Day 10: Valladolid to Chichen Itza

December 4, 2021

Grampies Go in the Hole

I did a little research yesterday on the Mercurio cargo bikes. Here is a really good article about them, written by a bikepacker. Mercurio is apparently Mexico's #1 bike manufacturer, and they have all sorts of more normal models. The cargo bike, known as the Magnum, also comes in various configurations, but can be had for 6000 pesos, which is $Can 420. That seems incredibly cheap for what you get. Compared to walking, and carrying on your back, a bicycle is a huge step up. I can see how saving up for one of these things would be a big thing for a family, and how great to get your hands on one!

We knew we had a short day today, so we slept in to 6:45 and got breakfast in the hotel. I tried out my new words for eggs over easy, "huevos fritos volteados", and it worked!

Again in contrast to the first time coming in to Valladolid, the streets were navigable and traffic not stressful. With the right huevos on board, everything is easier!

The route out paralleled the Street of Friars that we walked the other day, so we passed the Convent. As we see, this is a main entry point to town, where they have put the big sign.

There was no shoulder at first, but a bike path is better!

Finally, the 180, appearing as it was for almost all our ride. The shoulder is great and traffic is reasonable.

A new craft item popped up on offer, with a great many roadside stalls - hats! They look good, but we are not in a position to really buy and carry anything.

We occasionally come across roadside memorials in the form of little houses, clearly for people killed on the highway. Usually they are very weathered. But this one was notably well maintained. The two people died in 2008, and were in their 30's and 40's.

We realized that the little roadside house/memorials are actually part of the cemetery style of little houses. As we saw in the Disney movie Coco, Mexico has a lively view of death and the after life. Not only do we have these villages of dead people, but skulls and skeletons feature often in folk art, like the lady shown below.

Way sooner than I was expecting, Dodie announced that we had arrived at our hotel, the Dolores Alba Inn. Our room is really beautiful, but it does lack a couple of amenities, like wifi out at the room and a place to sit and type. No matter, we can sit by the pool and do the blog, in the shade.

The hotel has a sort of wading pool a few feet deep, but with no steps it was just right to defeat Dodie's artificial knees. No matter, right across the highway is the Ik Kil complex, that features a major cenote.

The cenote at Ik Kil is really deep, and is reached by a stone stairway that goes down, down. Ity is a really beautiful thing, with vines hanging down from the top, and water sprinkling down as well. We brought the waterproof Umidigi, and got some nice shots, including one black fish in the water. Unfortunately the wifi here is abysmal, and we are also in a mobile data dead zone. So the photos will have to wait until tomorrow.

Some other missing photos include the Poc Chuk and the pork pibil that we got at supper, plus the story of how we searched and searched for a little cenote fed pool here on the property, but only found it too late to be going in.

And Bill Shaneyfelt, we came across a dead mammal on the road that we can not identify. We don't want to gross people out with the photo. But if you send us your email, we'll come back with the photo. Then maybe we'll put an image of a live one, whatever it may be, into the blog.

Tomorrow is a big day for us, with over 80 km in the heat. We are going to get up pre dawn, skip breakfast, and go for it. The target is Izamal - the yellow city.

Today's ride: 40 km (25 miles)
Total: 386 km (240 miles)

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Bill Shaneyfeltawanabug@hotmail.com
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