Chris's space

Rained all night tropical depression being the forecast for the next 3 days, left Cancun at 0830 full wets on, wet roads but no rain, 4 lane highway all the way to Carmen del Palya then Tulum, lined with Resorts 140k’s sunshine all the way, with me sweltering in my gear, then the road narrowed to 2 lanes still good with broad shoulders and the rain started heavy at times all the way to Chetumal at least it cooled me down and did not slow my progress 110 kph most of the time arrived at 1330, 5 hours easy ride, roads in Chetumal flooded checked in and went for a walk around town 300% humidity, no historic buildings here, rubbish on the streets though that could be due to the storm, naval presence and a major port for this area.

Another easy ride from Chichen Itza to Cancun, I followed the Libre (free) road not the Cuota (toll road), hardly any traffic, roadworks most of the way, Valladolid one big town, 200k’s and 3 hours later arrived at the metropolis, blue skies, warm weather, still very humid, beautiful. The city itself does not have the charm of the older places, there are no old buildings or forts or anything historical. Went for a ride down the strip which looks like a narrow island just off the coast connected to the mainland at both ends, 20km of hotels and resorts, quite an amazing site and the Mayan Riveria extends for 140km down the coast.

Short ride from Uxmal via some back roads to Chichen Itza 160k’s, 2:30. Checked in to the hotel and went for a ride to the nearest town to buy some water and have a Taco or two and an ice-cream. Next day visited Chichen Itza at 0830, deserted at that time of the morning, much bigger site than Uxmal but less impressive, hundreds of stalls inside the site lining every pathway selling all kinds of stuff, wandered around for 3 hours left just as the tour busses started unloading the hordes.

The ride from Campeche to Uxmal (Ooosh-maal) took 2 hours
and was uneventful, blue skies and road works almost the whole way, it looks
like they are expanding the road to 4 lanes. This area is sparsely populated a much
nicer ride without all the villages and speed bumps. Uxmal is in the bush,
nearest town is Muna 15km away after checking in I rode there to fill up and
get some supplies, a bottle of water at the hotel costs $3. Part of the hotel
bathroom’s roof is glass and birds come and sit on it and the only sounds you
hear are the birds chirping. Each room has a name and my room is called the
Indira Gandhi room hahahaha.

Entrance to Uxmal is 166 pesos $14 which includes a ticket
to the Sound and Light show it is famous for. The main structure is a rounded
pyramid and is very well preserved and quite spectacular, when you clap your
hands in front of it the return is a strange yelping echo. Beware of the big
lizards guarding the place. The Sound and Light show consists of the buildings
being lit up with various colours and a story being told accompanied by music,
the story is narrated in Spanish so after about 5min it got boring and it went
on for 45min hahahaha, give it a miss if you don’t understand Spanish.

Spent the day wandering around taking pictures, very clean and well maintained place, first time I have seen any Western tourists, there was a theatre festival on and at night, performances were on the street.

I woke up and looked out of the window and saw rain, loading up my bike in the rain while trying to keep everything dry while soaked in sweat in my wet weather gear must be fun to watch, the local yokels had some free entertainment.
500m down the road around a corner appears a lake with a line of cars crawling through, I managed to follow them through it and a few more along the way without going for a swim, after about 40 min the rain eased to the odd shower except for one really heavy squall where I felt like I was being stoned. I just love this job.
The best roads of the trip so far and hardly any villages so I made good time, after the halfway mark and two long causeways I rode into blue skies which lasted the rest of the way, along the coast with the beach on one side most of the time. What started out as a miserable day finished up being a fine one and then I discovered that the map location for my hotel on Booking.com was wrong and spent 30min asking for directions and getting a flood of Spanish that I could not understand, pointing worked, sweating in the hot sun just like I started the day hahahaha. This looks like a nice place.

The ride from Vera Cruz to Villahermosa was bumpy, more than half of it anyway, the bike chain was making an ungodly racket and power was delivered in a series of jerks. The road went along the coast for a while and then crossed some mountains and finally the last 100k’s was a good freeway into Villahermosa 472km in 8 hours.
When I got into the city I noticed my handlebars were stiff and would not turn to full lock on the left side. After investigating I saw one of the fairing mounting bolts had come out and got wedged under the steering stem could not work it free without the help of another pair of hands. The next disaster hahaha my laptop stopped charging looked like the power supply had gone bust.
Not much sleep later I headed for the Suzuki dealer at 0900, the mechanic and I managed to get the bolt free and back in its proper place with thread locker applied in about 20 minutes, he did not want any money but I gave him $10. Next stop was a small computer repair shop which was a 100m walk from my hotel, the guy got his multimeter out and found the cable was faulty not the power supply, he gave me another cable and charged $10 problem solved.
Chain could not be done until tomorrow so I had to stay another day, I could have done it myself on the side of the road in the hot sun with traffic whizzing past, no thank you.
It got done the next day and it cost all of $25 to fit the chain and 2 new sprockets (I supplied the parts) plus another $10 tip for 2 hours labour, anywhere else it would have been $200. Bike feels like new now.
Thats my 3 bad lucks out of the way hahahaha.

Day 2 in Vera Cruz wandered around taking pictures, the weather is cloudy and warm. This is a large deepwater port with lots of big ships, overall not bad at all.

Due to numerous requests I have decided to stop being lazy and start blogging again hahahaha.

During the last 3.5 years of travelling I have caught up with many old friends and family and made some new ones. Thank you everyone for all your help and advice and warnings!!!!

Also I have to do a lot of research and one of my sources are other travellers blogs, now I am returning the favour.

I crossed the border into Mexico on Saturday morning (5-Nov-2011) at 0815 US Central time or 0715 Mexico time it was fairly painless, first I had to go to the US immigration and turn in my Visa card to show I had left the country then cross the bridge $3 toll and stop at the Mexico Immigration and Customs Office. I parked my bike ouside the front door under cover, very convenient.

First the Immigration lady filled in a form for me and I took it across the room to the Banjercitos counter where another lady requested my Passport, Drivers Licence and Bike Registration (did not have to show the Title Document or my Mexico Insurance) filled in some more forms and paid (credit card) $22 for a Tourist visa, $49 for a Temporary Import Vehicle Permit for my bike and a $400 deposit for the bike as well, the deposit gets returned when I leave Mexico, photocopies cost a dollar. All of this took about an hour, only one guy in the queue ahead of me and all the counters are located in the same room, EASY.

Walked out and had to open my boxes for the Customs guys to have a cursory look then on my way at 0900 hrs Mexico time, it all took 1:45 min a lot less than I expected.

The border is open 7 x 24 and Mexico does not have Daylight saving hence the difference in time.  No photographs or cell phones allowed at the border. I bought Mexico Liability Insurance only, (compulsory) online for $103 / 4 weeks, you can buy this Insurance in the same room, the guy that does the photocopies also does the Insurance, it will cost more than online, not sure how much.

Pictures taken on the ride from the Brownsville / Matomoros border to Tampico and in Tampico where I spent the night.