T - Woohoo! It is great to be riding again. Whilst we both really enjoyed our stop for the last 2 weeks we both had started to really miss the momentum of our trip. So it was with much excitement that we both packed up the bikes and rolled out of the carpark and headed onwards.

We had picked a little camping spot just 75km up the road from Merida in the gorgeous little town of Izamal. We had only had a flying visit there previously and Chantelle didn’t get to see much of it from the back of the ambulance.

C – I was super excited to be getting back on Rosie again. When we started her up I could hear a knocking noise coming from the clutch side of the engine which was definitely not there before. Todd had said that her clutch had been slipping when he rode her back from Merida, so it appears that we will have to do some investigation into this.



T - The ride was pretty easy but it did take us a fair while to break free of miles long traffic jams in the centre of Merida. Soon though we were screaming along at our slow speed of 65km/hr down the smooth shoulder of a highway.

We made pretty quick time on our ride and soon we were pulling into our camp for the night. We plan on just doing some light riding for a bit as there is a new piston for Mabel on its way down from the USA and it should take 3-4 weeks to reach us in Tulum.



C – The ride was relatively boring, but man it felt so good to be on Rosie again. I felt pretty good physically, but I was glad we hadn’t picked somewhere further up the road for my first day back on the bike. I was keen for a stretch and a rest by the time we arrived.

I had picked the camp as I was SOOOOO keen to sleep in my sleeping bag again.

T - The camp was nice enough even though it was maybe a little on the pricey side of $100MEX each not including wifi or power.

We setup camp and abandoning the bikes for the day we walked into the centro historic and had a butchers hook at some of the lovely old colonial buildings. Ever building in the centro was painted the same hue of yellow with white trim. It looked quite fantastic. So many people stopped to say hello to us or just waved as they scooted by. What a friendly little place.







C – We wandered through the large cathedral and convent in the centre of town, with Todd finding himself an apparently very satisfying icecream. One of the flavours had real chunks of cake in it and Todd’s obvious delight had me regretting not getting one!









T - We poked around a little and made our way to a large Mayan pyramid in the centre of town. It was free to enter and we could climb right to the top which offered up some incredible 360 degree views over the town and out into the country side. The Yucatan is incredibly flat and from the top of the pyramid we could see for miles and miles!









We wandered from here to a supermarket where we bought some bits and pieces for dinner and a much much much needed cold ! We wandered back to our camp where we set up the chairs and as the sun prepared to set we drank the and scoffed on chips.





Not long after Ed rolled into camp and we sat around sharing some food and chatting into the night until the cold and the settling sew drove us into our tents.

Tomorrow we might head for Chichen Itza, or stay another day and do some bike maintenance.

T - It was great to be back in the tent. Even though our mats went flat and the local dogs barked up a tune to go with the firecrackers and music that popped, screamed, and banged all night.

While sitting around having coffee the three of us decided we should probably really attend to our bikes which all had various clutch issues. Chantelle’s had started slipping after her crash, mine just needed a new clutch basket, and Ed’s little C90 had clutch slippage issues.

Soon we had all three bikes laid out on their sides and their innards opened up and exposed for all the world to see. It was at this point we decided to stay another night in camp as this looked to be a decent days work to sort them all out.





We had to wander into town to buy some various bits and pieces to help with the repairs and after we got back into camp I soon had a new clutch assembly into Mabel and Rosies clutch plates inspected and one weirdly worn out one replaced.



With the two posties out of the way Ed’s bike decided she didn’t want to play fair and after being reassembled proved to be stubborn with her gear changes. So Ed had to pull her all apart again to delve deeper into her engine where he found an engine casing dowel that had dislodged and slipped under the gear selector and a bent clutch actuator arm. As darkness fell we were down to torch light and Mabel got a new front tyre while 90 got her bits straightened and put back together.







Once Ed was satisfied with how she ran and shifted we walked into town to try to find something for dinner. Everything shut at 6pm and it was now just after 7. Damn it.



Finally we stumbled into a restaurant called El Torro just as I began to get the hangrys. The food was frigging incredible! I ordered a cheese and chicken dish soaked in some type of green soup. It was possibly the second best thing I have had in Mexico! Chantelle ordered a marinated pulled pork dish which was pretty damn good too.



