Day 18: Oxkutzcab and around the Puuc

December 30, 2023

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Breakfast is normally a pretty simple thing for me. Except when it's all about some ten jammer European affair, eggs, toast, and black coffee and I'm done. But today this simple formula ran into all sorts of complications.

It began when we reported to the onsite restaurant of our Hotel Puuc, looking for a (not included) breakfast. We know the restaurant to be quite flakey about its hours, so when we encountered a "closed" sign in the window, at 7:30 a.m., we were not surprised. But I peered through the window of the door, and this prompted a waiter to come and open it, while flipping the sign to "open". Ok, fine. We chose a table and got a menu.

Eggs were on the menu, and listed at 100 pesos. But this only said "eggs". There was a note below that said something like "ask about our combos". It also said some sort of tax was not included in the prices. So we asked the waiter what will the price be with toast and coffee. He didn't seem to understand, but that could be my Spanish. I put it another way, and off he went, consulting with another lady, behind a counter. Dodie thought he might just be putting in the order, but no, they both had calculators out and were tapping away actively. We looked at that, and just left the restaurant. Seesh, were they selling their first eggs, toast, and coffee of all time?

We walked instead to the market, where my plan was to go back to our restaurant of last night. But Dodie had a different idea, and kept circulating among the little vendors inside the market building, who were frying up various meats to put into tacos or tortas. I managed to steer Dodie out of the building and over to the restaurant across the street. There, as she had already predicted, the menu covered tacos and tortas, and also hamburguesas. Undeterred, I accosted the staff: "Do you have eggs? Can you make estrellados? Do you have bread? Can you toast it?" The answer was mostly positive. They could take a torta roll and fry it on the griddle. Toast enough? And for coffee, they came up with hot water, and a jar of instant, plus a teaspoon. Ok, great, so we took a seat.

It took a fair while for the crew to come up with the order. Meanwhile, since this was near a Mexican market, our ears were accosted by blaring music or amplified sales pitches, coming from three directions. Dodie waited with her fingers in her ears. But that is kind of off the theme. The theme is that I was going against the flow, demanding my Canadian breakfast while everyone else was eating tortas. Dodie pointed out that the Browns eat Thai for breakfast, and the Bartletts eat Japanese, so why was I so stubborn?

As we sat there, things started to appear on our table, slowly, one by one. There was spicy guacamole, frijole sauce, salsa, sugar... Each seemed to be brought by a different person. We also repeated our order three times, to three different people that came to the table. I guess the organisation was checking that we were serious.

Finally, here is what came. They really nailed it! Avocado, pickled onion, lettuce and tomato, rice, and three eggs done right. There was also the toasted buns, and a stack of tortillas. And behind, Dodie got the same, with Mexican style scrambled eggs.

Was it worth the wait. You bet! But listen, we also need to check in with the majority opinion. They were all over at the stalls in the market, enjoying the best Saturday morning breakfasts with the family ever:

Fine Steve, what makes you think there was even a spot for you over here, anyway.

If you are going to eat this stuff, you need Coke!

One advantage of where we were at for the breakfast, was that I was facing some kind of clothing outlet. I was able to watch a group of about ten people going through a pile of clothes on sale. They kept up a frenzied shuffling of the clothes for the whole time we were there!

Suitably fuelled up with "Canadian" breakfast we headed over for a closer look at the market. Outside is where the wholesale quantities are handled. Here below, are some wholesale looking bundles of radishes being prepared.

Most impressive was a truckload of entirely perfect pineapples coming in. The man seems very happy with them.

But wait, here is a chance for a bird photo! That turkey is still alive. could it count? In fact there was no need of such a legal bird ruling. Later were found the same "Wild Turkeys" much more in the wild.

We went into the market to find some stuff to take on our cycle today. We scored big with some great fruit trays.

This was really our favourite. It's like Quince paste, in France.

We headed ovr for a look at the church, and were pleased to find it open. It really gave the feel of 16th century Spanish, both in its design and in the exclusive appearance of 16th century feeling Spanish faces in the statues and art work.

Does anybody care to analyse this carving, above the main door?

They seem to have a float of the type used in "Passos" in Spain.

Unique, sort of stilted and weird statuary.

Google lens reveals lots of statues much like this, elsewhere.

Entry to the extensive grounds behind the church. Nice grillwork.

Now we set off on our main project for the day, a circle around some of the Puuc route. "Puuc" is just Mayan for hilly, and yes, this region is somewhat hilly, in contrast to the totally flat rest of Yucatan. There are a few "routes" in this area - the Culture route, the Convent route, and the Puuc route, and they tend to overlap. But today we will find more hills than convents.

The first thing we find, however, is an ostrich. He is very cute and comes to say hello, and/or peck us.

55. Common Ostrich (ok, native of Africa)

Carrying a bed and two mattresses on a moto!

Building a wall. We think if we were doing it, we'd quarrel about which rock comes next.

For about half the ride we were passing through orchards of citrus, banana, and sapodilla. I managed to snag a few grapefruits and a pomelo, that came too close to the roadway. The lure of 100% fresh fruit is great!

Banana did not seem to be in season here. We saw only a few bunches.

Here is a rare example of a cultivated field. All the non-citrus produce in the market either comes from afar or is grown in plots off the road that we do not see.

In some places we found very tall and large trees, like this one.

This looks like and was a very pleasant cycle route.

New houses are cast seemingly in one piece, all from concrete.

We stopped at Tekax and ate our lovely fruit.

Tomorrow we will push deeper into the Puuc region, landing up at Uxmal. Not only is this where Dodie crashed that time in 2021, but we will stay at the hotel we were targeting when it happened. If we make it (which we will!), it will have taken us two years to cover those final 5 km to the Uxmal Mayan Resort.

Today's ride: 55 km (34 miles)
Total: 709 km (440 miles)

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Laurie MarczakWay to end on a cliffhanger dad…
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10 months ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Laurie MarczakYes, you have to tune in to see what happens next.
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10 months ago