts.) It felt like we were getting close, then the road turned to dirt. And not just dirt, but a rutted, potholed jeep trail that rattled the car and forced us to slow to a crawl much of the time, and occasionally navigate huge crevasses that threatened to swallow the car whole. Fortunately, we met a few people along the way who gave us hope that we were headed in the right direction. We learned that there would be a fork in the road at some point, and a sign there to show the direction. After half an hour of dusty bumping along, the fork came. No sign. Left? Right? We had a hint from one conversation or another that we should go right, and we weren't about to turn back now, so off we went. Further along, folks at a roadside stand confirmed our choice, with the happy advice that it was maybe another half an hour to La Garrucha. Maybe. We got an unexpected stretch of paved bliss for a while, but it didn't last and we were back to the rutted trail again. Where the hell is this place?