Then it was icecream and back to camp for a sleep. It was a long day, well it felt like it, but it is good to know that both bikes now have good strong clutches again. Poor little abused things.



Tomorrow we head for Chichen Itza and will probably stay just outside of the ruins.

Missing my favourite Postie updates
Merry Xmas to ya guys

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

Thanks! I have been so slack and havent been posting updates across to here! I will start to fix that now though! Be prepared for a heap of additions to the report....here goes....

Our destination today was another very long distance of 70 odd k’s. This is about the slowest we have travelled yet I think! We wanted to get into Chichen Itza as early in the morning as we could and avoid the big crowds. So our plan was to ride to the town of Piste which is located about 2 km’s from Chichen Itza and stay there for the night. We would then get up early tomorrow morning and be at the gates of the ruins at 8am.

We stopped in at El Torro again in Izamal for breakfast as last nights dinner had been amazing. Again they didn’t disappoint. The desayunos was damn amazing! After brekky we said goodbye to Ed and we went our separate ways.



The ride between Izamal and Piste was very uneventful and there wasn’t much to see on the libre road. We made short work of it and soon found a lovely little hotel tucked away down an alley for the night.



We had to go and withdraw some pesos from an ATM as we basically had none left, but would you believe, the only two ATM’s near us were out of order! Luckily we had a few USD that we could change otherwise we would have starved to death.

We had a short wander around the centro of Piste before grabbing a bite to eat and then heading off to bed.

Tomorrow we shall be up and on the road early and waiting at the gates to Chichen Itza for when they open.

I love getting up early. When we stay in a hotel we are more likely to hang about and laze around in bed longer than when we camp. My favourite time of day is 5am and I generally am up at that time when we camp. I love it because the day smells and looks so clean and fresh and while most people are still slumbering away it means I get to have 5am all to myself.



We packed up and headed to a nearby Oxxo for a morning yoghurt drink before racing the couple of km’s down the road. We were only a few cars from the front and after paying the exorbitant parking fee of $30peso, which was the same as for a car load of people, we parked up in our own bays and headed for the ticket booths.





I was surprised at the amount of people already pouring into the place! Buses were pulling in and just disgorging hordes and hordes of tourists. Craziness!

Soon though we were through the gates and standing in front of a massive pyramid.



Chichen Itza is one of the seven man made wonders of the world, and it is easy to see why people flock here in droves. The impressive main structure towers imposingly above the crowds that clap around its base. I could almost see the high priests from way back in the day tossing severed heads down its insanely steep steps.







Apparently a few years back a lady was climbing the big pyramid when she slipped and fell down the steps to her death. Since then all the ruins have been closed off to tourist foot traffic. Im not sure if this is a good or bad thing. I wanted to see the place from the top of the pyramid, but also its nice that these places aren’t covered in people.









We wandered around for a while and eventually found our way back to the main gate. Inside the ruins on every path there were hundreds of vendors setting up to sell tourist tat. They were selling everything from sombreros to phallic shaped smoking implements. All way overpriced of course! So I bought Mabel a mini sombrero, because she had been wanting one for ages.





Back on the bikes we headed up the road to the next town of Vallodalid and tonights stop. A mere 50km’s away. Both of us are becoming a little bored and frustrated with the fact that we are basically killing time while we wait for this part to arrive. I had bought and paid for the thing while Chantelle was in hospital, only to find out a few days later that the vendor didn’t actually have any stock and that it would be a week before he did. To be fair he did offer me a full refund, but I need this part one way or another anyway.







Once we had checked into our hotel we had a bit of a laze around and a short wander into the city centre. There wasn’t much going on here so we bought a couple of drinks and retired to our room for the night. We are thinking we might head north to the coast and follow it east and around past Cancun and then south to Tulum where our part is headed.

T - Another very quiet day today. We decided to stay another night here. Seeing as the part for Mabel is due into Tulum somewhere between the 1st December and the 16th December we figured we have no need to rush there.

