In memoriam of Krzysztof Chmielewwski and Holger Hagenbusch

Tuxla Gutierrez (Chiapas, Mexico) Km 4408

Krzysztof Chmielewski was Polish. He had been traveling the word by bike for three years and visited 51 countries. Holger Hagenbusch was from Germany. He had been to 34 countries on a four year trip over the saddle of his bike. Their paths crossed in Chiapas, and decided to visit together the Mayans ruins of Palenque on April 20. They never got destination. One body appeared beheaded at the bottom of a ravine on the side of the road to Palenque one week after their departure. The other body, with a gunshot on the head, was found further down on the same cliff few days later. This crime is still unsolved two months later. This assassination was on the national news for a while despite it happened in a country so used to the violence that there was a killing every fifteen minutes on the last month. The killing happened one week after I entered Mexico, and it has been the topic in many of my conversations with locals along my way to the South.

This crime pointed out some of the worst of the human nature, but it also has shown some of the best. After the crime there were a lot of demonstrations in Mexico, and many people paid tribute to the memory of the two cyclists demanding more safety for bikers. Even more relevant, a ‘whatsup’ group has been created to care for the safety of the cyclotourists in Mexico. This initiative has quicker and more practical effects. This group has more than 150 members and is still growing. They do not just share relevant information about the roads. The members of the group care about individual bikers on route. There is a sender who checks out the traveler at the origin of the journey, and a receiver who checks in the traveler at destination.

I am in contact with this group and feel much more safe in my trip now.