¡Me Voy!

I´m Off!   Have had a rocky start to the trip but all is going well so far.   For those of you who knew that my ankle wasn´t doing too hot - biking has been great and the only thing that is really bothering me is my ass!

So....  to start off...  TSA  ripped apart my bike box at the airport because they said it smelt like fuel....   well that would be my used stove.  They neraly confiscated my $100 stove!   It was horrifying watching them ´unpack´and my bike box.    Those that have ever put their bike in a box will understand.   All my carefully packed stuff was scattered all over!   Nearly missed my plane because of the whole ordeal, and I didn´t get to repack my stuff because they said it would be a breach of security!  

After all that I arrived in Cancun on Monday, but my bicycle did not.  The airlines said it might be there tomorrow....  all I could do was wait. I decided to take the bus to Puerto Morelos, a town suggested to me by my family, where I could await the arrival of my bike.    But then the bus broke down in the terminal... I wasn´t getting off to a great start.

The next afternoon when my box finally arrived it was in shreds.   The TSA agent put my bike in right side up, which means upside down....   the whole while it was resting on the back derailleur - which should make any cyclists cringe.   The bike itself didn´t suffer too much but it definitely needs some tuning!   At the end of the day TSA took nothing from me; however,  I ended up loosing the parts that I packed carelessly inside of my pot: the wind screen and the part I NEED to clean my stove which will render it useless after a few uses with Mexican gasoline.... my fault.

The ride south from Puerto Morelos to Tulum was fantastic!   The bike felt great and the ankle is doing fine.   Stopped at Cenote Choc Mool for a refreshing dip.

Camped at the same site that Eric and I camped last year on the ocean near Tulum.   Only this time I woke up screaming because there was a man outside my tent in the middle of the night!    It turned out to be the tourist police telling me I cannot camp there.   In my sleepy confusion I tried to explain that I had camped there before and that I was sorry and tired.   Instead I told them that I was sad....   I think they had sympathy for me because they let me pass the night there if I would promise to leave before the tourists arrive.  I thought I was a tourist?   Fair enough.    

The sunrise was well worth the scare the night before! 

 The Tulum ruins rest on the Caribbean shores and are spectacular! 

 There were heaps of gigantic lizards that call this place home and they can be seen everywhere!  The next two days ride were grueling in the heat and humidity.   Lucky enough there are plenty of shady bus stops to pass the mid afternoon heat! 

I passed the next night in Buena Vista located on the Laguna de Bacalar - the lake of seven colors.   You can see the different shades of green and blue throughout the day.

Went for an amazing kayak along the lake and met some locals from Chetumal that spoke English.   We chatted for a while about how safe Mexico really is and how the media creates fear in the people.  In reality, most of the country is filled with kind people.   While we were having this chat I was actually robbed.   Funny enough.  I left my tent with my things in the swimming area that was supposedly secure and watched by the tennants....  but one of the neighborhood kids managed to sneak in and rummage through my stuff.   He or she ran off with my bicycle pump, my day wallet, an Mp3 player, and a bag full of computer stuff - memory cards, chargers ext.   Lucky for me they didn´t take my real wallet nor my passport!   The community came together and went looking for the theif.   They searched the area and called the police.   Everyone came out to help.   It was quite the spectacle.  Three young men went searching and came back with everything except the Mp3 player.  I seem to have horrible luck with those things....  in the past year I´ve gone through 3 already:   one was broken while working in the pot room in Antarctica, another went on the fritz after it got disconnected during its first upload during the earthquake in Christchurch, NZ and this one got ripped off in Mexico....   All in all I came off very lucky given what could have passed.  Biking will be silent for a while, but it is better than not biking at all.   Hopefully I will learn a lesson from all this.    

Tomorrow I will depart Mexico for Belize.   It has great to get my legs back with an easy, flatish 350 km from Puerto Morelos to the border.   I enjoyed visiting Mexico again am looking forward to exploring more of Belize!