Which makes for a very boring blog entry as we basically went out for a very nice, very cheap breakfast, before returning to the hotel to have our laundry done. I had to have all of my clothes washed which meant I was left wearing my very sexy and holey Thai ‘fat’ pants. So I wasnt going out in public for a while!



We lounged around and watched a great series on Netflix called Black Mirror which is a look at the dark side of technology and the potential effects it could have on us. Its bloody brilliant and we were hooked.

And thats really about it for the day! Tomorrow we are going to carve a path north from here and follow a few back roads. There is a place called Rio Lagartos that is close to the nesting ground for the pink flamingos.

T - It was quite a nice ride today. And it was so good to be on the bikes. The air was cool enough when moving that neither we nor the bikes were too warm. We wound out of Valladolid and soon found ourselves on a severely overgrown back road. It was bliss. We were the only ones out there, apart from the odd man on a bicycle.

We passed through some very rural towns where the houses were simple and had thatched roofs. Oh and some of the largest topes we have seen yet! We followed this road that passed through these little villages and after a nice 100 km’s we found ourselves at the coast in the town of San Felipe.





We were both starving so we went in search of food. And boy did we get lucky. We found a tiny little family run restaurant that served up a billion different fish dishes. I chose one called Ceviche de Pescado, fish soaked in lime juice, and Chantelle had Caldo de Pescado, fish stew. What came out of the kitchen was plates and bowls of food. Mine was damn incredible and tasted so fresh. Chantelle ended up with a bowl of soup and a whole big fish. It was so yum. We scoffed ourselves stupid and the total of this feast, $10 for the two of us including a drink each. So happy!









We scouted around San Felipe for a hotel but they were so so so overpriced that we decided to move on. It seems this is a very touristed area due to those pink birds, and Im not talking about sunburnt english girls, that everyone here just kept their prices sky high. Not to worry though, there was another town just up the road.





We rode the extra 15km’s and found another pricey hotel which seemed to be the cheapest in town. We had a wander through town in search of the usual gorgeous centro but found none. It is a weird town with an odd vibe. Certainly nothing here to entice us to stay a few days.









Tomorrow we ride along a track that crosses a skinny spit of land surrounded by water. If the track is there!

T - Our ride today was going to take us along a track that we weren’t sure even existed. It showed up on two of our maps but when we checked on Google Earth there was just a big piece of ocean where we wanted to ride. Still there’s only one way to find out right?

C - We knew there was a chance we would have to turn around at Los Coloradas (where the bitumen road appeared to end) but it wasn’t such a long way and we were both super keen to ride along the skinny spit. I had read that there is a flamingo nesting ground out there and I was keen to see some more of these pink, weird birds!

T - We checked out of our hotel and scooted out of town. It was a gorgeous day for riding with the air temperature cool enough to keep both us and the bikes at a happy temperature.

As we rode along we started to see tracks heading off to our left and ending in pure white beach sand, so we decided to check one out. The sand was blindingly white and so so fine that our little bikes just sunk straight down into the stuff, but we managed to ride them close enough to the sea that we didn’t have to walk too far. We were greeted by turquoise water and endless empty beaches. Very pretty. The beach we had stopped at had a small stream running onto it that was filled with bright pink water and salt so thick you could almost walk on it.





C - It was very exciting to see a white, sandy beach! It has been a long while since we have seen tropical beaches and it was so lovely to see!! Pelicans were surfing the waves and looking very contented and it was tempting to jump in and join them!



T - We continued on our way and soon the road became smaller and smaller until we were riding a sandy one lane track that carved its way through some coastal scrub. It was here we started to see Pink Flamingos. Hundreds of the things. We managed to find some tracks that scooted out into the wetlands and allowed us to get a little closer to these weird birds with their heads buried in the water.





C - The day was getting brighter and brighter for me. It feels like it has been ages since we have ridden off the bitumen and I do much prefer to ride off road, even if it is sand! It was simply brilliant to be scooting down a little track, with no cars and no people, just birds to keep us company.



The birds!!! I found the flamingos super interesting - they are weirdly beautiful birds! It was awesome to be able to get closer to them this time and when we accidentally startled a few, it was equally cool to see them take off in flight. Watching them run along the top of the water was quite hilarious!







