06/02 I’m back. Not sure how to start… its been so long. As I mentioned in my last post things are great back in Calgary. My sister (hi Stephanie) is home and doing well. The circumstances sucked but it was great being able to spend time with my nephew Shane and my other sister Jennifer. This is probably the most I’ve seen my two sisters in over 20 years.

One thing that ended up being a surprise was the allergic reaction I had to the 3 cats living at Stephanie’s. I thought I was going to die after the 1st night but after taking Allegra(?) for 2 days I woke up on the 4th morning and didn’t need to take the allergy medicine. All the horrible symptoms I had just went away (and the cats are still alive). Not sure how that happened but it made the rest of the stay there much better.

After the often very stressful time in Calgary it was nice to just relax and spend time with my Dad and his gf Linda in Atlanta. As usual whenever I’m doing something I enjoy Microsoft comes along and tries to sabotage things just like it used to do when I was a 9-5 guy. I ended up spending almost 8 hours fixing a broken Windows repair install that took forever thanks to the strangest BIOS issue I’ve ever seen (the OS drive kept going away). All this just just to fix a broken installation of Office. In the end everything was fixed and I got some delicious homemade brownies out of it.

Florida was a blast. Spent a lot of time with family and friends. Wish I could have stayed longer. Big thanks to my Aunt Leigh Ann and Uncle Alan for letting me crash on the couch, drive the car and eat what’s sure to be my last home-cooked meals for a while.

The journey back into Mexico was easy enough. The guy who stamped my passport in Merida didn’t ask me a single question. Took a taxi to the bus station and only had to wait an hour for the bus to Hopelchen (mistake since I could have just caught the bus in front of the airport and saved myself from paying a way overpriced fare). My bike was right where I left it in the storage room. I can’t thank Hiram at Hotel Los Arcos enough for letting me keep it there for that long.

I hung out in Hopelchen yesterday trying to get my new bike stuff organized. My favorite new item is a GoLite umbrella. It has a really high UV protection rating and should be perfect for the times I need a break and shade isn’t available. I left my old front panniers at the motel in Hopelchen–maybe someone there will get some use out of them.

Today marked my first day back on the road in over a month and damn did I get beat up. It is so freaking hot here. I can’t even count how many times I had to stop just to get some shade. The first thing I did when I found a motel was turn on the cold water in the shower and just sit under the spray. I can’t even imagine trying to camp (or sleep) in my tent when it’s this hot. I’m in the shade under a ceiling fan now and I’m still sweating. I’m missing the AC in the motel last night. It was so cold I had to sleep in my sleeping bag.

The (large) ruins at Uxmal are 11 miles away so I’m going to stay here tomorrow and take a bus to the site. That way I don’t have to ride there just to have to ride back this way again. The ruins from today were from a place called Kabah. It was right off the road so I couldn’t pass it up. The size of the ruins came as a bit of a surprise. The two main buildings were huge. The sites in this area flourished around 800 AD and were built using an architectural style called Puuc. The highly decorative masks on the facades of the two main buildings definitely stood out from the other places I’ve seen. Saw a fat lizard hanging out under a tree too.

Mexico–I missed you and your crazy, ever-honking drivers, errant garbage piles, stray dogs, wandering livestock, loud noises and especially your incredibly generous and friendly people.

GPX Track

03/23 Took off this morning with Pete riding in front to block the wind for me. Actually the wind wasn’t too bad but it was very hot. We rode on the toll road which worked out perfectly. This is the 1st time since riding with the German girl back in Florida that I rode with someone else for the entire day. Having some company was a nice change. It is a little harder to see things in front of you I found out. Toward the end of the day Pete had us on this epic detour (:)) down a road that’s seen better days. I ended up running into a pothole that caused my front pannier to pop off. Something on it snagged my rear tire on the way by and sheared the value stem right off. Kind of remarkable if you look at the odds of that happening. Of course the air inside went with it so we were delayed a bit while I popped a new tube in.

Nothing much in the way of scenery. The mountains were OK but I like trees on them and these are pretty bare. Tomorrow will be different. There are boat tours that run you up the Rio Grijalva, Mexico’s 2nd largest river so you can see the Canon del Sumidero. It’s an 18 mile long fault with canyon walls that reach heights up to 3,280 feet. The tour is about 6 hours so we’ll hang out here for another night.

US $7.94 for the el cheapo room at the motel we’re staying at. It’s the worst room I’ve ever stayed in though. Funny how that happens. I guess I can just say the worst thing about it to put things in perspective. There’s a used condom on the floor by the bathroom. The strange part is the fact that there were no curtains on the front window and it faces right out into the street. I hope I wasn’t expected to put on some kind of performance tonight because I’m too tired. I’m definitely using my sleeping bag tonight. Pete’s in the next room so I can yell over if any bugs try to devour me–one section of the adjoining wall doesn’t quite make it up to the ceiling. I’d change motels but the timing of the tour kind of screws things up a little. It’s the Hotel Posada de Sonia if anyone wants to visit.

GPX Track