06/05 Something kind of strange happened during the night. About a block up the street from where I bought some water I saw a bull tied up to a telephone pole . Nothing terribly unusual there. It mostly just stood there as people walked or rode their bicycles by, every once in a while letting out a little bellow. Well this morning I went over to the store and where the bull once stood was a carcass. It actually looked like someone had butchered the thing right in the street. I didn’t ride over to get a closer look but I’m pretty sure that’s what happened. Either that or someone ran it over with a lawnmower.

The ride north through the rain forest was a little disheartening. When I was flying over the Yucatan into Merida I could see where huge swathes of forest had been leveled to support the burgeoning population. It shouldn’t have surprised me when I saw it up close even though they try to mask the damage by leaving a strip of trees next to the road. You can’t hide much from a guy on a bike though (or Google’s satellite view which is what I used to see the damage on Vancouver Island or in the Yukon or in Alaska or in northern Alberta, etc.). If anything this trip has sure made me realize how brutally destructive we are.

Apparently I had a map/GPS/brain meltdown yesterday. I rode right by the archeological site of Mayapan. My GPS was right but the stupid IMTB map showed it way further to the northeast. I don’t know why I didn’t trust my GPS or clue in when I rode right through a town called Mayapan. I don’t remember seeing a sign so I’ll only take 99% of the blame.

It was wickedly hot again today. Getting up at six helped but the clouds usually burn off after lunch and then it gets toasty. I did some math and I spent about 40% of the time it took me to get here resting. For a 50 mile ride that makes for a long day.

I’m staying here for 2 nights so I can go check out the most famous of the Mayan sites, Chichen Itza. Looking forward to it.

Update: At the coffee shop I popped onto the internet for a minute to check the news since its been almost a week. AP had a story about the Gulf oil spill that I didn’t even want to keep reading. God I hate every one of those greedy SOB’s who caused this. Since moving to Florida in 1992 I’ve traveled countless times to the Gulf coast from The Keys up to New Orleans. To think of the devastation this is causing makes me sick. I can’t even imagine how bad this is going to get.

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I wasn’t sure what I was going to do when I got up this morning. After considering it for 10 seconds I opted to stay here for the day. Glad I did.

Had my first ever television interview today! I was sitting in a park using the free wireless internet (wish more places had this) when a guy comes over and asks in English if I’d mind doing an interview. He asked all kinds of questions about where I’ve been, where I’m going and how I’ve liked Mexico. This interview went much better then the newspaper interview I had. I don’t even think I looked at the camera once. Then they had me jump on my bike for an action shot. Boy am I glad I didn’t crash into anything or fall. I’ll keep my Google Alert emails on just in case it makes it to their web site.

Did a lot more riding today. I had totally forgotten about this but when I saw it I was just amazed. There’s a massive 284 year old aqueduct stretching almost a mile across the city. It has 75 arches, each 65 feet wide at an average height of 75 feet. It’s one of the most impressive looking man-made objects I’ve seen on my trip. Saw a lot of other magnificent looking buildings and statues around the city. I could stay here for days and still miss things I’m sure.

For the last day I’ve been afraid of being deported back to the States because of how bad my shirt smells. The guy at the front desk, at the very affordable Hotel San Francisco, pointed me over to a laundry mat so I should be safe now.

Also went back to the bike shop to get a new tube. I have 3 spares but presta valve ones are hard to find so I bought the only one they had. It’s one of those self-healing tubes with slime inside. I’ve never used one before so we’ll see how it does. Grabbed some new rear brake pads too.

My knee is back to 100%. The guy I met a week ago at the side of the road passed a nice cold onto me when we shook hands so I just got over that. Glad to be healthy again.

I miss my Canon 40D a lot. It’s almost like I’m doing a disservice to the things I’m taking pictures of because they usually look distorted, washed out or flat. The Pentax was so much better than this Olympus I have now. Then again I saw an American on the boat over to the Isla de Janitzio a few days ago and he looked pretty obnoxious with his monster camera and lens.

Fast ride for my first day on the road in almost a month. Had a nice tailwind and riding on Mex-23 and Mex-35 was a dream. Both highways had fair-sized shoulders which made for a more relaxing ride. There was a lot of broken glass and tire debris on the road and at one point I dug a piece of wire out of my front tire, fortunately before it dug in and caused a flat.

Ocotlan, considered the furniture capital of Mexico, has been interesting so far. On the way into the city center a guy pulls up in a pickup and asks in English if I can stop and talk. Why not. I pulled up behind where he’d stopped. He just wanted to know about my trip and I was happy to tell him all about it since he was the only person I’d spoken to all day. He seemed very surprised that I came to Mexico given the drug problems and associated criminal activity. Not much I could say to that other than you only live once and a bunch of drug lords aren’t going to stop me. We talked for a few minutes and then I took off.

The only thing that seems different about this city compared to the other ones are the half dozen police officers standing around with fully automatic weapons and bullet proof vests. I took a picture of one of them standing outside a motel. I did ask first but he didn’t say yes or no so I took one. He didn’t seem too thrilled and I half expected to get arrested or at least yelled at.

I checked Google to see if there is a higher crime problem here but nothing popped up. The police chief and two officers were killed today in Morelia which is about 100 miles away so maybe security is a little higher because of that? Or maybe they were guarding the the alter in the church which is dipped in gold?

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