06/08 It was sure nice to finally leave Mex-180. There’s a lot of traffic heading between the 2 big destinations on the Yucatan–Merida and Cancun and it didn’t help that there was major construction most of the way. I did get lucky and had a couple miles of unfinished, yet hard-packed road to myself and for a little while a very rare dedicated bike path. After Chemax I started heading south down to Coba on a brand new highway. It had a nice wide shoulder so I could check out the ever thickening rain-forest.

Just got back from hiking through the Coba archeological site. It was founded all the way back in the 7th century. The entire area encompasses 19 square miles although the main clusters of buildings are within a mile of each other. I still ended up walking at least 4 miles. You can rent bikes or hire a pedal-driven taxi cart but the raised causeways (called “sacbeob“”) to the different areas are under the forest canopy so there was lots of shade and I preferred to walk anyway. One of the sacbe actually leads to another site 62 miles away making it the longest known Mayan road.

All of the buildings were completely enclosed by the rain forest, much more so than any of the other places I’ve visited. The highest structure, Nohoch Mul, rose well over the tree tops offering a great view. Of course climbing up to the top wasn’t a problem but when I got there I stepped down off a rock to take a picture and almost twisted my ankle right off. It smarts pretty good and tomorrow I’m sure it’ll a lot of fun to ride on.

Staying at the only motel in town. Its not too bad although prices are always higher in touristy areas (or if you have the only motel). It was $300 pesos which isn’t horrible for a very clean room and decent shower. I did have to chase a scorpion around the room for a bit but I finally caught it and let it go outside. First time I’ve ever seen one. There’s some toilet paper stuck under the door now so it can’t get back in.

Sticker shock of the day was a bottle of sun screen (FPS 50 / ~8 fl oz). Cost US $15. I knew I should have picked up more in the States. The pharmacy also had some more malaria tablets which I’ve been looking for since I got back.

Broke 13,000 miles.

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01/31 After a quick 10 minute walk through town I arrived at the trail head to the Paricutin volcano. It winds down a pretty steep hillside for a mile and a half before it dumps you out into the (cooled) lava field. At first I thought about walking but my knees are still sore from yesterday so I gave a guy US $9 for a round trip guided tour on horseback. I’ve been itching to go horseback riding forever so this was perfect.

I sort of expected that I’d be riding with a guide down the hill so I felt a little bit silly when the guy handed the tether over to a kid that couldn’t have been older than 8 or 9. Instead of riding his own horse (or pony), he took the tether and started walking down the hill with the horse and I in tow. No child labor laws here. I got over the oddity of the situation once we started going down the hill and I realized that I wouldn’t have to climb back up.

Now I would have walked if the story I’d heard about the horses had been true. Someone wrote on a web site that they were malnourished but these ones looked pretty healthy. There were quite a few other people getting guided tours so maybe business has been picking up and they can take better care of the horses?

The ride down the rocky trail went OK; only one minor slip. After getting through the trees we rode along a trail that had been cut into the lava field. Nature has made a pretty good comeback and there were lots of cacti, trees and plants growing up out of the rocks. We reached the base area where vendors had set up a half-dozen tents selling everything from crafts to food. After hopping off my ride I was told to come back whenever I was ready to leave.

There’s a “trail” leading to the base that takes you up and over some rocks for a few hundred feet. Good hiking shoes are definitely recommended. The ruins of the old church looked amazing. The lava flowed from almost a mile away and destroyed everything but the front facade and what I think was the rear wall. You are pretty much free to go anywhere so I jumped from rock to rock checking out the area.

On the way out I stopped for a couple tacos that were made using some kind of green flour. They tasted great. Then it was over to where the horses were waiting. The same kid that walked me down the trail brought my horse over and once mounted up I followed along behind as he climbed back up the hill. That 8 year old must be in great shape.

Everything past here is just me bitching.

