Adelante!!

Out of Cancun and into the wild...     






The decision as to when I would leave Cancun was easy. As soon as fucking possile. There is not much to be said for Cancun unless you are into all inclusive tourist resorts, prostitutes, drugs or counting discarded plastic bags. Apparently that's my new hobby. I lost count at 857,325.

The day dawned grey and dismal and in a matter of 3 hours it was bucketing down rain again. I was already overwhelmed with cycling INTO Cancun, how the hell was I going to cycle out?

As luck would have it the hotel where I ended up happened to be right across from the main bus terminal. 

I bought a ticket for Valladolid for that very day and we were out of there. That "we" would be Tanque and I.

No problem with the bike but it's anybodys guess as to what will happen on any given bus ride. I mean will I have to grease a palm or two, pay for an extra ticket, hand out bottles of beer etc? I'm sure that it wouldn't be my last bus ride so learning to bribe appropriately is important. I'd heard third or fourth hand horror stories of busses stopping to let people on or off and the bays getting broken into and luggage stolen. I took the pedals off because I thought it would be a dirty trick if someone were actually desperate and dumb enough to try and drag that ugly heavy tank of a bike out from under a bus and try to ride away on it. "Hah, take that you thieving dogs!" Yeah... Never happened...

Ahhhhh, Valladolid... It's a very nice typical small Mexican city with fewer tourists and more families trying to make a living and get by.  Kind of like 'Murica. It is however one of the best places to go cenote hunting. Those are the sink holes of rainwater formed a million years ago when the peninsula was hit and shattered by a giant asteroid.  The cenotes are plentiful around Valladolid. In fact the city boasts it's own lovely municipal cenote. 




I spent the next day after my arrival in town trying to find enough tools or a mechanic to help me tighten my rear hub. It loosens occasionally I've noticed. When I collected the bike box at the airport there was a hole in the box where the hub had busted through. Tells me it took a hit of some kind. I found Fenix Bicicletas and watched this mechanic sit on the floor with my rear wheel and start pulling random tools out of a chaotic pile. I was amazed, he had that thing tightened in no time flat. Bike stand, what bike stand? 

I was visiting the old monestary of San Bernadino when I met Mali, another cyclist who is from Canada. We chatted and decided to do some cycling together. Since she was at the same hostel, it was easy to coordinate and it turned out to be Robin and Mali's Excellant Cenote Adventure.

We visited some ruins and the best little gems were the cenotes rarely visited by most tourists because they can only be found by stumbling around blindly from village to village hoping the one lane tracks we were on did not end suddenly completely swallowed by the jungle and would eventually lead somewhere. Does that sentence even make sense? We did come across some amazing little spots and were given private tours of beautiful and in one case, sacred sink holes.

We ended up spending one night in one of these small little villages. We were running out of daylight and by asking around for a place to camp we found ourselves in this weird little government constructed concrete palapa with a "For Rent" sign hanging on it. We were met at the door by what I believe was probably the village Headman. He was an elderly gent who sported approximately two and a half teeth. He asked how much we would "Pay" for the privilege of  sleeping in a moldy concrete bunker. He suggested 300.00 pesos each (about $30.00). I countered with "How about 50.00 pesos for both?" (about 5 bucks).  He grinned his funny grin and agreed.  


There was one hammock already slung inside and I have one I travel with. Which was good because aside from a table there was no furniture and no discernible kitchen come to think of it either. The cool thing about residential construction in this part of the world is they build hammock hangers right into the walls. 

Later in the evening while we were eating cold, canned refried beans and tortillas one of the local Donas showed up with plastic shopping bags heaping over with embroidered garments and the like. Mali bought a hand made, embroidered blouse and some earrings For about the equivalent of $35.00. I bought two doily looking things and spent a whopping 2.50. Big spender  I know. Don't know what I'm going to do with them.  It was an awesome night in a Mayan village.

We eventually  Made our way to the bustling hippie metropolis of Tullum.  I found a campsite on the beach for 10.00 a night and stayed for two nights. I had to set up my hammock behind a storage palapa near the trash heap behind a dune in order to stay out of the wind and not get flipped out of my hammock.   Mali had to go back to Canada so we had to part ways. It was nice having someone to cycle with. She'll be missed. She did pass on two brand new cables which I hope I won't need but one never knows... ...Oh the joys of travel...

Thanks for reading.

Miami and beyond...

                          

                             Note to self:

Self, NEVER fly out of Miami again!  Even though it worked out cheaper in the long run to rent a car in Boynton Beach and drive to Miami, it was still a nightmare.  A shout out to Aunt Lee and Uncle Paul for their support.

I was working out the logistics of getting me and the bike to the train station, on the train, off the train, staying in a motel overnight, while finding a bike box, getting it to the motel, boxing the bike and getting us both to the airport in the AM. The car was a better option.

