Last Days In Mexico.......
Another five hours later......remember I did tell you it would take that long again to get back up to Tulum from Punta Allen.......
Cold beer for Chris and a coke for me ...well deserved me thinks. For now we'll be checking into a hotel......not in the main tourist bit...too pricey but just on the edge of town at the 'Mestizo Hotel'. Tomorrows job is to find the motorcycle scooter mechanic in Tulum for a spot of Mexican welding.
Find him we did, Jimenez Reparacion de Motos.......if you're a motorcyclist and get stuck here needing anything welding or a quick repair this is the place to pop into.
Welded whilst we waited.....bingo, side stand better again and the cost....150 pesos or approx. £5.75 ......just a bit cheaper than Harley Davidson then!!!
All fixed we spent another night in Tulum, which is a great spot for all sorts but we'd already seen the ruins at Christmas and swum in a cenote so were ready for moving on. From here we rode down and across to the coast again to a place called Mahahual.
Standard ride down......until we came across this man......
We'd just ridden past him and seen how many dogs he had with him. A garage loomed and as we were low on fuel we pulled in. Whilst Chris dealt with the bikes I watched the road for the man to appear....he must be coming this way.....I really wanted to say 'Hello' to him and the dogs.
What a lovely man.....homeless I think.....but taking care of all the dogs....his friends.....they all had collars and some had little reflective coats on made up of ripped old clothes and they were all so friendly......and yes....we gave him some money to help buy food for the dogs......I wish him all the best for the future x
Mahahual wasn't quite what we'd expected.....the cruise ships pull in here and it seems to be an up and coming area. Plenty of sellers selling 'tourist trinkets'. We met two other bikers down here whilst we were looking for our hotel....one from Cuba and one from Mexico City..(.Luis a motorcycle instructor).....just pulled over for a chat.
They were camping... but after seeing what was available down here they had headed off to another area.
After a couple of days we'd exhausted what Mahahual had to offer and set off for Bacalar.
This wasn't far to ride...only about 64 miles.....Bacalar...famous for a lagoon of seven colours.We stopped in the square to ask for directions and get some cash...very pleasant and a very friendly Police Lady who I had a great conversation with using Google translate....my Spanglish wasn't quite enough to hold a full conversation and she wanted to learn English.
With that we got checked in and the usual unpacking and headed off for some tea, Italian tonight in a quiet little Italian just off the square. Next day we walked down to the lake ......well we tried to...there didn't seem to be any free public access apart from a tiny pier so we ended up paying to walk through a protected area. You can see the different colours in the lake but not necessarily all at the same time.....it depends on the time of day and where you're stood to view.
We also visited Cenote Azul whilst we were here but it was too cold to go swimming....lol....well for me anyway.
It's now the 23rd January 2018.....time to move on.....to Chetumal, the capital of the State of Quintana Roo......our last city in Mexico.
So Chetumal.....we're booked in here at a boring but useful 'City Express'....'why' you say.....well the hotel has facilities and at this point in time we're getting all our 'ducks in a row' before crossing the border into Belize. Paperwork needs checking....a couple more copies but thanks to Mel in San Diego (for doing loads of copies) we're pretty much on top of that.....and the wi fi is good here....catch up with the family on Skype....make a couple of videos....write another blog.
Inbetween that we popped down to the malecon on Chris's bike for a look round....on the hunt for 'Larry' the .crocodile as well but we didn't find him. For a city practically sat on the border it was pleasantly quiet.....a lot of people just passing through and we saw loads of 'Mennonites'. I think I've mentioned them before in passing but there's certainly a few here.
We'd also discovered that our hotel was close in range to several radio masts.....Harley peeps know what's coming.....yep Chris's bike threw out a rod or two a couple of times...... First time on the whole trip it's done it!!
We decided to visit the ruins of Kohunlich in the end. This was because they were not completely on the tourist trail.....as tour companies seemed to err towards other ruin areas and also because I'd been drawn to 'The Temple of Masks'. This suited us fine and they were only about 40 miles away. On the way we got pulled by the Politzia......no worries.....just a standard papers check.....at the same time another biker rolled in besides us and invited us to a bike meet......we thanked him and considered it but it was a bit far for us on that particular day as we'd already made plans.
Well that was it.....the last of our sight seeing in Mexico. Back to the hotel.....change a bit of money and we're off.
Adios Mexico ha sido in Viaje Fantastico !!!!
Where To Next.....????
Don't forget the photos that have started appearing in the blogs are only snapshots of the trip. You can view the whole of the Mexico section in Gallery Nine.....brew and biccy time or cake...or a bar of Galaxy.....mmmnnn...miss them......
