Yal Ku Lagoon

Thunderstorms and heavy rain this morning. Weather report for the next few days is 60% chance of rain and mostly cloudy. By mid morning the skies became partly cloudy with plenty of sun coming through so we headed up to Yal Ku lagoon.

Yal Ku is a narrow inlet through which fresh water traveling via underground rivers reaches the ocean. The lagoon has many small islands and areas where wildlife, flora, and fauna thrive. The primary activity at Yal Ku is snorkeling.

Numerous statues are along the paths that lead down to the lagoon, along the water's edge of the lagoon, and out on the islands.

The lagoon is home to many species of fish such as sergeant majors, grouper, angel fish, some huge parrot fish, and many other colorful species. The underwater formations really made the snorkeling interesting as you could swim through tight crevices, open areas, or make your way out to the sea. I really needed an underwater camera for this area.

Today is our wedding anniversary, so after wards it was back to the restaurant for dinner and drinks.

Today started off with heavy cloud cover, but no rain and with the sun coming out later in the morning.

Turned out to be a very lazy day. Took a few short rides in the area. Went into the town of Akumal for an early lunch. Stopped at the Tequilaville Restaurant. Best food and margaritas that I have had on the entire trip.

Tequilaville is owned and operated by Ken & Mary Anderson. They are from Collinwood, Ontario, CND and moved to Akumal 3 years ago to open their restaurant. They have an all natural menu, do not serve processed food, and all of their food is homemade. Coldest beer and best margaritas in all of Akumal (possibly in all of Mexico).

Back at the condo the wife decided to check out the coral reef located in Half Moon Bay (about 100 yards out from our back deck.). Being very safety conscious, I found a lounge chair in the shade and acted as life guard.

Just a slow pace day. Packing up for the trip back to Cancun and the airport.

Miles: 350 -- Total miles: 3,348
Time on road 7h 15m

Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo to Escarcega, Campeche

The morning started off with overcast skies again. We loaded the car and headed up to the Cancun airport. Dropped off the wife and sister and headed back down to Playa del Carem to the hotel where I had left my bike. Walked over to the car rental agency and they went over to the hotel and checked in the car me. Can't get any easier than that. Got the bike repacked, put on the Power Ranger suit and headed south back tracking the same road from a few days before..

Skies had become mostly cloudy with some sun. Then they became darker and I was going through on and off light rain. Came upon some rain clouds that looked different. Could not see through to the other side on these. Decided to just chance it and ride through without putting on the rain jacket. Am I ever good at making the wrong decision. Rain continued to get heavier with no sign of letting up so I stopped next to a road side stand. They had covered tables and chairs in the back so I grabbed my rain jacket out of the bike and headed for shelter. The thatched roof did a great job of stopping the rain. It also had so many leaks in it that you did not have to worry about staying dry.

Two chicken tacos and a drink for $3.00. Not all things are bad.

Mom and daughter were running the stand. Before I left the entire family had come out to see the crazy gringo riding a moto in heavy rain.

Rain began to let up and I was back on the road. Skies began to change to mostly cloudy and I left the rain behind.

Same roads as before, same town as before, stopped at the same hotel as before, and was even given the same room as before.

Tomorrow I have about half of a day back tracking then I will be on some new roads.

Miles: 273 -- Total miles: 3,621
Time on road 8h 15m

Escarcega, Campeche to San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas

Morning started off with clouds and light rain. I was able to avoid the rain and soon it was mostly sunshine. Temperature stayed in the 70's low to a high of 80. Much better than the previous days highs of 95-100+.

Still had a couple of hours left of backtracking to do.

Got to Hwy 199, headed south and things begin to change. Could see mountains in the background and the road was a narrow two lane.

Went through Palenque and and began climbing into the mountains. The first half of mountain ride was great. Just a steady increase in altitude with continuous curve after curve The last half was still a great ride, climbing to 8k+ feet, but about ever 2 miles there was a small Mayan village. There is nothing that small villages love better than topes. The bash plate bashing kind. Tope after tope after tope. Get your speed back up for a mile or two and then you had more topes again. I think that there were more topes than curves.

This landslide actually had some warning, once you came around the curve and got to it. I have seen some where they gave you no warning at all. Go around a curve and the road is not there.

Most of the pictures are snap and dash. Lot of traffic, no place to pull off of the road, no time to frame the shot.

For about the last 50 miles I had fog, light rain, and of course, topes. Slow go to San Cristobal de las Casas. Found a hotel with inside parking and got out of the rain. Rain quit and later I took a few pictures of the town.

Most of the pictures are snap and dash. Lot of traffic, no place to pull off of the road, no time to frame the shot.

Miles: 306 -- Total miles: 3,947
Time on road 8h 30m

San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas to Acayucan, Veracruz

Morning was cloudy and a lot of haze. Temperature was 55 and elevation was still at 7K feet. In less than 25 miles I dropped around 5,500 feet and the temperature rose more than 15 degrees.

Started descending from the mountains as I rode down to Arriaga on the coast. Soon the mountains were in the background and again it was hot and humid.

Lot of fog in the pictures so they are not coming out to clear.

Main objective today was to get past the Tehuantepec to Zanatepec area on Hwy 200. The winds here can reach up to 100 mph. Weather report showed that today would be a good day to cross. Tomorrow not so good. Monday would be above my ability and the next few days would be worse from there.

I only had to contend with about 20 miles to ride through as the wind started to pick up. My guess is that it was around 30-35 mph at times. It was a steady wind with very few gust so it was no problem at all.