Traveling Applejax

Let´s see . . . after my last post we continued heading south. Our first day was rather uneventful, but we camped for free for the night. We found a place that seems as though it will make a lovely eco-tourism spot if it´s ever finished. There were a couple of really nice half-constructed buildings in the forest/jungle(?). We camped near one of them. Mike slept like a baby. I didn´t. Oh well.

We got an early start the next day, which turned out to be a great decision (I´ll get to why in just a bit). This day turned out to contain both my favorite and least favorite moments of the trip so far. Bad news first, I guess.

I am developing a healthy dislike for dogs. Not your cute, fluffy, tail-wagging, house-trained, happy, American pet variety. No, no. It´s the mangy, starving, freely-roaming, barking, bike-chasing variety I hate. Mike seems to have no trouble warding them off when they take off after him, but I´m not so talented. Yesterday when a small pack of dogs charged me, I swerved to avoid them and ended up falling of my bike. Total lack of coordination. Of course, they immediately lost interest and left me alone, but I earned myself a lovely scrape on my elbow as a result. Damn dogs.

Luckily, the day wasn´t all bad. We actually had a fantastic stroke of luck about midday. Just as we are pulling off the road to explore a cenote (very deep pools of water from underground rivers exposed years ago by falling meteors or something), a car pulls up next to us. A guy leans out the back window and exclaims, “Fucking c´mon! I saw you guys biking yesterday around Carillo Puerto. And now you´re here. That´s fucking cool,” or something to that effect. Anyhow, he proceeds to invite us to a party house next to Lago Bacalar for some cerveza and swimming. How could we resist?

So we follow the car to a house very close by, an adorable house with a beautiful lawn right on this gorgeous lake. Ruben (the one who saw us the day before) introduces himself and his friend Wadí (whose birthday they are celebrating). They are some of the few people we have met who can speak more than a couple words in English, so we have some great conversations. They are animated storytellers and very funny. Several other friends are there, or show up later, but they graciously welcome us for the birhtday festivities. Mike and I each have several beers and swim in the lake (which is several shades of pretty blue and quite shallow for a long way off shore).

I think we stayed for a few hours, enjoying the company, the beer, and the lake. If you read this, Ruben, muchas gracias. I mean, c´mon! We had a great time! We´ll post some pics later.

Last night and tonight we are staying in Chetumal before we head to Belize. Mostly we´re taking it easy, recuperating from 4 straight days of biking in this humidity. Today it is 93 degrees with 66% humidity — pretty typical. We hear there´s hotter weather in AZ these days, but the humidity here is a real bitch.

Anywho, here are a few more pics from our travels so far.

One of those “crocodiles” I mentioned earlier. Actually, this one´s a bit small.

Nifty green tree snake at Chichen Itza.

Pretty bowls being sold at Chichen Itza.

Sombreros!