December 6, 2018
Poking around on the Puuc part 1
Or, our lives are now ruined!
Before getting into today, I need to talk about last night. As Jim and I sat poolside, trying to get enough wifi to post the blog, a new guest came by to introduce himself. We had heard about Bernhard and his partner Iris from the owner of the Pickled Onion, Valerie. It turns out they, too, are from Vancouver! What a small small word! We enjoyed chatting so much that we ended up having dinner together. It was lovely to talk with people from our end if the world and discuss time ins and outs of Vancouver and BC politics.
Knowing our ride to our very first ruin was a short 8km, we slept in a bit and then joined Iris and Bernhard for a wonderful breakfast of omelettes, fresh fruit and toast. Today they were off to see Uxmal, our destination for tomorrow, and we were headed for Kabah, a smaller ruin in the opposite direction down what is called the Ruta Puuc. There are quite a few Mayan ruins and artifacts to be found along this very hilly route - the only hilly section of the Yucatan. Our original plan had been to see Uxmal on one day, ride to a few other sites on the next and hit Kabah on our way down towards Campeche. However, due to our recent health issues, we have decided to play it safe by taking the collectivo down to Campache, which is about 150 km from here. There is only one town with hotels about halfway there, so we would be riding close to 80km each day. In other circumstances, this would be no problem, but right now its an issue. I have to say that we have both struggled with the notion of "cheating" by taking the bus. It isn't really, but it just feels that way. All the planning and training that went into this trip have gone by the wayside at the moment, due to illness. However, we are hopeful that with the days off the bikes down in Campeche, we will feel renewed and more able to tackle the ride back up.
So, today. It was actually a little cool this morning, which felt amazing! After breakfast we packed light snack to take with us, used the Steripen to sterilize our water for the day and off we went. As advertised, the Ruta Puuc is a series of hills, none of them terribly big, just nice rollers. It was a great change, getting to do a little climb and then coast down. We enjoyed seeing the many flowers blooming along the roadside. Hopefully tomorrow we will stop and take a few pics of these! When we got to Kabah, we were literally the only ones there! We paid the fee to get in (55 pesos each - about $3.50) and began wandering. Oh my goodness!!!! I can't even describe how excited we both were to be here! We have been planning this trip since last winter and I have been dreaming of visiting Mayan ruins for many years. My students, as part of their Social Studies curriculum, learned about different ancient civilizations and so the Mayans were familiar to me, but I had never made it to see any ruins. So, now is my chance and ruined we shall be!!! Here are a few pics from today. I will try not to overload the blog with the same pics, but you'll have to forgive me my exuberance just a little!
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ctenosaura_similis
5 years ago
5 years ago
Today's ride: 16 km (10 miles)
Total: 110 km (68 miles)
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5 years ago
5 years ago