T - After taking a ton of bird pictures we carried on along the track, expecting at any minute that we would come to the end of it. But we got lucky. The road went right through even though in spots it did look as though it may sometimes be underwater.



C - The track changed constantly, from hard packed sand, to soft sand, to mud, to actually riding through the estuarine water, to rock and mud holes! It was brilliant! I had the grin of a cheshire cat by the time we reached the town of El Coy. We ventured into the town and had a cold drink on the pier which jutted out into the beautiful turquoise waters.





T - Once we reached the other side of the spit we headed back inland in search of some lodgings for the night and we ended up at the beautiful little town of Tizimil. The place has loads of character and so many friendly people. Everyone we stopped near said hello and asked where we were from and where we were going. I love these little out of the way places.

We wandered around the square and found a place that served amazing food before calling it a night.



C - Ending the night eating amazing Yucatan local dishes whilst we watched locals go about their Friday evening in the square was simply beautiful. What a day, what a ride!!!

T - There is no real plan for tomorrow but there is a heap of ruins in the Yucatan so maybe we will go and check a few more out as we slowly make our way to Tulum.

T - I really like Tizimin. It has a really lovely and lively vibe and I could have spent another day here. But we decided to move on and see what else the Yucatan had to offer. Also we had been in contact with a fella named Dave through our blog who was in the area and we were keen to catch him before he passed us by. So we organised to meet up today for lunch.

C - We really had no clue what our plans were for today when we woke up. We lounged around a bit and during this time, Dave got in touch with us. So, plans made! We would ride the 60km back to Valladolid for lunch, and then see where the day took us.

T - We packed up and cruised out of town and headed for some ruins up the road. These ruins, Ek Balam, looked pretty cool in the pictures we had seen and promised to be relatively tourist free as well.

The ride there was pretty straight forward and it didn’t take us long before we were parking our bikes in an almost deserted parking lot. But we balked when we got to the ticket booth. It was really expensive! Crazy expensive! So we decided to grab a cold coke and think about it. Well the sale of the coke helped us decide to move on. Normally a can of soft drink can be had for about $7 pesos, this place wanted $30. What a rip off!





C - Had we had all day to explore the site, we would've paid the entry and gone in, however, knowing we had just under an hour to see the ruins and then make it to Valladolid for lunch, we decided not to enter.

T - So we hopped back on the bikes and trundled down into Valladolid. A great little place that we had spent a couple of nights in already. We pulled up at a spot where we had arranged to meet Dave and chilled out on the curb. A short while later and a guy pulls up next to us on a big BMW loaded down with luggage and shakes our hand and introduces himself as Dave. Now I was a little confused because I had been reading Daves blog and I was sure he was riding a gorgeous little XT250 Yamaha, but here was Dave on a BMW. Maybe he changed bikes?





It didn't take long though for us to realise that by pure coincidence, this was a different Dave! All motorcyclists look the same you see.

C - BMW Dave was from Canada and cruising south on a lovely BMW F800GS. When he pulled in to park next to our girls, the big beemer dwarfed our girls!! I was super impressed when Dave got off and is shorter than I am! Height really isn't a limitation if you have the confidence!

T - We stood around and chatted for a while about the brilliance that is life on the road and then the other Dave joined us.





After sharing a bite to eat BMW Dave headed off and XT Dave and us decided to stay the night in Valladolid and hang out.

C - It was lovely to meet BMW Dave and hear about his adventures so far! Safe riding BMW Dave (as you will forever be known to us!!).

T - What a brilliant fun night! Dave is a super guy and we really liked hanging out with him. He did force us to drink , eat tortas, hotdogs and icecream though! Actually to be fair, Chantelle forced us…. Please do check out his blog over at motopoet.com





C - XT Dave is a great guy and we had a great time chatting to him about all things motorbiking, travelling and life in general. We really enjoyed his company!







T - What a great night. I'm glad we got to meet up with Dave and Dave and hopefully we will see Dave and Dave along the way again. Thanks Dave and Dave.

