The Americas 2013

We didn’t ride today because we are spending two nights in San Cristobal de las casas to give us an opportunity to explore this beautiful little town. We originally thought that we should hire some bicycles from the hotel but soon decided that it was to inhibitive to constantly stop to take photos so decided instead to do the entire town by foot.

This is a charming colonial old town with a large focus on community living. The town squares are alive all day  and after sunset, bands start to play and people, old and young alike dance until late in the evening surrounded by busy restaurants and bars that pour out onto one of the many squares and pedestrian only streets.

We were up early to see the ruins of Palenque today and expecting to get there at 08h00 sharp and beat the crowds however that was naive! On arrival, there were already 6 or 7 tour buses and pandemonium at the entrance! Seems everyone has cottoned on to the “beat the heat” concept!

Palenque is impressive but as ruins go, Uxmal, for me, wins hands down! I have now had the benefit of seeing all the major and some minor sites in Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras and although Uxmal is not the tallest, or largest site, for visual appeal, beauty, engineering and detail, Uxmal is the place that I would want to spend a few more hours wandering around!

We had a relatively short run of only 220km to do to San Cristobal de las casas today although it was through the mountains and twisty because this town sits at an elevation of 2200m and is a welcome respite from the heat of the last few weeks!!

Our days ride…

Zoomed for Pete..

We are spending two nights here to relax and explore as we have covered 1100km in the last 3 days which is quite good going when you add the fact that we have been simultaneously exploring ruins.

On route to San Cristobal…

Today we had a long run of over 500km to get to Palenque, another set of famous Mayan ruins! Although when it comes to historical importance, Tikal in Guatemala is considered to be the pre-eminent Mayan ruins and Palenque is considered to be number 2. I am unsure of the entirety of the history or details as to who or why these rankings have been created however from the perspective of the layman, Uxmal blew my mind and Palenque, when I last saw it in 2009 was as impressive, and both, more so than Tikal and Chichen Itza!!

Our days ride…

We left Uxmal just after 7am to escape the heat which continues to be unbearable as we ride through the Yucatan and I assume that a lot of it has to do with the fact that the entire peninsula is at an elevation of not much more than 20m and is exacerbated by the coastal humidity! The ride continues to produce cute little Mexican towns and beautiful, albeit very flat vistas.

Our arrival at Quinta Chanabnal where we are spending the night was a welcome respite and we elected to not head out to the ruins this afternoon due to fatigue and heat and will therefore get up early tomorrow to explore in the coolness of the morning.

In the province of the famous hot sauce!!

We left Tulum by 9am for a short run of 330km to another set of Mayan ruins called Uxmal. The ride through the Yucatan peninsula is flat, hot, similar in many ways to the African bushveld and peppered with tiny little Mexican towns and thousands of churches and speed bumps!

Our days ride…

The Pyramid of the Magician

Although Uxmal is not considered the most important, in my humble opinion, they are the most beautiful in that the amount of detail that has gone into the construction of this city is amazing and we spent hours simply marvelling at the reliefs. The fleur-de-lis, for example has appeared on countless European coats of arms and flags over the centuries, it is particularly associated with the French Monarchy in a historical context and according to Wikipedia, “fleur-de-lis crossed the Atlantic along with Europeans going to the New World, especially with French settlers”….yet here it appears at Uxmal which was built around 500AD??!!

Fleur-de-Lis Mayan style!

Queen Elizabeth the II visited on 27 February 1975 for the inauguration of the site’s sound & light show; when the presentation reached the point where the sound system played the Maya prayer to Chaac (the Maya rain deity), a sudden torrential downpour fell upon the gathered dignitaries despite the fact that it was the middle of the dry season!

The ball court for playing the famous Mesoamerican ballgame..

We are spending the night at a great little place called Hacienda Uxmal which is an old hacienda set across the road from the ruins of Uxmal and a wonderful place to unwind by the pool after spending a few hours exploring.

We got up early today to go see the ruins of Tulum before the crowds so we left the hotel just after 7 and walked there to enter just in time. These ruins are less architecturally impressive than Chichen Itza although the location is UNBELIEVEABLE! These ruins are perched on the edge of a cliff overlooking the turquoise coloured waters of the Caribbean and have a rich history as a trading port that attracted traders from Cuba, Venezuela, Panama and supposedly even Vikings from the Nordic regions?!

These ruins are also unique in that there is a small beach that you can swim at that looks up at the ruins perched over the sea. The rest of the day was a lazy one because from tomorrow we start having to cover some distance as we need to be in LA within 3 weeks.

These guys are all over the place and can grow to over half a metre!!

One of the original murals that has been remarkably preserved!!

Although we are staying in Tulum until Thursday morning we took a ride out to see the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza some 150km away and this took up most of the day. Insofar as impressiveness and architectural and engineering technology is concerned, Chichen Itza, compared to what the Incas did down in Machu Picchu, Peru is like comparing Manhattan to Franschoek!

These ruins are amazing to spend a few hours walking through taking photos.

