LOCO IN ACAPULCO

Eventually Leana and I have made it to the Pacitic coastal city of Acapulco. Since my last report we crossed more of the ever-present Sierra Madre mountains, before reaching the Pacific. Although the mountains slowed us down and strained our legs a bit, there were good views along the way.

Oh Yes, let me interrupt myself here! It may not seem like much to anybody else, but me and my faithful bicycle (Old Saartjie) have now clocked up 100 000 km on this trip (one hundred thousand kilometres!). The bike clock went to 99 999, and then reverted back to 0!

Once we had descended to the coastal plains, we passed many average Mexican towns which were interesting to us due to their lack of tourism (finding a budget room could become tricky, what with all the pay-per-hour places along our way). It was around that area that we passed the real “Isthmus of Mexico”, the narrowest part of land which is also a virtual wind tunnel between the Carribean and Pacific. No surprise then that there are huge electricity-generating wind farms in the area, with appropriately named worker-towns like La Ventana.

The road West along the Pacific coast often diverted a bit inland over the hot and humid sequence of seemingly endless hills. Fortunately the roadside was pleasantly flavoured by flowering plants of many colours.

Then we reached Mexico's famous "surf-town" - Puerto Escondido, where we took a day off. The waves here are legendary, and surfers from all over the world flock to Zicatela beach for the powerful barrel ride. In that area we also stayed over at local beaches in "palapa rooms", such as at Roca Blanca and Barra De La Cruz.

On our approach to Acapulco we took the coastal route, thinking that it would be less hilly. Well, surprise, surprise! To get into the city we had to cycle over yet another gigantic hill above Puerto Marques and the neighbouring wealthy suburbs below us on the slopes, where our tortured sweat flowed.

The attraction of Acapulco is the beach, relaxation, and the night life, but there is also the famous cliff divers. We went to see these men diving from up to 35m into a narrow and fairly shallow gully (they first have to climb up the cliff from the water into which they dive).

Now Leana leaves for a "holiday" in South Africa. I will accompany her by bus to Mexico city from where she flies, and then I will return to Acapulco from where I will continue cycling alone. Distances cyled since last time were:- Tuxtla 16 km; Cintalapa 83 km; Tapanatepec 80 km; Juchitan 111 km; Morro Maratan 73 km; Barra De La Cruz 94 km; San Pedro Pochutla 72 km; Puerto Escondido 70 km; Roca Blanca 45 km; San Jose 48 km; Pinotepa 61 km; Cuajinicuilapa 57 km; Mariquelia 66 km; San Marcos 81 km; Acapulco 76 km. Total so far in Mexico is 2838 km. Grand total is 100 383 km.

TABASCO HEAT & SIERRA MADRE

Since my last post Leana and I left the city of Merida on our way West (and we picked up our USA visa's on the way out). Within a couple of days we were in another historic colonial city, this time the coastal city of Campeche, where we spent a day looking around and photographing restored history. From there we cycled along a very scenic stretch of the Mexican Gulf coastline, where the road mostly ran only metres from the ocean. We also crossed a number of big bridges in the area, the 3km and 4km long causeways to- and from Isla Del Carmen, as well as bridges over various large rivers. Until fairly recently there were no modern roads in the region, and river transport prevailed. Mexico has a large oil industry, with refineries and oil rigs visible from the coast.

We followed this coastal road as far as the town of Paraiso, past Isla Del Carmen and Frontera into the Tabasco State.

Then we headed South, trying to cut through the depression in the narrow part of the country in order to avoid the mountains on our way to the Pacific coast. Somewhere along the way my odometer also clocked over to 99 000 km.

In the process we visited more Mayan ruins at Comalcalco, and at the Tabasco state capital, Villa Hermosa, we went to Parque De La Venta where we looked at ancient Olmec artifacts (including the famous giant heads carved from basalt rock). There were also some captive local animals in the park, such as the jaguar in picture. Moving on South we also stayed over at Teapa in the pouring rain, and took a tour deep into the spectacular caves just outside of town.

Then the trouble started, the dreaded Sierra Madre mountain range. Luckily the road doesn't cross the highest part, but we caught the edge of it, and that was fierce enough!. After some time in the flat humid jungle and coastline, these hills were a wake-up call. However, on the bright side, the scenery was spectacular, we passed through amazing rural villages where the indigenous ways are still strong, and the climate was nice and cool for a change.

Now we have dropped down to the lowlands on the Pacific side of this narrow part of the country, and we'll head on to that coast from here. Currently we are taking a break at another historic colonial town, Chiapa De Corzo, which is close to the Chiapas state capital, Tuxtla.

Daily distances cycled since my previous post have been:- Maxcanu 67 km; Campeche 121 km; Champoton 67 km; Sabancuy 71 km; Cuidad Del Carmen 87 km; Frontera 100 km; Paraiso 81 km; Villa Hermosa 81 km; Parque De La Venta 7 km; Teapa 71 km; Tapilula 80 km; Nuevo Pueblo Solistahuacan 36 km; Bochil 40 km; and Chiapa De Corzo 69 km. The total distance I've cycled in Mexico so far is 1785 km, and the total distance which I've cycled so far on this trip is 99 330 km.

