C - After a cheery and disjointed (because of our poor Espanol) conservation with the lady motel manager, we hit the road. We had decided to aim for Campeche today, an old walled city on the Gulf of Mexico coast. We were both excited at the thought of seeing the ocean again!

It was only a short ride to the town of Champoton, where we got our first glimpse of the sea. We rode through the busy streets of downtown and out onto the coast road, where our grumbling tummies forced us to stop at a small roadside cafe selling very yummy trancas (a big torta!). Although we would have loved to devour one each, we opted for the sensible option of sharing one - it was huge and half was very satisfying!!

After a quick whizz around the main square, we checked out the waterfront further north, where the local fisherman had their boats moored and their catch for sale. It wasnt long before we were back on the road and heading north



We headed out of town and followed the signs for the libre road, making sure we didn't get on the cuota (toll) road. The ride was relatively uneventful, with us sitting on the shoulder of a somewhat busy divided highway.

We sailed through a few small pueblos and with very sore bums (we dont know, it was really just a short ride!) we were off the highway and cruising into the centro historico, behind a very old and grand wall.

With assistance from a very helpful book we have about finding hotels in Mexico (thanks Rick!!!) we landed a fantastic hotel right on the main square for an even better price.







After showering, it was straight out to check out the city. We wandered the square and then what I can confidently say was every single calle (street) in existence inside the wall. Campeche is a very scenic city, with each calle lined with brightly coloured buildings. Beautiful!











Exhausted, we fell into bed with a rough plan to make it Merida tomorrow.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning. We will remember them. Lest we forget. For without them we would not enjoy the freedoms that we have today.

C - It was a hungry morning so we ventured off to find some huevos rancheros for breakfast. It was a bit of a slow start to the day, but once we hit the road we knew we didnt really have far to go. Our destination for today was Merida, the capital of the Yucatan state.

The riding again was uneventful. A relatively straight, busy highway with the scenery alternating between small villages, factories and farming land.



Although it was only about 150km, it sure felt like it took us all day. In reality, we arrived in the beautiful city of Merida just on midday and went straight to a hotel which suited our needs just fine.

The weather was hot and steamy, just the way we like it! After filling our tummies with lunch, we retreated to the room for a little siesta.





We ventured out again in the evening, finding the most amazing pizza I think I ever eaten. Seriously, it was amazing. We were enjoying gorging ourselves and trying to remember the last time we had pizza. Neither of us can recall eating pizza since we left Australia! No wonder we enjoyed it and managed to eat the whole thing - all twelve, yes thats 12, slices!







I then joyfully spent the rest of the evening with a tummy ache from eating too much. But, we had a lovely stroll around the main square and soaked up the lively atmosphere of the city on a Friday night.











We will stay here another night and do some more exploring tomorrow. Merida certainly has a lovely charm to it.

C - Well, I couldnt even face breakfast this morning. Todd was keen though, so we found a little cafe where he could devour some hotcakes whilst I enjoyed a coffee.





I had read about a municipal mercado here that was rather large, so we went in search. It wasnt too long before we stumbled on it and man, it was massive! We weaved through the crowds to check out fruit and vegetables, meat, food stalls, shoes, clothes, electronics accessory.. You name it, it was there!



After a few hours, we were both in need of a rest and headed back to the hotel for some recuperation.

By mid-afternoon I was finally feeling hungry so back to the market we went to try out one of the little food stall. Again, we enjoyed one delicious torta!



As we were strolling along, checking out streets we hadnt walked before, an older Mexican man asked us if we were from Germany, because Todd is tall. Anyway, we got chatting to him and whilst he is retired now, he was a professor specialising in Maya culture. It was a wonderful conversation, with him taking us a Maya market and explaining lots about the architecture and design of Merida. The city is actually built on an old Maya village, with the stones of the original Maya buildings used to build the cathedral and numerous other buildings after the Spanish arrived. He left at us the Maya market - it was really lovely to meet him and wonderful of him to pass on some of his knowledge to us.

It wasnt long before it was time for dinner and again exhausted, we ventured back to the hotel for an early night.



Tomorrow we plan to head to Progresso on the coast and check out the ocean once more!

Never knew you guys had a Youtube channel.

Keep POSTING!!

__________________
My travel blog: http://rooson2wheels.blogspot.com

T - We have really enjoyed our time in Merida but these things must come to an end and it was time to move on.

We wanted to find a Wal-Mart first on the way out so we could replenish our AA battery stocks for our GPS. Having found one nearby we set off into the early morning traffic.

We were cruising down a major highway and had about 500 mt to go to our turn into Wal-mart when I suddenly saw cars and a bus brake hard and swerve. In the next instant an elderly gentleman was right in front of me, pushing his bicycle across 3 lanes of fast moving traffic.

I hauled on the brakes hard as I yelled into the headset “You ****ing stupid old man!”

Mabels front end started to wash out and I knew I was going down. But no way was I going to run down another person if I could help it. At that moment Chantelle yelled “Shit!”.

Mabel can out brake Rosie every time and as Mabel shrugged off her speed in a very short distance Rosie and Chantelle just plowed straight into us. Then we were all down and screeching down the road. Bits of luggage flying off in all directions. I was back on my feet the moment I stopped sliding and ran back to see if Chantelle was ok.

