Palenque to Tikal via moto; possible?

I entered Guatemala with every intention of returning to Mexico...and then I somehow ended up in Panama, selling my bike many months later... It would suck to lose that deposit, and it's only $36 to get back into Mexico.

Hi guys,

we are currently in Palenque and we were thinking to cross tomorrow into Guatemala via El Ciebo crossing. Is the Banjercito office still closed on Mondays or now it is open all week?

If it is still closed, what do you suggest? Stay in Palenque 1 more day or just go to Tenosique?

Thanks,
Alex

A bit pointless to ask at such close time frame , but since it is now Monday , you are either still in 1Palenque or in 2 Tenosique
If Palenque just take one of the leisurely routes to Tenosique today ,either via back route north of Palenque to Emiliano Zapata and the Mex 203 to Tenosique . or south out of town to mex 307 and at Chancala take the turnoff north to Mex 203 and Tenosique .Either way very quite scenic, .
Get a nice hotel in Tenosique and Tuesday you have no worries and an easy hour's ride to the border of El Ceibo ( watch those spellings , por favor)

@Sjoerd Bakker I think it is never pointless to ask a question here as most of the times, the most reliable information is coming from fellow travelers. And even if it would be too late for me, maybe it would be useful for others. So still excellent to confirm a situation. As for the spelling mistake, thank you for pointing that out. It was an honest miss-type due to writing in a rush at one of the many tourists traps in Palenque. No disrespect intended for the actual place! And your advice for the roads to take from Palenque onwards and we indeed highly enjoyed and recommend the back roads north of Palenque

I asked last night because just then I discovered this thread. Before this, people that I've asked about this elusive border crossing had various opinions ranging from it does not exist to it does but the only Banjercito is in Tuxtla Gutierez. So this thread was very helpful for us.

Even with the schedule of the Banjercito it was so fanny: everybody we asked on the road from Tenosique to El Ceibo said that it is open today (Monday). Police guys at the 2 check points, the military guys and the top of the top... the border guys at the border crossing itself. We stopped, we asked if the Banjerito is open and they said yes and motion us to park the bike so they could check it!!
We were starting to reach for our documents when another guy came from the Adauna building and said to our first guy "Hey, man, today is Monday, they cannot pass today as the banck is closed". This alone made the trip to the border worth it (and it was a ride with nice views too).

So heads up for other travelers: The Banjercito is indeed still closed on Monday!
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Anjin, no offense intended,I did not mean " pointless" in the sense
of "worthless " but that with the short lead time you allowed you were
not likely to get a useful response. You demonstrated this by going to
El Ceibo today to discover that indeed it was still without BANJERCITO
service on Mondays , the day their lone functionary has off work .
Back to Tenosique for the night?
Remember , if you are coming back to Mexico and out at the north border to the USA
within the remaining
valid. time of your TVIP you do not need to cancel. In that case you could have
gone into Guatemala on Monday even without the BANJERCITO service
The Migracion would have cancelled your Tourist card today , different department
It is not that the border is closed , only that BANJERCITO is closed on Monday

An other interesting point is that if we were to rely on the Google Photo as it comes
from their world images the Guatemalan road from El Ceibo shows up as the muddy track
it was. SIX YEARS AGO !
That indeed makes it illusive! Rest assured there is an excellent paved
highway there

Hi AnjinSan !

I told you el Ceibo is a great crossing with a nice paved road on both sides. Did not know about the Banjercito issue though as I don´t need it. Have fun in guate and watch out for those 2 million of dogs on the road !!!

How is Gunnar ?

Alex

@Sjoerd: I am sorry as well if my response was to abrupt. I knew that posting on such short notice was a trial and miss thing but I was sooo tired of the uncertainty that surrounded this border crossing that, when I discovered this thread I thought to try and ask, and if not for me, at least for the next traveler, the information would be up to date.

In the same idea I would like to give some details about our crossing today.

Yesterday indeed we returned to Tenosique (which in fact wasn't that bad, I had time to write a new post for the R.R. and order some parts for the moto :) ) and after searching for accommodation we ended up at Luz de Luna hotel which is on Street nr 26.
So for others who might get there on Monday or those who are just coming in from Guate and don't want to drive all the way to Palenque, we recommend this place. It was 280 pesos per room (tiny but very clean and with A/C, WiFi and TV-for those who care about TV :) ) and secure (locked and with a guard) parking for the bike.
There are cheaper places in town but the 2 hotels that we've seen looked really shabby and the rooms where not that clean.

Getting to El Ceibo:

In Tenosique there aren't too many signs with El Ceibo but we noticed that if we follow the signs for La Palma then it would get us out in the same direction and then after the second PeMex there will be a sign for El Ceibo to the right. Of course, just stopping and asking is much better and entertaining (for me as I don't speak Spanish almost at all :) )

Crossing the border:

On Mexican side everything is straight forward. I would just say that normally you should first register out your bike in Adauna/Banercito building, and then get the exit stamps for your passport. We arrived at 10 AM (the previous day a guard said that Banjercito would open at 9 AM but he said that we better come after that hour...) and there was nobody there. We practically woke up the guy at the counter :)

Everything was super official and friendly. No hint of any problem. Very professional!

Then we passed on the Guatemalan side. Here you should first stamp your passport then import your bike.
Here how it went for us:
- for passports you go into the first building. The border guards will point it to you even before you have time to get off the bike.
- no A/C in the building, but a friendly guy. Long time to write things by hand but you can admire the map of Guatemala in the mean time.
For the bike:
- you still go to the truck. But now it is parked on the same side of the road. They have power and even A/C but still no copy machine. So you will have to take the tuk-tuk to go and make copies of your documents.
- it is better to have copies of your documents already made and readily available with you. You would still need to go with the tuk-tuk to make a photo copy of the passport with the stump you just got for Guatemala BUT you would save some money for the others. It cost us 0.5 pesos per copy in Tenosique. And I was asked for 5 quetzals/copy (sorry for the miss-spelling...) at the place where the tuk-tuk... uhmm tuck me :)

Also you need to pay 160 quetzals (~22 US dollars) for the moto permit at the bank which is in another truck right near the truck for the Adauna.
Please have cash with you. There is no tarjeta paying at the border and the nearest cash machine (they told me) is in La Libertad (~2 hours one way driving). I had only 100 pesos left and no quetzals but US dollars were OK and at a fair exchange rate.

While I was running around doing the above things, Andreea was relaxing (watching the bike) and chatting with the gorder guards. They were very friendly, wanted to take photos with the bike (and on the bike). Everything was relaxed and with a lot of smiles. Again no hint of anything unprofessional. Also no tramitadores in sight.
The hole thing lasted for us arround 1 hour (on the Guatemalan side) and during this time we were the only "foreigners" there. Nice and quiet!

Also there was no additional paying for anything and no spraying of our wheels with anything. After we had all our papers, we just say good bye to all the guards gathered around us and left.

That was all. Thank you Alex for first mentioning this border to us and we would recommend this border crossing as well do anybody going in that direction.

Palenque last winter, returning from Yaviza, Panama
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