According to Wikipedia, “Chichen Itza was a major focal point in the northern Maya lowlands from the Late Classical through the Terminal Classic and into the early portion of the early post classic period (c. AD 900–1200). The site exhibits a multitude of architectural styles, reminiscent of styles seen in central Mexico and of the Puuc and Chenes styles of the northern Maya lowlands. The presence of central Mexican styles was once thought to have been representative of direct migration or even conquest from central Mexico, but most contemporary interpretations view the presence of these non-Maya styles more as the result of cultural diffusion. Chichen Itza was one of the largest Maya cities and it was likely to have been one of the mythical great cities, or Tollans, referred to in later Mesoamerican literature. The city may have had the most diverse population in the Maya world, a factor that could have contributed to the variety of architectural styles at the site.”

Bike Maintenance, work admin and trip planning made up most of the day until I had to pick Jax up from the airport in Cancun at 17h30 and as a result I didn’t get out much today and have no pics or news for the day.

We had dinner and an early night because Jax was heavily jetlagged after a 20 hour flight!

It hadn’t occurred to me that crossing into Mexico would feel like such a milestone but because its a country that features so prominently as the neighbour of the USA, I got a real sense like I hadn’t before, of just how far North I have travelled already…approximately 25,000km since the 9th of January making it roughly the halfway mark of the Americas journey!

Days ride..400km.

Belize continued to be beautiful and will definitely be a place that I go back to including the rustic little roadside restaurant I stopped at for breakfast. The border crossing into Mexico was once again “Latin American” in flavour and was a 90 minute and US$475 affair to get through immigration and customs! Thereafter, the ride to Tulum was fast and pleasant because the Mexican roads along this eastern stretch are smooth and wide although unbearably hot.

Little roadside restaurant called Slims where Medina made me eggs from the chickens running around the garden…awesome!

Tourquoise Carribean sea on route to the Mexican border..

I meet Jax in Tulum tomorrow night and we will be spending 3 nights here before heading on into the Yucatan peninsula. This gives me an opportunity to do some bike maintenance and get my riding clothes washed which is a really good thing! With all of the heat that I have been experiencing these last few weeks, when I put on my bike jacket this morning, for the first time I caught a whiff that can only be compared to the bottom of a mineshaft after a 12 hour shift in the middle of summer..perhaps this is why my border crossings have been taking so long!!

Unbeknownst to me when I booked the sunrise tour was that it meant being up at 03h45 for a 04h00 meeting to trek into the jungle to watch the sunrise over the jungle canopy from the top of temple 4 and to listen to the jungle come alive. Although getting up at that hour isn’t sane the experience was amazing. There wasn’t much of a “sunrise” per se because it was misty but the sounds of the jungle coming alive was worth the loss of sleep.

Spider Monkey..

Oscillated Wild Turkey

The sound of howler monkeys, toucans, macaws and a host of other tropical species all simultaneously waking up is a once in a lifetime experience and to witness it from the top of an ancient Mayan temple made the experience surreal.

Howler monkeys making their haunting call. Watch this you tube clip to hear what they sound like…

For Peta…

Breakfast was at 9am followed by a 3 hour nap before I got packed and onto the bike to make my way into Belize and get the border crossing behind me. Belize is completely different from the rest of Latin America and I love it. Although Belize used to be British Honduras and prior to that, much to the chagrin of the Guatemalans, was part of Guatemala, the people are Creole Caribbean and the whole feel of the place is shabby chic and like that of the Bahamas or some other tropical island. The architecture, the reggae music playing everywhere, the “hey mon” and the very laidback attitude is NOTHING like what I have experienced in Latin America AND immigration and customs was a 5 minute affair for both!!!

Days ride..

View from my room at the great house inn.

I am spending the night at a little hotel called the great house next to the Caribbean sea and will be looking for a little bar/restaurant to spend Saturday night in Belize City!!

Today was a long 560km ride from Antigua to Tikal in northern Guatemala so I got going early as the highway between the two places runs through Guatemala city. Guatemala is a beautiful, green and lush country. Roads are good so a great place for motorcycling and drivers are mostly courteous.

Days ride…

Stop over the Rio Dulce..

Going to Tikal means that you come down off of the cool altitude offered by the mountains and down into the coastal plain where the temps rocket to around 40C. I arrived at Hotel Tikal Inn set right next to the ruins at around 2pm only to discover that not only does my room not have AC but the entire hotel only has electricity between 6 and 10pm so the ceiling fan in the room is operational for that time only!!

Not everyday that you see a road sign for “crossing Jaguars” and like I said before, “we aint in Kansas anymore””!!!

I decided to do the sunset tour of the Tikal ruins as I am only spending one night here and will do the sunrise tour in the morning as well which enables me to see the aspects of the ruins that the sunset tour doesn’t cover because this site is some 16 square kilometres!! There is good reason why Tikal is considered the pre eminent of the Mayan ruins, not only in size but the structures are incredibly impressive for a city built two thousand years ago.

Temple 1 at Tikal!!

Temple IV in the background!

Panoramic over the Grand Plaza..