Rosie was laying on her side, her throttle jammed wide open and screaming. I hit the kill switch and saw Channy was getting up. I then noticed that one of us must have clipped the old man and he was being helped to his feet by a multitude of bystanders. Where did these people suddenly appear from I have no idea! I asked him if he was ok and he said yes. I went back to poor Mabel who was laying tipped up on her side in the road with a steady stream of fuel running from her tank. Once I had her uprighted and off the road I turned back to help Chantelle get Rosie out of the way of stopped traffic. It was at this point an elderly lady appeared from nowhere and started yelling at me. She was very angry but I didnt understand what she was saying. By this time, and it was only maybe a minute after the crash, the old man who caused it all was several hundred meters down the road and moving away fast. I was a little miffed about this as basically he caused this whole mess.

Another gentleman had righted Rosie and wheeled her off of the road. He spoke a small amount of english and said he had seen the whole thing. He agreed that the old man had caused it, but his advice was for us to leave as quickly as we were able and he would deal with the screaming lady.

I kicked the bikes over and all the while the old lady stood and yelled at me from about a meter away. I don’t know why she was so mad at us but all I heard her say was “Policia! Policia”. Now had the old man been there still I would have been quite happy to speak to the police, but as he had quickly disappeared himself I figured that there wasn’t much point hanging around. As soon as the bikes started the old ladys screaming reached fever pitch. The man who had seen it all happen had given up trying to reason with her and just kept saying to us “Go. Go”. So go we did.

Mabel rode a little weirder than before. She steers a little more to the right while riding straight on. Poor bike. She has now had 3 major crashes and one fire, but still she goes. Will she make it to Usuahia? You can do it Mabel!

We rode straight out of there. Not even stopping for fuel, heading north as fast as we could. Then Chantelle said she had a pain in her side and wanted to get off the bike for 5 minutes. Both of us were quite shaken up and as the adrenaline wore of the shock of it all set in. We had narrowly missed killing someone else. And it wasn’t even our fault.



After a quick inspection of Chantelles side, which had a nice little bruise, we carried onto the coastal town of Progreso. There was meant to be some pink flamingos there and we were keen to see them.

It was a very touristy looking place and we ended up just riding through. Neither of us had the heart to get off of the bikes and look around today. We turned south east and headed for Izamal where we would stay the night. Just out of Progreso we saw some pink flamingos though! Pretty cool!







As we got close to Izamal Chantelle started to feel really sick. She quickly hobbled off of her bike and sat in the gutter and heaved a few times. I was a bit worried about this as I thought maybe she was more hurt from her spill than we realised. When she stood up I had a quick look at her bruise. What I saw scared me a little. It was protruding out from her side. ALOT. This looked really bad and I was worried about internal damage. No wonder she felt ill.

We raced to the hospital in Izamal where the emergency doctor took one look at the rapidly growing lump and made immediate arrangements for Chantelle to be transferred by Ambulance back to a private hospital in Merida.



Back in Merida Chantelle was admitted to hospital and immediately underwent some tests. The lump kept growing and soon a surgeon was called. An ultrasound and an xray showed there was no major damage done and the cause of the lump was bleeding between the skin and the muscle. But it would need surgery to drain it and find the source of bleeding.

By the time the surgeons team was ready to operate the lump was huge. It reminded me of the Alien movies in that I was waiting, nay expecting, almost hoping, to see and alien burst forth and scurry off into an air vent! So we named the lump Sigourney in honour of Sigourney Weaver and the brilliant Alien movies.









A few hours later the surgeon woke me up in the waiting room with a gruesome video of the surgery procedure. I watched horrified and feeling very ill as the footage showed handfuls of congealed blood being squeezed from the lump and then hands reaching inside the incision in Chantelles side and pulling out more blood. It was gross and I battled to hold my stomach together. And yes, there is a chance we are going to get the video for any of you weirdos who want to watch it!

Chantelle was then placed in a room for an over night stay. She is ok and is a bit groggy from the anaesthesia which made for some weird conversation! But she is ok and the surgeon is happy with the results.





Tomorrow we shall stay put. In fact we shall stay put for a while. I have to go and pick up Rosie from Izamal, somehow, which is about 80km’s away.

Oh my word...... Sh!t sometime happen.

Glad Chantell is on the mend......

Rest well, drive save

__________________
My travel blog: http://rooson2wheels.blogspot.com

Oh yes! Soemtimes shit happens! It was one of those things and it could have been way way worse for everyone involved!

Ooh yuk
Glad that you are on the mend after your alien experience Chantelle
Kick back & relax a while guys

__________________
My memory is becoming that good, I should be able to organise my own surprise party soon

Oh yuk indeed! It grosses me out everytime I have to change her dressing, especially if I ouch the little bag of pus and blood and gore!

Sorry about the lack of updates, but there really is not much to write about at the moment. Chantelle is on the mend but we are pretty well confined to our hotel room until the doctor takes out the drain from her side. We both probably needed to stop and rest anyway as we have put in some serious hours of sleep!