C - We awoke this morning to grumbling tummies and ventured out with Dave to find some scrummy Mexican breakfast. We walked into the food market opposite the square and after looking at a couple of menus, were swayed into one stall after being offered drinks with our breakfast. Always a winner!!

We devoured a delicious breakfast in great company! Hanging out with Dave has been great - he has a wonderful sense of humour and its been a lot of fun. Hopefully we will meet up again with him along the way.







T - We have decided to all meet up in Bolivia again and ride the salt flats and the Road of Death together. Which be a blast!

C - It was time to say our goodbyes after breakfast, with Dave heading for the border with Belize, whilst we were heading in the opposite direction, towards Peto and Tzucacab. It was about this time that it bucketed down - real, tropical downpour!!! It was wonderful to see rain, just not when we were getting ready to get on the motorbikes. We waited a few minutes and sure enough, the sun came out - we refused to put on our wet weather gear and headed off in search of batteries for the GPS.

T - Now that we aren’t being rained on every day with cold drizzly stuff it is actually fun to be caught in the rain.

C - A lovely family stopped to chat with us whilst we were parked at the shop. It always wonderful to interact with local people!! The father was blown away by the fact we could fly our motorbikes from Australia and then ride them all the way from Alaska to Argentina. ‘Such small bikes’ he kept saying, shaking his head and grinning.



Then it really started to rain. In seconds, the street was flooded, the girls were drenched and we were looking very much like drowned rats! We laughed as we stood on the side of the road and decided that there was just no point in wet weather gear now, so we took off into the rain.

The rain eased after a few minutes and we stopped out of town to put on our wet weather gear. We had chosen to take a small, rural backroad and it was a delightful ride with intermittent heavy, tropical showers.



T - It has been such a long time since the girls have had any kind of a bath and as I rode along behind Chantelle I could see the mud and crud just pouring off of Rosie.

C - We arrived in Peto very wet, but excited to be somewhere new. After a look around, we couldnt find any hotels in the pretty little town, so headed on the extra 15km to Tzucacab, where we were promised by iOverlander that there was a hotel.

Finding the hotel, we dripped out of our wet riding gear and went for a wander around the village square. We found charcoal chicken for dinner, which was delicious and cheap - $45 pesos for a whole chicken (about $3AUD).





Tomorrow, we will head south towards Laguna Azul, where we will hoping get our camping gear back out for a few days whilst heading up the coast towards Tulum.

C - I was ken to be up and at ‘em this morning. We had decided to head towards Laguna Azul and camp for the night, which I was really looking forward to. A big ride today by our recent standards, as we had approximately 200km to ride.



After a quick scoot around Tzucacab’s centro area, we headed on out of towns, with grumbling tummies. We didnt see any breakfast options which appealed to us, so decided we would just find something along the way.

About 45 minutes later, we entered a village and, spotting a loncheria, we pulled over and ventured in to discover their delights. By this time it was 11.30 so we both opted for the meal of the day - Empanizado de pollo. Some kind of battered and fried chicken. When the meal came out, it was massive! Three big pieces of chicken fillet, salad and rice, along with the must have tortillas.

T - I love these little roadside stalls. Chantelle has a theory that any of the places with plastic chairs and tables will have the best food, and so far she has been right! The serve of chicken was massive and I greedily wolfed it down like an animal. I love that when you order these things the food is cooked, possibly even killed, right then and there. Hopefully it helps us to avoid the odd tummy bug.





C - With tummies stuffed so full we thought we might burst, we jumped back onto the highway. The riding wasnt particularly spectacular and some sections of the highway simply dragged on and on and on and on and on and on.

T - For scenic winding type riding in Mexico, the Yucatan is the place you wont find it. The roads here seemingly go on forever. But we do get to pass through a heap of small villages which is really cool.

C - We finally arrived in Lezaro Cardenas, the town closest to the campsite and decided to stop by one of the Mini Supers to pick up some food for dinner. There were millions (well, maybe 10 or so) stalls lining the roadside selling fresh pineapples.

So after purchasing one and some dinner goodies, we headed out along a small gravelly and muddy track towards the Laguna Azul campground. The track was bumpiy, muddy and a little bit slippery and it was fun to be off of the highway. After about 4km, we arrived at the campsite and I went in search of someone to check us in.



