December 4, 2018
A day full of ups and downs
and none of them were the road!
We knew today would be a long, hot ride and so got up extra early to be on the way out of town by 6:30, which worked really well. It was not too hot out, traffic wasn't bad and we felt like we would be at our next desitnation of Ticul by early afternoon, thus avoiding the mid day sun.
Ah yes, well laid plans. They always work, don't they? Hahaha! The first problem came when it appeared that I had two different routes planned to get us out of Merida. Since we went through all the trouble last night of downloading the map of Mexico, it seemed like we should go with the Garmin. Oops! I'm not sure what I was doing when I drew up that map on Ride with GPS, but we ended up out by the airport and looked like we would be heading back into town - yikes! 5km wasted! So, we stopped and I let Garmin choose a route to get us to Ticul and off we went again, backtracking a bit, but not too much. We rode through very quiet backstreets and really appreciated the routing until Garmin wanted us to turn down a very very small dirt road. It didn't look right, and to make matters worse, I was not feeling right - at all! Boy oh boy, was I ever in trouble! I laid down in the grass by the side of the road while my stomach cramped over and over again. Can you guess my malaise? Yep! A very kind woman stopped and asked if we needed help and I said a bano was needed. Luckily, she knew of a university just down the street and we ignored Garmin's warning that we were off track and made tracks for the university and a bathroom. After that, I felt surprisingly ok, so we decided to head down the road we were on and catch up to silly Garmin's track later on.
We did manage to get back on track, but after riding through several small towns, where each seems bound and determined that NO ONE should speed through (see the pic of the crazy speed bumps - Steven and Dodie, you remember these!), we eventually came to.... yep, another long and gravelly road. By this time, Jim was starting to feel the same awful feeling I had earlier. We turned around and headed for a small town we had come through and another bano.
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6 years ago
Oh boy! It just kept getting better and better. We made our way to the main road leading down to Ticul, but encountered a stiff headwind, which, along with the extreme heat was doing us both in. We stopped frequently to find shade and hydrate. At one point we found a little road leading off the highway and dropping the bikes, hightailed it to a shady spot where we both just lay down, totally exhaused, and fell asleep for a bit.
Eventually we roused ourselves, but Ticul just seemed to very far away, even thought it was only another 30 km by then. It had taken us most of the day to get in the 50 we had done and we knew we just didn't have it in us to get there. What to do? We asked in a small town (using our Google Tranlate app) if there was a bus or someone who could drive us, but couldn't find anyone. Once more, we got back on the road, plodding along until we saw the sign for a cenote! Hey, now that would pick us up, we thought! However, the lovely young lady who was looking after things informed us that you needed reservations to get into the cenote - boo! She mentioned that a group might come from the nearby Hacienda Yuncu - perhaps if we stayed there? How far is this place, we asked. Another 6km down the road. Well, now, we thought, perhaps we should just stay there tonight! I asked her (I'm so sorry, I've forgotten your name!) to give them a call, which she gladly did and found that they had room for us tonight. It was a LOT more pricey than the place we had planned to stay (and would have to pay for anyways since I cancelled the res so late), but we were beyond caring. "Si, por favor" I said and we were saved!
We hopped back on the bikes and I think, literally, just made it to this lovely lovely place! It's peaceful and beautiful beyond words, with a pool and their very own cenote! We showered and had a short nap before going down to check out the cenote. We had thought to go back for a swim after dinner, but to be honest, we are both so very tired we will be lucky to make it to 8:00!
The kind woman who runs the hacienda made us a wonderful chicken dinner and with the help of Google Translate again, we were able to have a short conversation with the young lady who took our order. Dinner done, everyone left for the day! We are now sitting on the gallery enjoying the night air and catching up on this journal. The plan is to get up early again and out the door by 7:30 as there is a pretty big hill coming up after Ticul and we want to get it done with before the heat sets in. However, as I write this, it is raining!!!! So, who knows, we might be riding in the rain tomorrow, which wouldn't be so very bad, I think!
Today's ride: 60 km (37 miles)
Total: 72 km (45 miles)
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6 years ago
6 years ago