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June 2, 2013

Postcards from Nowhere: Peoria to Panama - Day 14: Pisté to Tulum, Mexico

Above: View of the Caribbean Sea from the open-air lobby of the Las Ranitas Hotel in Tulum, Mexico.

Update: I am alive and well and resting quietly in Las Ranitas Hotel on the shores of the Caribbean Sea in the Mexican State of Quintana Roo, on the Yucutan Peninsula in the town of Tulum, Mexico.

Update 2: I cannot post pictures at this point, as I cannot connect to my RDP server at my house in Colorado. If someone could reboot the PC by the window, that would be awesome.

Sunday June 2, 2013

Motorcycle Odometer (at start of day): 3,339
Motorcycle Odometer (at end of day): 3,451
Miles driven today: 112 miles


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I wake up in the morning. My alarm clock goes off at something insane like 7:30. I'm like...yeah...that's not going to happen.

I turn it off and go back to sleep. But, Chichen Itza opens at 8:00 a.m. I'm there by 9:00 a.m., I think.

Not many people there. The vendors are setting up shop. Like, it appears to be completely unregulated commerce. Now, I don't know. It may be very well organized. I didn't see any fighting for positions, but they're setting up all the trinkets they sell to the tourists. They peddle their bikes from Piste to here, to peddle their wares. They're selling everything imaginable, of course.

The thing I'd never seen before, was some sort of a jaguar call. With it, they can pretty much make a sound like a jaguar. It definitely gets your attention.

So, I'm just wandering through the brutal morning heat of the Yucatan peninsula. Sweltering. Fading fast. A couple of people offer to be my guides. First for $60 USD. Then for $40 USD. I just laugh at them. Like...uh....yeah...no....Not even.

So, instead, I just wander around the place. I mean, there's some cool pyramids and stuff. But nothing I haven't seen before, really. I mean, I've been to Teohuitican near Mexico City, and Jen and I were at Tulum in March. So, I mean...yeah...OK....ruins...pyramids...got it. Thanks. I did want to see the jaguar monument, but I didn't see it, so I decided to forget it.

Now, I'm trying to leave the place, but it's so freaking huge I can't ever figure out where to go. Finally, I find the exit and I'm trying to leave but they're selling all these trinkets. Finally, I decide to break down an buy a new T-shirt that says "Chichen Itza", because my clothes are just literally rotting off of me. Like, every day, I drive all day, and get home soaking wet. Wash out my clothes. Hang them up to dry.

But my T-shirt has turned black, from my leather jacket bleeding onto it constantly. My jeans ripped in the left knee, so I got sunburned on my knee. So now, I have to wear sunscreen on my left knee because my clothes are falling apart. So, I decide to spring for a T-shirt, but I'm so cheap. Just so cheap. The guy says he wants $10 USD for it and I'm just laughing. Like...that's not going to happen. Finally, I give him a $100 Mexican peso note, and I'm like...this is all I'm giving you. $8.00 USD. No more. So, I have a shirt now, at least.

Back to the hotel to check out. I see my friend Alex. He tells me to be sure to hit Punta Allen. And I ask him how the roads are. He says they're fine. So, good enough.
I also ask him about he Jaguar statue, and apparently, to reduce vandalism, they sealed it inside one of the pyramids. So, it's not on public display, apparently.

I check out, load up the bike. and start to roll out of town. Then, I notice that I'm so low on gas that my gas light is on, and there's no Pemex. Turn around, head back into town, find the only Pemex in town, and gas up.

I'm not clear why it is in Mexico that people feel obligated to put bull-horns on their cars. But there's these cars driving around town, broadcasting some propaganda through bull-horns mounted on their vehicles. LIke, they must really hate Detroit for never making the windshield-mounted bull-horn as a factory option.

I'm never sure what's going on down here. LIke...I see people waving flags, and demonstrating. But I don't get the message. I'm not clear if it's like a demonstration, a protest, or a full-blow revolution. It's hard to know. Basically, I just ignore them.

Occasionally, I see people standing in the streets holding hard hats upside down at the speed bumps. So, one assumes they're collecting money for something. But I'm not clear what it's for, so I don't give them anything. I'm reasonably sure it's some leftist cause. There's little doubt about that, of course.

I roll out of Piste on Mexico 180 towards Tulum.

This road doesn't have a divided median, so I'm not driving as fast. I'm going about 90 or so. As I drive, my eyes scour the clouds above. Some are dark. Some not as dark. I have a feeling I'm going to get wet. My guess is that this must be the rainy season. If I had any sense, I'd have looked it up, but I didn't do anything of the sort, of course. This trip was planned about as well as all of my other trips, which is to say I didn't plan it at all. The plan has always been 1) get on bike and 2) drive to panama. So, yeah. Probably I deserve this for being so careless.

So, it starts to rain, but not as hard as yesterday. It's not like a monsoon type of rain. Just a light rain, and I'm like...."Oh hell no. I'm not stopping. I'm going to Punta Allen."

So, I drive in the rain for something crazy like 50 or 80 miles. Finally, I get to Tulum and start down the road to Punta Allen, and it's a nightmare. Just a washed out dirt road full of trillions of potholes you could lose a Subaru in. And it's raining. And now I'm pissed. Because Alex assured me the road was fine. But, I promise you you couldn't go 20 mph on this road if it was dry. And it's raining. I go to turn around and, for the first time on the trip, I drop the bike while I'm on it. The turning radius on this bike is greater than on the XL, so I tend to try to turn around in spaces where it isn't possible. A car approaches. Stops. This is the Mexico that everyone warns you about. Where he hops out, sticks a shiv in my back, and takes my wallet. That doesn't happen.

Instead, The guy get out of his car, and helps me stand up the bike in the rain.