I have to rant about the thing I hate more than anything else on Earth– loud noise. I understand that the Mexican culture embraces music, especially loud music, but for the life of me I can’t figure why any sane person would tolerate having to listen to the other crap that goes on here. For example, right next door to me kids(?) are shooting off rockets (not fireworks) that do nothing except explode with a bang that’s as loud as a thunder crack. They set one off every 20 seconds or so. They’ve been doing this for almost 2 hours now. Yet no one will do anything. Not quite true though. The block parties have been going on all day and I noticed that when the rocket frequency increased the loudspeaker-driven music volume increased exponentially. The closest party is 5 blocks away and I can easily hear it over my iTouch cranked up to 90% max volume. I gave that up at the risk of going deaf.

It’s not just the music and the amateur space cadets next door either. Dogs are allowed to bark incessantly all day and night, trucks with massive speakers mounted on the back drive up and down the streets blaring out tape recorded advertisements all day, car alarms go off for hours and freaking roosters run around town making noise day and night (mostly night). In this town the roads are bad so instead of trucks with speakers some enterprising chap mounted loudspeakers on top of at least 2 houses. These pump out advertisements from 8am until 8pm or so. Enjoying things that symbolize your culture is one thing but don’t people get annoyed at some point???

01/30 Today ended up being kind of brutal. Two things did me in fairly quickly. Number one was the climbing. I didn’t think I’d be going up quite so high. Broke 8000 feet which is the 3rd highest I’ve been on this trip. Made for some great views of the valley.

The weather wasn’t on my side either. The wind was strong and got stronger as I climbed up into the hills. It was also a little cold with the sky being mostly overcast. At the 20 mile mark I was about done. At mile 35 a trail leading up alongside a mountain looked like it could be home for the night but there wasn’t a good place to pitch the tent. Angahuan was only another 10 miles so I just kept going.

Passing through the small towns offered something new for me. Purepecha Indians live in the small, mountainside villages in this area and the differences between their culture and those of the Spanish population I’ve seen so far is striking. Women of all ages wear very colorful dresses and usually have their heads covered with a scarf. I haven’t seen any outright signs of poverty but the houses and condition of the streets makes it pretty clear that money is a lot harder to come by. Other than the main road running through the town most of the streets are either rough cobblestone or dirt.

In Angahuan I stopped at a visitor information center and asked if there was a motel in town. The answer was no but there was a place with cabanas. That worked so I asked for directions which I didn’t understand. The streets are all cobblestone so after a bumpy five minutes I was very surprised to see a hotel. The sign even said English speaking, internet and hot showers included. I pulled up to see how much it was and found out they wanted $31 US. Too rich for my blood. The sign was also misleading. No one spoke English and there was no internet. The English I normally don’t care about but it would have been nice to ask about getting a guide to visit the volcano. I’ll just wing it tomorrow.

Finding the cabanas was just dumb luck. I’d asked a few people where they were and the last guy pointed behind him– he was standing in front of them. There wasn’t a sign so I would have ridden right by considering the place didn’t look any different from any other building (it’s at N19 32.908 W102 13.661). It looks like there are two cabins. They are up on a hill so I have a nice view of the city. The door doesn’t lock but there’s a big stone fence surrounding the property so my stuff should be fine. The cabana is one of the best places I’ve stayed for the price. It was only $18 for 2 nights, there’s hot water, 2 beds, a table and a fireplace! I asked the lady about buying some firewood and when I came back she’d stacked a pile of it outside my door.

The big attraction here is the Paricutin volcano. In 1943 it erupted sending lava pouring down into the village of San Juan Parangaricutiro. Today only the church’s twin towers are visible. The lava completely covered everything else. My guide book says the church is accessible from town via foot or horseback but I’ll try hiking it tomorrow since my butt needs a rest.

Today must be a holiday because in the last town I rode through about ten teenagers were walking up the street in what looked like Halloween costumes. I was too tired to take a picture so I kept going. In Angahuan there’s a lot going on. The streets are filled with roving groups of musicians and street dancers. While eating some tacos at a street stand I asked the guy across from me, an English speaking drug dealer with silver front teeth, what the party was for. He made it sound like this happens here every weekend but I kind of doubt it.

Oh yeah… this morning as I was riding along the highway two guys in a pickup stopped ahead of me and when I got close and asked if they could get a picture. Kind of a funny thing to have happen. Also, when I was climbing up the mountain another pickup stopped and the guy driving asked if I wanted a lift to the top. It was tempting but I passed. Nice of him to stop and ask though.

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