MOVING ON IN MEXICO

Just a note to say that I'm in Mexico, and not at ease in Belise any more. In fact I've already cycled more than 800 km in Mexico, in the Yucatan region (that's the big lump in the South-east of the country which juts out into the Carribean). This is not the classic cactus desert Mexico of old cowboy movies, but rather a humid, flat, tropical jungle for the most part. There are some huge resort cities such as Cancun and Playa Del Carmen, as well as some very colonial cities such as Merida, where Leana and I are right now.

There are also some famous Mayan sites such a Chichen Itza which Leana went to visit, but I didn't bother. The two of us split up for a few days, but then we met up along the road again later. I camped at some interesting places during that time, such as in the centre of a village next to what I thought was a ruin (in fact part of the building was still a functioning church, and the following morning when they opened the side door for some fresh air I struck camp to a chorus of Hail Mary's). There are so many foreign tourists around this area that the locals hardly look at one twice. There are also sinkholes around the area (called cenotes) where people can swim and go on floating underground tours as there is a whole network of underground rivers. Along one hot deserted stretch of road we found a deep well from which I managed to extract some cool fresh drinking water (luckily I didn't pull up one of the floating tourists). There is a lot of Maya archaeological sites around this area, as well as many current Maya villages with many live Mayans wandering about. Mexico is a mix of Spanish and Indigenous, even the conquestadors used the stones from Mayan structures to build their own buildings. Just down the road here in Merida is a church where one can actually still see Mayan carvings on the stones in the outside wall. We have been in Merida for a few days now in order to apply for the USA visa, as there is a consulate here. We were not all that hopeful about getting a USA visa, as we are supposed to apply in our home country (this consulate is for Mexicans and immigrants to apply for visas). However, we tried our luck and arrived at the consulate armed with loads of copies and documents to hopefully strengthen our case. Well, we were rather surprised when none of that stuff was necessary, and our visa was approved without any ado. This past weekend the locals had their independence day celebrations, with fireworks and endless parades - they also have the little stalls all over the show selling national pride paraphanalia such as flags and colourful sombreros. We found a good bike shop here and Leana bought a bunch of new parts which I fitted to her bike. Now I'm cleaning up her old parts to fit to my bike (they're as good as new). We still have about another 5 months in Mexico, and this is a big country, especially when one is on a bicycle. Distances cycled since my last update from Belize have been:- Corozal (Belize) 53 km; Chetumal (Mexico) 27 km; Limones 94 km; Filipe Carillo Puerto 67 km; Tulum 115 km; Cancun 108 km; Chiquila 128 km; Kaua 113 km; Piste 22 km; Izamal 76 km; and Merida 70 km. The total distance cycled so far in Mexico is 807 km, and the total distance cycled on this trip is 98 352 km.

AT EEEEZZZZ IN BELIZE ........

Surprise, surprise!! That is Belize! After about 2 years in Spanish-speaking countries, suddenly Leana and I cross into a small English/Carribean crazy place. Even on the mainland it is fairly relaxed. We camped for 2 days at San Igancio after crossing the border from Guatemala. I still had some ongoing stomach problems, and one of the local "Bush Doctors" gave me a fermented brew of the Nonni fruit, which miraculously cured me (see pic of inedible fruit). The place is very "CARRIBEAN", with greetings of YEAH MON from dreadlocked characters around every corner. This is also undoubtedly the most frienly country I have cycled through. I seriously needed certain bike spares, but the bikes around here are not that fancy, and I am struggling on with the lack of some gears, and so forth. At Belize City we applied for Mexican visas, and were rather surprised to be granted free visas for 6 months, issued on-the-spot at their embassy. From the city we took the fast speed-boat water taxi to the island of Caye Caulker, 45 mins by boat. We camped close to the water at first, and later Leana booked us into a nice room across from the beach. The motto of the island is "GO SLOW" but that is totally unnecessary as I don't think it is possible for this bunch to go any slower. Apparently there is a current wave of theft on the island, and on the Friday night there was a PROTEST MARCH in this regard. In keeping with the LOW EVERGY VIBE on the island, the protestors were mostly creeping along on bicycles (the island is about 800m long and 200m wide). The most vocal protestor was singing "WE ARE THE WORLD", pausing only to swig from the beer in his left hand (he was holding a placard in his other hand). Most of the other people seemed rather apathetic while pushing their bikes with placards warning "LEAVE MY STUFF", and so forth. At the back of the little group one of the members was on his individual "station", singing "DON´T WORRY BE HAPPY". Good things come to an end and we had to return to the mainland and keep cycling. On our way North we stopped at the little Crooked Tree wildlife sancturuary (where we camped on somebody's grounds under huge mango trees amongst horses, cows, dogs, and chickens (and we had to survive a good rain-storm during the night). We've since moved on to the town of Orange Walk, from where Leana has taken a river tour to some Mayan ruins. From here we will head North to the border, and we should enter Mexico within the next 2 days. Distances (not much) since my last post have been:- Melchor Mencor 69 km; San Ignacio 18 km; Belmopan 40 km; Belize City 83 km; Caye Caulker (a massive 3 km, to and fron the boat); (back to mainland) Crooked Tree 62 km; and Orange Walk 47 km. The total distance cycled so far on this trip is 97 479 km.