The people down here are not criminals. They're honest, hardworking, decent human beings. I feel bad that they're slandered so in the state department advisories.

So, this dirt road goes something insane like 50 km down the peninsula, and then dead-ends, and you have to come back. Umm....I think I'll pass.

So, I turn around, and start looking for a hotel that has internet. First one I come to, I roll in and ask the guy how much for a room for the night. He says something insane like $200 USD a night. And I'm just laughing at him. He says to make him an offer. I say $80 USD. He says $125. I'm like....not a chance....$90.00.

FInally, he decides he can live with $100.00.

Now, I should mention that this place is on the Caribbean, with a huge thatch roof central atrium, overlooking palm trees, the beach, the sea. It's nice. It's insanely nice. No one else is here. There's maybe 3 cars in the parking lot.

Yeah. Forget going off the grid. I think I found my place for the night. :)

The Ranitas Hotel

At the Las Ranitas hotel, the lights sway to the gentle Caribbean winds. The entire lobby is open air.

From flowered Yucatan gardens, you pass through the open air lobby, to the restaurant/bar, and open thatched roof atrium.

The waves crash onto the shore 20 yards away. At night, tree-frogs chirp in the darkness.

Light dance music plays in the background.

Small brown people walk around in white uniforms. I want a Coca-Cola Light, but I refuse to walk to the bar, 20 feet away.

This place grows on you. Once you get used to being waited on hand and foot, it's very hard to go back, it seems.

No one is paying attention to me. Am I going to have to stand up? Is this what the world has come to?

"Amigo!" I call to the bartender. But he doesn't hear me.

"AMIGO!" I shout, a little louder so that he hears me and walks over. I'm barefoot. Wearing only a swimsuit and a shirt.

I have my feet on the coffee table in front of me like I own the place.

"Necessito una Coca-Cola Light, por favor," I scold him. Like..."Uh...hello? Why weren't you asking me if I needed anything? It's your job. Hello?"

And this is how it is now. Normally, I'm not this way, but it's such an easy habit to fall into.

I'm afraid that I'm weak and bourgeois. It's funny to think that I wanted to go off the grid. I can't get internet access in my room, and I'm in a full-scale panic.

The winds die down, and the mosquitos come and carry me back to my room.

The rains pick up again, and I wonder if there is a sun in the Yucatan.

The little girl at the front desk is named Roxana. She is excited about my trip. About my motorcycle. Runs into the parking lot to check it out and comes back with glowing eyes. She wants to go with me. Anywhere. Aware but here. I tell her I'm going to Belize tomorrow. But she doesn't have a passport, so she can't come with me. And I'm not clear how much fun it would be to have another person riding with me anyway.

At night, it starts to rain again. And rain. And rain. And rain. I'm not clear that I'll ever make it off the Yucatan peninsula unless I can find a submarine with wheels.

Above: View of the Caribbean Sea from the open-air lobby of the Las Ranitas Hotel in Tulum, Mexico.

Above: Entrance to the Chichen Itza archeological site near Pisté, Mexico.

Above: Locals peddle their wares to the tourists inside of the Chichen Itza archeological site near Pisté, Mexico.

Above: Locals peddle their wares to the tourists inside of the Chichen Itza archeological site near Pisté, Mexico.

Above: The stone snakeheads at the bottom of the largest pyramid in Chichen Itza.

Above: The stone snakeheads at the bottom of the largest pyramid in Chichen Itza.

Above: Another stone snakehead on the ruins of Chichen Itza.

Above: A woodpecker feeds a nest of baby woodpeckers in a tree on the grounds of Chichen Itza.

Above: An unidentified bird watches while its mate feeds a nest of babies in a nearby tree.

Above: The main pyramid at the Chichen Itza complex.

Above: Some type of plant growing out of a tree in the Chichen Itza complex.

Above: A stone carving in one of the many structures at the Chichen Itza complex.

Above; An unidentified bird at the Chichen Itza complex.

Above: Some skulls at the Chichen Itza complex. Apparently, these were used to impress upon their neighbors how ruthless and barbaric they were.

Above: Tourist wares for sell inside the Chichen Itza complex.

Above: The main pyramid at the Chichen Itza complex.

Above: Tourist wares for sell inside the Chichen Itza complex.

Above: The main pyramid at the Chichen Itza complex.

Above: The main pyramid at the Chichen Itza complex.

Above: A skeleton on display by a street vendor on the road between Piste and Tulum, Mexico.

Above: A structure at the Chichen Itza complex.

Above: The jardines (gardens) at the Las Ranitas Hotel in Tulum, Mexico.

Above: The jardines (gardens) at the Las Ranitas Hotel in Tulum, Mexico.

Above: Sign for Piste, Mexico with stencil-art graffiti tagging.

Above: Close-up view of the stencil-art from the Piste sign.

Above: Palm tree with coconuts on the Caribbean Sea, as vied from the Las Ranitas Hotel, in Tulum, Mexico.

Above: The Catholic Cathedral of an old town square I drove through between Piste and Tulum.

Above: View of the open-air lobby of the Las Ranitas Hotel in Tulum, Mexico in the daylight.

Above: View of the open-air lobby of the Las Ranitas Hotel in Tulum, Mexico in the daylight.

Above: View of the open-air lobby of the Las Ranitas Hotel in Tulum, Mexico at night.

Above: View of the open-air lobby of the Las Ranitas Hotel in Tulum, Mexico at night.

Posted by Rob Kiser on June 2, 2013 at 8:05 PM

Comments

I want one of those bowls. Or flower pots. For realz. I could send you bubble wrap.

Posted by: TL on June 3, 2013 at 6:39 PM

You sound tired. Why not just stay there for a day or so? Your pictures, however, are electric!! Love ya:)

Posted by: Molly on June 3, 2013 at 8:45 PM

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