Hopefully the drain comes out on Saturday and we will likely move from our hotel to one in the centro historic. Where we currently are there isn’t too much close by within walking distance, except for a Chilis, a Burger King and a shopping mall!



The bikes appear to be ok, just a little bit bent in the front ends. Unfortunately theres not too much I can really do about at this stage. I suspect Rosie has slightly bent forks and bars, and Mabel has bent bars and bent crash bars. We shall ride them like this until the end!

Once Chantelle feels fit enough, and if the doctor says she can ride, we will head for Chichen Itza and then across to a seaside fort called Tulum before dropping down into Belize. Mabel is going to get a new piston and bore sent to Tulum so she will be a happy little cupcake for the rest of the journey south!

Who likes bad movies???

C - Well, it has been a rather quiet few days, with me just resting up and sending healing vibes to my abdo muscles and side!

I was getting used to carrying around a little drainage baggy with me everywhere I went, but I was very much looking forward to getting it removed. It is so weird to have a foreign object lodged in your body like that. I was perfectly ok looking at the scar, swelling and bruising, but looking at where the drain came out of my skin was creepy indeed!

Despite my eagerness to have the drain removed, I was anxious about this as well. When I was 16, I had surgery on my legs and had a drain in each one - I remember the excruciating pain I was whilst the nurse removed one, then the other. I was expecting this removal to be just as painful.

We arrived at the surgeon's office on Saturday and she inspected by little baggy, declaring it fit to be removed. She seemed pretty happy with the recovery progress, but all I could do was whisper to her that I was scared about her removing the drain. She gave me a confused look and said ‘no, it won’t hurt at all’. I wasn’t convinced so I made Todd came right over to the bed and hold my hand, whilst I tightly shut my eyes and held one arm over my eyes (because, you know, if I couldn’t actually see the doctor she couldn’t see me and it wouldn’t hurt at all?!?!? Right?). Before I knew it there was a slight tugging sensation and it was done. All out, all over… but not before Todd nearly fainted. He was completely blown away by the length of the drain, citing it as about 15cms that came out from inside my side. Wowsers!!!

T – It was so gross. My stomach was doing loop-de-loops for the next hour. For me the worst part was the sucking sound as it came out. Ugh, in fact talking about it makes me gag. STOP TALKING TO ME ABOUT IT!!!!!!

I couldn’t believe how long it was, the thing just kept on coming out. It must have been lodged right up against Chantelles brain I am sure!

C - I felt pretty good after this, free at last from my constant companion, and we wandered over to the mall to enjoy a barista coffee.

Sunday saw us leaving our fancy pants hotel and moving into the centro historico. We had stayed at the expensive hotel opposite the hospital to ensure that I was in a clean zone to prevent any infection from my open wound. Now the drain was removed and we were confident that a quick trip to the hospital wouldn’t be required, it was time to move somewhere a bit cheaper.





I decided not to risk riding my bike there, so caught a taxi whilst Todd rode Rosie. I then hung about reading whilst Todd taxi’d back and rode Mabel into the new hotel.

T – Oh my, it felt great to be back on the bike! I was absolutely loving it! Even if it was just riding the busy roads of the inner city!

C - We went in search of some lunch and stumbled across lots of cheap food stalls and activities happening in the square. There was a festival happening for Revolution Day! We enjoyed a cheap lunch of torta de cochinita and then went to rest in the hotel.







We waited for dark and then ventured back into the square, where the festivities were in full swing! Food stalls, markets and live music were everywhere, with what appeared to be most of Merida’s population out and about.







The night was really about soaking up the atmosphere and enjoying some good Mexican food. After way too many churros, we decided it was time to call it a night. That’s when we saw one of the streets had been closed to traffic and the whole street had been taken over by locals dancing to a live band. It was truly amazing! So we ventured in and had a very careful dance, whilst smiling and laughing along with all the locals. Brilliant!









I have another appointment with the surgeon tomorrow and hopefully the stitches will come out! We have booked into the hotel until Saturday and will just play it day by day as to when we will move on. Neither of us are in a hurry to leave Mexico!

Ah, that was back in the old days of 'barbed wire' catheters
Technology has come forward just for you
Good to read that you are on the mend C

__________________
My memory is becoming that good, I should be able to organise my own surprise party soon

Barbed wire catheters. Ow ow owowowowowowowowwowowowowow! That is how I figured they would feel too!!

Well all good things must come to an end. It is time for us to move on from Merida. We have been here for dead on 2 weeks now and Chantelle is feeling fit to ride! So tomorrow we shall get back on the road and head to the town of Izamal.







We have loved Merida and would highly recommend aeveryone to come here. It is known as the safest city in all of Mexico and it has a zero tolerance towards crime. There is alot to see and do here and it seems that there is something fun happening almost every night in the main square. We have done everything from dancing in the streets to live music, to eating various sweet treats from food carts, to scoffing ourselves silly on cheap dinners in the markets. What a place!









The last week has really been spent taking it easy and involved us walking around a fair bit. Plus a bit of relaxing by the hotels pool.









The updates should hopefully get back on track as a daily thing again and we shall start working towards a Mexico video.