Day 16: Piste to Homun

December 28, 2023

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At Piste we did what we usually do when we feel uncomfortable in a place, we beat it, more or less in the night. This time it was 5 a.m. Only thing, at that hour there was a thunderstorm in progress. The forecast said it would end within the hour. So..? Nope, when we are outta there we're outta there! It turned out to be a good move, necessary really, because the day was very long and ended hot.

Here are the road workers that vibrated our cell yesterday. We did admire that steam roller. It crushed the rocks into the clay and made a nice hard and smooth surface. We need one at home!

Here is the Piste sign in the night. We still like Piste a lot, but next time we'll upgrade to a place with A/C (oh, and how about a couple of pieces of furniture, like a chair? and soap?, and TP? and towels? OK, let's not get carried away!

Yesterday's road that led past Chichen Itza had a shoulder for us, which makes sense for the volume of traffic. But today with that major attraction behind us, the road narrowed and the shoulder disappeared. The traffic volume also dropped, but not enough to make the new arrangement comfortable. So not quite, but a little, I was feeling like when riding the white line in Europe. One thing, though, there were no suicide passers. All the drivers just waited for the safe chance to pass. And even if we really clung to the side for them, they would neither sideswipe us nor take the risk out in the other lane.

You don't want to encounter this lane-filling guy coming over the rise!

In the dawn light, this hawk was on the job. It's a Grey Hawk, though this one looks rather brown.

In the small town of Libre Union, is it possible that our Montreal granddaughter Evelyn is starting a business empire?

This is the Libre Union competitive environment.

Beyond Libre Union we ran into something more rare out here than even a Roadrunner (which we also saw today). It was another cycle touring pair! This turned out to be Loic and Lou, from Chamonix, France. They were cycling Alaska to Argentina, over 1 1/2 years, have been on the road 1/2 year so far. Of course we rapidly (in French) exchanged all the standard information about where we all were from, where we had cycled, where we were going next, and etc. etc. Tonight they will stop in Valladolid, so we steered them to the Bee Park, which also has camping. But of course, they already knew that. Our final exchange was about that we should not say "Stay Safe", better is "Bonne Route" or "Bon Courage".

Since it is still the holiday season, Poinsettias are a big thing back home. How about these, below?

Here is another neat tree, below. It's not a Ceiba (Kapok), based ont he trunk, but it still has a fluff ball pod.

Here in better light is a better turned out Grey Hawk.

Kantunil was another of the tiny towns along our way. It featured a church in Izamal style yellow, with two towers, though they were not huge.

Inside the church Christmas lights were flashing - looked nice.

From Kantunil, we got onto the 180, which is a four lane with a shoulder. We were bowling along nicely, despite some concern that we were not taking the cycle routing that Google Maps had set out. When Dodie thought she spied a nasty interchange coming up, we decided we had better go look at the path we were "supposed" to take. We turned onto a rough side road and went on over to the track. Yeech. What was Google thinking? We backtracked, and continued to bowl along just fine.

To go find that Mr. Google actually wanted us on this gas pipeline right of way. Hell with that!

In Xocchel we again passed through the square and again were by the church. This one was more of the huge rough Spanish style, with large twin towers.

We know that there is cattle country somewhere north of here, but so far we had only run into a few, white cows. The one below seems darn skinny, as well. We also encountered a literal cow boy - a young fellow on a horse. He stopped to pose for us and gave a nice greeting.

The next town, Hocaba, yielded a church of the common hulking type, but grey, and with quite tall towers.

It also had a Ruddy Ground Dove, which is a type we have seen once before

The towns hereabouts tend to be quite tumble down, but in spots there are these rather glitzy standalone bank buildings. This is despite the the fact that few Mexicans have bank accounts, and that cash rules, as opposed to cards.

We made it at last to Homun, where our place is called Hospedaje Papagrande. At 986 pesos it is certainly more than the place for 600 at Piste, but oh, it has space, A/C, soap, good beds, a table and chairs, and wow even hot water. Papagrande can mean great grandfather. The place was named after the great grandfather of the present owner.

We are both looking forward to a great rest, in the cool with soft beds. Tomorrow we target Oxkutzcab, which is said to focus on production of tropical fruits!

Today's ride: 86 km (53 miles)
Total: 581 km (361 miles)

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Laurie MarczakI just read this entry out loud to Joni - she says she’s excited to hear today’s entry (Jan 29) after that teaser about the tropical fruits. Hurry up and write it already!!
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4 months ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Laurie MarczakHe is seriously writing as fast as he can, but it will probably only be ready for reading aloud tomorrow.
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4 months ago

Laurie MarczakTo Steve Miller/GrampiesWe can wait! Which is not to say that we will be patient about it, there’s not exactly a lot of other pressing engagements here right now…
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4 months ago