Day 26: Chichen Itza to Valladolid

January 25, 2023

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We knew we had a short day today, so we eagerly planned to have breakfast at the Doralba. Breakfast begins at 7:00 a.m. But now we are in the habit of waking early, and we know high temperatures out on the road start at 8am, so at 6am we just up and left.

With just half a banana or so to start off on, we were still running on last night's supper. I just happen to have a photo of that! Dodie had her new favourite, huevos Yucateca, while mine was Pollo Pibil. You can see that as with many restauants world wide, the basic plate layout is the same except for the main attraction. Another element of standardization is that many meat dishes feature the (usually) pork or chicken in a flattened, or "weiner schnitzel" form, and they are commonly pan fried. Variations come in the marinade. With Poc Chuc it is sour orange, and with this Pollo Pibil, it was achiote based. Something missing from these plates was the large wedge of lime, which almost always comes with everything.

The run to Valladolid was straight down highway 180, which is broad and with a wide shoulder. A wide shoulder is great, but it can also be too great. At a certain width, drivers begin to look on it as another driving lane. And as you see, the road construction did not help, by separating the shoulder with a dotted line. Especially the gravel trucks liked to ride half over that line, to give passers an easier shot. We ran this road with our flashers on and teeth clenched.

The traffic on the wide road tended to chase away any birds we might have spotted. But there was one. This is appropriately named a Roadside Hawk.

I have been puzzling over the Mexicans' attitude to safety . There are the things on the road, like no seatbelts, no traffic lights in most towns, parking vehicles, motos, and dogs in the roadway, no licence plates on motos in some places, riding triple or quadruple on a moto, etc. etc. And then there are the broken sidewalks - which would surely produce a flood of lawsuits against a town in California, or sidewalks too narrow to walk on. We know all that. The puzzler is about masks. Quite a high proportion of people are wearing masks. I myself am very skeptical of masks - doubting their ability to seal at the edges, and wondering what happens to all the trapped viruses when you finally grab the mask and stuff it in your pocket. But people here will don a mask to jump on an unlicensed moto and careen at high speed, alone, on a country road. Go figure.

Masks are now so much part of the culture, that you even see them in art and advertising. I guess I am glad that these abuellas are protecting me as they cook the poc chuc!

We passed the prison, which told us we were approaching Valladolid. The prison is famous (with us) for selling high quality crafts.

Now along the road we again passed the many vendors of hats and also Mayan souvenirs. The hats are in fact very high quality, and just the ticket for the hot sun here.

We are not the only loaded bicycle road users, of course. Those Mercurio cargo trikes are a wonder - capable of very heavy loads of wood, bulky things, or even conversion to a food stall.

The outskirts of Valladolid are a bit ragged. For example on this one way street, cars were parked all along, and the travel lane was quite narrow. We squeezed in between, in this very active area. The photo was taken during a lull in the action.

Soon the buildings straightened out into a more uniform arrangement of solid rows. This is the standard arrangement in downtown Valladolid.

We bumped up the familiar steps of the Hotel San Clemente, just beside the cathedral, and were pleased that the reception lady recognized us. We were soon in one of their rooms - not fancy, but fully serviceable, with room for the bikes, working A/C, and the pool when needed.

Dodie, famous for thinking outside the box, realized that though we had missed breakfast at the Doralda by leaving too early, we had by the same token arrived easily in time for breakfast here! I will spare you the photo, but you know what it's going to be: pancakes, bacon, eggs, two coffees for me and heuvos Yucateca for Dodie. Bonus! It came with a huge stack of Bimbo toast!

After our standard 2 hours in the A/C, or maybe more!, we ventured out. There had been one of those flash tropical rains, and everything was soaked - but drying fast. We were generally heading toward the (ripoff) HSBC ATM, and then our favourite Chinese food stall, but as we crossed the central square there was a necessary stop for coconut ice cream from a vendor with a cart. 30 pesos - a little high but still cheap. It really tastes like coconut!

The ATM worked, which is something, but the 1.6% charge for the service is rather much. Fortunately we did not have to rely on HSBC to exchange the currencies as well. Rather we are using that 10 currency prepaid VISA, which after so many phone calls to customer service is now magically working.

At the food court, our first step was to get fresh orange juice. Fresh here means fresh, as the guy cut the oranges in half and squeezed them right there. It took twelve oranges to make a liter. 70 pesos. He also pulled out his cell phone and showed me that he had a starring roll in the "Rough Guide to the Yucatan". He was very proud of his work.

This time the Chinese place did not hit the spot with us. Maybe I chose the wrong things or maybe they had an off day. It seemed to make us feel weaker rather than stronger. In an interesting adaptation to local taste, at least one of the selections had some heat, and this was not trying to be Szechuan style. It was Mexican style Chinese.

Back through the square and an ad hoc dance troupe was putting on a performance. I would not say that they were artistically or musically catchy, but they did make a nice spectacle, especially when they did their flamenco style moves with bottles on their heads. (Dissenting opinion - Dodie thought they were artistic and catchy. We sat down and watched, and gave a nice donation at the end. ) One thing I missed, having looked away, was when one of the bottles fell and smashed. The were ready for this, though, with whisk brooms and scoops.

We returned to our room and spent some time making Bookings for coming days. I also grabbed the GPS and went out to track down a pasteleria, or pastry shop. The products in such a place are always kept in coolers, and they differ from a panaderia, or bakery. The panaderia might just have bread rolls, or they might also have a wide selection of sweet breads and non refrigerated pastries or they might also have a small selection of refrigerated items. That makes it a gamble. Hit a good panaderia and you might have it all!

I followed the GPS until it said I was standing outside the pasteleria, but I didn't see it. I double checked and oh, I was right in front! I usually rely on Dodie to be the spotter - for birds or otherwise. The total stock of this place amounted to ten quite large birthday style layer cakes, and ok, one flan. But I saw that I could buy by the slice. One birthday, one flan slice! For the cost of 50 pesos I produced a 200 peso note. This caused the lady to go digging in her purse, in some secret plastic bags, and yes, even in the till. Change can often be a problem for a small vendor, but I thought this performance was rather weak. The cakes, though, were excellent!

Dodie meanwhile had developed a hankering for more fresh orange juice, so I got sent back across the square for some. The first stall was now closed, so I tried another. Just looking, it was not clear that they would not just pull out some Minute Maid, but sure enough they dug up the needed many oranges, sliced them, and ran them through the rotary squeezer. They filled Dodie's thermos bottle with this juice and ice. When orange juice is made pure and fresh like that, it really can not be beat.

My excursion for the orange juice took me through the square, and by now it was dark outside. But the square was of course alive with activity. This included the dance troupe, who were still going. Give them marks for stamina!

Tomorrow we will head slightly out of town to find a cenote we have spotted. This is not much of a feat, because there are said to be 6000 cenotes in Yucatan, (though not all are open to the public). We will also find the right suburb and return to Dodie's "favourite" post office there, the only post office in the city! After that, next day, it's back to Coba, where we will prepare to again challenge the Caribbean coastal roads and traffic.

Today's ride: 40 km (25 miles)
Total: 1,203 km (747 miles)

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