T - Such a fun little ride in. We had to be careful off the green mossy stuff that was slimed all along the road though. That stuff will make a Mabel or Rosie come unstuck in the clench of a gnats anus. This little stretch of road reminded me so much of the place we had both lived, Christmas Island, and I spent a few moments reminiscing.

C - I found the owner in the restaurant and was quoted $125 pesos per person, per night. I enquired as to what services she offered at the camp and was told none. Cold showers, a flushing toilet and a piece of dirt to pitch the tent. Woah! Expensive campground. The view was certainly sensational, but the campground was not paying $50 pesos less than a hotel with hot water, wifi and a real bed.

T - When Chantelle came back and told me how much it cost to sleep in the dirt I nearly fell over! Surely she was taking the mickey! But nope. All that cash with no services. No thankyou!

C - I knew that there was another camp on the lake front about 10km down the road, so off we went in search of that. It was in the small village of Buena Vista. I enquired at the bar and was quoted $100pesos per palapa, per night, with the same services - cold showers and a flushing toilet. Perfect!

T - Now this place was better. We could rent an entire palapa, right on the lake shore, for $100pesos for the night, for the both of us. Plus there was a bar close enough for me to send Chantelle to while I worked on the bikes.



C - We set up in a palapa (which was actually lined with mossie net all around!!!) and then purchased a each. Rosie was still slipping her clutch under load and Mabel had developed a leak from shifter seal. So, the girls went back down on their sides on the lakes edge as we went about performing some maintenance.

A few hours later and the girls were both back to full health, with Mabels seal changed out for a bright shiny new one and Rosies clutch plates sanded and gripping once more.

I was very keen on a swim, but the wind was up and the lake was very rough. So instead, we watched the sky grow dark and enjoyed being outside, listening to the waves lap at the lake shore.



We have no clue where we will head tomorrow. We will head north, maybe inland, maybe towards the coast?!?!?!

C - This was seriously the quietest place we have a spent a night in Mexico. No firecrackers, no music, no barking dogs or crowing roosters, no loud cars. Amazing!

When the wind died down during the night, I awoke drenched in sweat. We had put the fly on the tent as it looked as though it might rain, but even with the doors wide open I felt like I was laying inside a furnace. My shirt was stuck to me, drenching wet and I had to open the mesh door to feel like I could breath. I felt even hotter than the night we camped at Death Valley.

T - The freakiness of the absolute deafening silence led me to have nightmarish dreams about demons and the Devil. All of whom were standing in the palapa with us. I kept waking up and dropping straight back into the same dream which made for a very unpleasant nights sleep. At one point I was wide awake and could swear I heard on of those demons standing outside near Mabel and laughing horribly. Ugh. What a crappy sleep.

C - I ventured out of the tent to cool down and wondered why I wasn’t getting any of the cool rising from the cement floor of the palapa. It was then that I realised - I was laying on top of my sleeping bag. The one designed for -5 celcius… I quickly dragged the sleeping bag out of the way and pulled my liner over the mat, so I wouldnt stick to it. I layed down and….. bliss! I could feel the coolness rising from the concrete and immediately crashed back to sleep!

We both awoke in time to see the sunrise this morning, which was simply magnicificent, rising over the lake and sending shades of pink through the sky.



T - Nightmares aside, this place was really beautiful. I was up nice and early and taking photos of the early morning light hitting the lake. Such a gorgeous little camp spot.



C - The water was crystal clear and like glass this morning without the wind, so I stripped down to my underwear and jumped right in, washing the stickiness of last nights furnace session away. The water was cool and refreshing.. double bliss!!









T - The water was cool and refreshing? My bloody ass it was! It was straight up effing freezing and I know this because my bollocks retreated back up into my body fast. I ventured in wearing just mu jocks, but I could have gone in naked. It was that cold that no one would have seen my shrivlled and hiding body parts anyways. Like a Ken doll I was.



C - After some breakfast we decided to head inland, back towards a town we rode through yesterday. Todd had found some backroads to get us there and the town looked like a lively place when we rode through yesterday.

