Travel makes you smarter.
Jungle flowers, stinging scorpions, mysterious insects, howling monkeys, sheep trees, traveling gypsies, fabulous musicians, not to mention the majestic ruins of the ancient Maya city – our first stop in the state of Chiapas, in the charming jungle of Palenque was eventful and very enjoyable.
The jungle around Palenque is hot. Really hot. It is so good that we have such an nice airy tent to sleep in at night and that there are enough sources of cold refreshing water to dip into; Misol Ha and Agua Azul made our day.
Dodging speeding semis and bulldozer tractors amid heavy construction on a road with no shoulder, watching a drunk Mexican girl take a pee in the hotel and getting stung by a black scorpion are all fun things to do in the summertime; but all in one day?
Our second day over the one hundred kilometer mark since arriving in Mexico almost six months ago; more than six hours of saddle humping found us without a place to stay in the middle of nowhere. With a little luck, a few smiles and a bit of diplomacy we were able to secure shelter from the night before it got dark.
We liked the turtle camp so much we even thought of staying another night and playing on the shallow crystal ocean rocks in front of the fancy abandoned bungalows or we considered just lying around under the palapas on the beach. Since we didn’t have any real food with us and you don’t get lucky and meet people who treat you to a delicious dinner every night, we opted to push on toward our next stop. Sabancuy was our destination, travel our motivation as we pointed our bicycles with thoughtful consideration.
What another great day today: cycling among beautiful seaside scenery, finding a sweet camping spot under a beach palapa and scoring a delicious dinner from complete strangers! The sun hung low and red as we sat on the beach with full bellies, rested and happy… ready to listen to another Red Ice Radio podcast before falling asleep.
Beautiful campsite We were on the road before 6:00 am today and stopped a few times for various refrescos (refreshments). Our ride was a wonderful and cool breeze along the seaside. By 2:30 in the afternoon, we’d traveled close to 60 km and agreed on a well deserved break. So half way between Villa Madera [...]
It was still nice and cool out after only about three hours of pedaling, so it was a pleasant 60 km (37 mi) ride from Pomuch. We arrived in Campeche mid-morning along a beautiful breezy ocean-side roadway which is partnered with a really lovely all-purpose path that actually had three separate lanes: one for bikes, one for skates and one for walking. So healthy!