However, like many examples of our aging infrastructure, MIA simply cannot handle the volume of traffic it was originally designed for and just returning the rental car required a very advanced navigation system. Drive around the airport a few times experimenting with different lanes until finding the appropriate lane that leads to the "Rental Return" area. A subterranean parking structure right next to the bowels of hell. Their signage could be better. It would then be two and a half hours from the time I walked away from the car, jumped through the correct hoops, barked like a seal, shelled out lots of cash (I tried bribing the counter help with $50.00 cash to waive the 150.00 fee for the bike but she didn't go for it. We agreed it was a good try though) and played the TSA game before arriving at my gate.
                                            
BUT, I had the most amazing crew. We all chatted at the gate and after my tale of whoa of extortion at $150.00 for the privilege of flying with my bike, I received a mysterious upgrade to First Class. Had a lovely chat with my seat mate (also mysteriously upgraded after missing his connecting flight from Memphis). Both Tanque and I arrived at the airport in Cancun virtually unscathed. At one point my seat mate asked me if I ever felt some anxiety about what I was about to do etc. I told him if I thought about it too much, it could cause paralysis. Do the next indicated thing.
Found the bike, went through customs etc. I forgot that I had fruit in my bag and I felt like a schmuck when the gal pulled it out along with my very expensive organic chia seeds and tossed them.
I was supposed to meet a friend who was going to ride with me but she never materialized. It was getting late in the day, it had been raining hard and I stood around thinking about what to do next. Just take a cab to a hotel, get on a bus with the bike still in the box and put it together later, etc, etc. It's so much easier to procrastinate a few days and make excuses while lounging at the beach. No, just put it together and get out of the airport.
 Had a hell of a time with putting air in the rear tire and rode 3-4 miles with extremely low pressure. But found a gas station and pumped them up. All the gas stations have attendants and he was such a nice guy. I think he was shocked to see a crazy old bag on a loaded touring bike. I gave him a nice tip.
Next: I was going to head straight out to Valladolid and avoid Cancun like the plague. It was late, the sun was setting, I was already headed toward Cancun and away from Valladolid. So, I headed straight into Cancun at rush hour. At least traffic goes pretty slow when it's backed up for a hundred miles. I will never complain about the roads in the US again. There had been torrential downpours and there was water everywhere, which hid the potholes, ruts, new curbs and sidewalks. I biffed it when I tried to jump what I thought was a 4 inch lip on a new sidewalk. It was more like six inches. My wheels got hung up and over I went. Right into a nasty, dirty puddle. It was awesome! Up I bounced and jumped on the bike. It was not a good place to stop and lick my bloody palm. Cycling in south Florida was good practice for my first foray onto the roads of Mexico.
Still can't believe it's real. This crazy dream is now

Cycling Florida.

                                            FLORIDA!

I believe it is Spanish for flowered as I'm sure it must have been at one time. Time does an amazing job of shaping nature. I'm talking geologic time. That's the kind of time passage that goes unwitnessed because it is so slow. Earth events happen over millions if not billions of years. Can you get your head around that kind of time span? I know I can't. My reference for the passage of time is based on thoughts like: "I've been cycling for 5 hours into a head wind and I've only travelled 30 miles." Or, "Hmm, I just noticed I'm hungry again. Oh! My watch says 12:15 well, shit I haven't eaten in 3 whole hours." These don't even register on the clock of geologic time.   
My point is that being in Florida has given me another marker for just how old planetary ecological systems are and how young humans are. That lovely hibiscus I've been seeing in gardens and roadsides probably did not appear in it's current form until 20,000 years ago and it took 10 million years before that to establish itself.
And it's not done yet. 
As another example, consider the alligator. Hmmm, yes I'M considering the alligator. It's ancestors go back about 250,000,000 years. Some of the species that emerged weighed in at 10 tons and could be 35-50 feet long. A carnivorous predator. What a perfect machine. The ones I've seen are of course much smaller, lay in the water with eyes and nostrils just barely visible above murky water. It just floats and waits. It expends almost no energy. I think their cool. They exhibit no deference one way or the other to the whims of society or weather. I think they are beautiful and aside from the teeth, they strike me as.... not docile exactly but tranquil just chillin' in repose. That is until it gets hungry or riled up because another predator gets too close to it, or it's nest. 
Sometimes I get the impression that collectively as human beings we have this idea that the way the world is now barring sudden cataclysmic seismic or climatic changes is the way it will always be.
Not so, the laws of evolution and adaptation would indicate otherwise. We can fuck it up all we want and this enormous ever advancing ecology will continue to adapt. That's an awesome concept and one that gives me hope.

Traveling in Florida has been such an experience of contrasts. I have met incredibly warm, wonderful people, experienced their southern hospitality and traveled through unique beautiful natural landscapes. I camped at the edge of an orange grove last night. The sweet smell of fruit trees lingering was intoxicating. I spent one night camped in a state reserve. A "slough" they call it. Lots of water and the requisite flora and fauna that accompanies such a place. I dipped my bandana in a pond on the edge of the campground to wash my face.  It looked like a little beach. The grass was pressed down and I thought maybe it was a spot where people fished. It was right near the outhouse and trash dumpster. After I set up my tent which MUST be done before dusk because of the mosquitoes, I went back 20 minutes later to maybe dip my feet. There it was. The tell tale nostrils and eyes floating above the mirror like surface of that still pond. Just a little 7-8 footer. My unconscious mind recognized it before I even thought about it. I just jumped about 5 feet sideways. I don't think it would come after me, I was a good 10 feet. But why push it? I was 100 miles from nowhere and the only person camped there that night. I probably could have gotten away with not putting the 10 bucks into the deposit pedestal.
In any case, alligators, hibiscus, wood storks, anhingas, copper heads, panthers and even mosquitoes are all part of this little corner of paradise. 
For me, it's just one more reason to think "WOW, what an amazing world"!
Thanks for reading.




















1. 

Yo soy el fantasma de la Navidad perfecta futuro de 


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3. Yo soy el fantasma de la Navidad perfecta futuro de subjuntivo : yo te mostraré lo que habría pasado esta