Ruined!

We really have some catching up to do – sorry folks!

Days 67-68

Setting out early from San Cristobal we rode out of the mountains into the jungle and to the Mayan ruins at Palenque. On the way we stopped at the ruins of Tonina. These ruins are much less impressive and therefore much less visited by tourists so we had the run of the place. It was also a welcome break from the terrible road we had to drive to get to Palenque. The road surface was generally fine, and it was twisty and scenic; the problem was the topes... Topes are all over Mexico, so this is not a new thing, but the quantity and surprise nature of these particular topes has yet to be surpassed. Every cluster of one or two houses had at least three lying in wait on the road, hiding in the long morning shadows, and every now and again going into or coming out of a sharp turn in the road would reveal a nasty topes-surprise. Very few warnings or signs alerted us of the impending danger, though Ric's emergency breaking and swearing across the radio acted as warning for Emily a few times. Yes, topes are Mexian's “sleeping policemen”: whilst we understand the requirement to reduce speed in settlements, it's pretty hard to do so once you're flying through the air.

Because the journey took a bit longer and the ruins closed a bit earlier than we thought, we didn't get to see Palenque ruins properly until the following morning. With the jungle backdrop they were the most exciting we'd seen though also the hottest and most humid. We made an important purchase at the ruins – a hand held fan for 50p – which has been in almost constant use since. From Palenque we travelled North, had lunch in Tobasco state, and made it to Campeche by early evening. It was Independence Day in Mexico and as we investigated the public area where the fiesta would be later on we saw a hotel that had been on our list of those to try (we have a few on the list in case our chosen one is full or there's nowhere to leave the bikes - we're not organised enough to contact them all in advance). We were just discussing whether they would have let us drive our bikes into their lobby when, lo and behold, we saw a 1200GS with Canadian plates already in there, which answered our question but of course raised many others! We asked if the owner of the bike was around and met Victor – an Argentinian who lives in British Columbia and who is headed the same way as us. We had a good evening chatting about our experiences and our plans, and got a few good tips for the roads to come, as well as some emergency contacts (his family) in Argentina.

Later on that evening we enjoyed the Independence Day celebrations which involved some sort of traditional dancing accompanied by more modern musical-style singing, and at one point live cock fighting, making a slightly odd family show, in our opinion! We've been assured since that this is quite normal. This was all followed by a 1970s latino heartthrob who appears to be famous here– he certainly had all of the Mexicans, grannies and kids alike, running to the stage drooling! Not fully understanding the local culture, we just found the glittery white suite and long wavy locks quite amusing in an ABBA-esque kind of way.

Days 69-71

The road from Campeche to Merida is littered with Mayan ruins, all with a different Puuc style of architecture so we visited three of these the following day before getting settled into Merida for the night. One of our new Mexico City friends, Ernesto, had given us the number of a friend of his in Merida, saying he was a biker and that he would love to meet us. So once settled into our Merida hotel we made the phone call to arrange to meet up for a drink with Jorge that evening. We had no idea when calling up Jorge that we would be greeted not just by one person but by his whole wonderful family! They insisted that we come and stay with them and allow them to show us around the region over the next few days - an offer we could hardly refuse! We had a brilliant few days, up at their beach house at the nearby Progresso bay, on their boat and swimming in the Atlantic Ocean for the first time on the trip, riding our bikes with their two sons (also on BMW GSes) to nearby towns and to a secret cenote (cavern like hole in the ground filled with fresh water – a bit of a mystery of the region), sampling the local food and hanging out with the extended family. We also found out where Ernesto's classic 1956 BMW had come from as Jorge has a whole collection of '50s and '60s classic BMWs which he's lovingly restored. Jorge also insisted on having his "help" clean our bikes (for the first time in Mexico) and fixing Ric's cracked pannier, which we were starting to seriously worry about. On top of all this, Jorge has travelled through Central America and was able to offer advice on routes and places to stay for the next ten or so days.

Our last night was Friday night and we were invited to go to the Merida theatre for a musical performance and then on to a Cuban club (BuenaVista style)! As the family donned their glad rags Emily was mortified to find that the best outfit she could muster for an evening of culture and dancing was: walking sandals, a shabby faded knee-length skirt, and a linen top she'd bought two days previously at a market for three pounds fifty! That aside, we had a fantastic evening, managed not to drink toooo many mojitos and left feeling pretty refreshed the next day.

Day 72

This day was what you would call a Bad Day. It started in hight spirits – leaving our new friends and heading towards Tulum on the East coast of the Yucatan with only three hours of riding and one ruin to visit on the way. About an hour down the road, Ric came on the radio asking “does this road feel funny to you” - a question often asked when the surface makes it feel like your back tire is flat. “Erm...” replied Emily, “No, I think there's something wrong with your tire!”. We pulled over and sure enough a two inch nail had embedded itself in Ric's rear tire. We managed to plug the tire with our “stop and go” puncture repair kit that we'd picked up in Anchorage within one hot and tiring hour. Ric was heroic with the hand pump when it came to pumping the tire back up! Emily did her best to help with refreshments, and the fan of course.

On we went to the ruins of Chitchen Itza – one of the world's seven wonders that we had to see on the way. As we'd lost an hour it was way over lunch time and we needed to cool down so we went to the restaurant before looking round. As we ate we read what our guide book said about the ruins and learned that because we were so close to the equinox we should be able to see the light cast shadows on the main pyramid in such a way that there appears to be a snake weaving down it – how fortunate we thought! We came out of the restaurant at 3.15 refreshed and excited to look at the ruins. However, at this point the sky was also ready to drop millions of gallons of water on the whole area. We waited under highly inadequate trees, getting thoroughly soaked but trying to protect the less waterproof things on us (camera, passports, etc), as the water level rose around us. The rain finally eased off enough for us to see anything at 4.20, ten minutes before the site closed for the day. We saw what we could which did not include a snake winding it's way down the pyramid as there was no sun at all!

Now even further behind schedule we arrived at the coast as it was getting dark, our GPS was lost and confused and we'd forgotten the instructions of where to go from our hosts. We found ourselves next to a couple of hotels so decided to check into one for the night, and call it a day. We weren't entirely surprised to be swarmed by mosquitoes as we unpacked the bikes – it was that time of day - but we were more disturbed to find our bank had chosen this day to block our cards and we were running out of cash. We changed a small amount of emergency dollars so we could buy dinner and then used our last little bit of local currency to get online to contact the bank. After all of that we slept surprisingly well!

Days 73-75

The rain continued in Tulum so after a quick look round the ruins (unique because they're right on the coast, with a beach in the middle of them) we headed South to Xcalak, at the end of the Costa Maya peninsular. It's beautiful and remote here, there's a marine park running along the coast and if you look south you can see Belize! So we've done a bit of diving, kayaking, snorkeling, a bit more relaxing, and a bit of reflection as we get ready for the rest of the Central America countries. We'll be leaving Mexico in the morning...