T - I was excited about breakfast today. We usually carry oatmeal and I love the stuff. Except this time we had left it too long in the food box in its original cardboard container. So my breakfast tasted of oddly scented cardboard. I threw it out.



C - We were both excited when we turned off of the highway and the road began to deteriorate. More and more potholes appeared whilst the track became narrower and narrower. It was such a fun ride and a little disappointing when we popped out onto the highway, just 30km out of Jose Maria Morelos.

T - That was a brilliant section of road. I loved the way it totally deteriorated into absolute crap and craters and well crap really! It was a heap of fun doing the old dodgeroonie around the deep bike destroying holes. Mabel was loving it. Except for the few times I stuffed it up and we ended up collecting a few potholes. Sorry Mabes.





C - Venturing into town, we stopped for lunch and were served an amazing and ridiculously cheap torta de chorizo con papa (chorizo with potatoe). Simply divine!



We checked into a cheap hotel, dropped off our stinky laundry and went walking all through town.

T - The laundry was putrid. We have had a few tropically warm and humid days recently and combined with the day of being drenched we were both decidedly smelly. My anti smell underpants, thanks Dave and Anne, were really battling to keep the odours down. I think they may have even partially melted their way through the laundry bag by the time we dropped them in for a wash. Sorry to the laundry lady.

C - We found a delicious hamburger off a food cart for dinner and then ventured, sweating, into our nice and cool room.

Tomorrow, well, tomorrow we have no clue where we will go. We want to arrive in Tulum in the next three days, so I guess North we will go!

T - Jose Maria Morelos was a pumping little town. Full of life. I really liked the vibe of the place. But a lot of the men leered at Chantelle a lot and stared at her boobs openly as we walked around. That bit I didn’t like.

C - Creepy!! I wasn’t even wearing a tight shirt…. and staring back at them did not seem to deter them one bit!!!

T - The room we had last night had a super sized double king bed. It was a monster! So I managed to sleep soundly and comfortably right through until sunrise. I was up at 6am, damn my internal alarm clock, and accidently woke the reception guy who was sleeping in his hammock in the lobby.

We decided last night that we would just head for Tulum where we would stop for a few days and await this damn part. We have seen a heap of the Yucatan now and are both very keen to get into Belize. We absolutely LOVE Mexico, but we are just ready to ride for a while!

So we grabbed some amazing tacos and rode out of town. Our destination was Valladolid again. This little city is almost in the centre of the Yucatan and we both like it there. From there Tulum is only 3 hours, for us, away and we shall head there tomorrow.

C - My theory for good, cheap Mexican food is holding. Find the place with the plastic chairs and tables and you will be rewarded with fantastic food at a cheap price!!!





T - The ride was pretty uneventful. We took some back roads which were straight and flat and soon boredom set in. We broke the ride up with a few pit stops as Mabel has developed quite a leak somewhere and is losing around half of her oil each day. I thought I had found the leak but when I stripped her down I found that I was wrong.

So at one point along the road when Mabel was nicely warmed up we pulled over and I pulled her cases off to see if I could pinpoint the source of the leak. Bloody little bitch had stopped leaking now and everything was spotless. But I do suspect that it is coming from an oil seal behind her stator. She didn’t leak a drop for the rest of the day.



Eventually we made it to our hotel for the night and spent the afternoon chilling out before heading out for some food.

C - Despite Valladolid being an incredibly beautiful city, full of wonderful night life, we were both feeling a little antsy to not be here. We love Mexico but are both feeling its time to move on to the next adventure - Belize. Patience is a virtue right????



T - Tomorrow we will head into Tulum and see if the part is there before either camping for a couple of nights on the coast, or if the part is in, heading towards the Belize border.

C - We awoke early this morning, to a quiet and fresh Valladolid. After accidentally waking up the sleeping night man, we ventured out at 6am to find coffee. After grabbing a take away coffee, we sat in the square and watched the city awakening. The sky was a greying dawn and the air was fresh but not cold.

After some people watching and solving the problems of the universe, we ventured back to the hotel to pack up for the ride to Tulum. It was not particularly early when we left, god knows what we did to fill in the hours, but it was 10.30 by the time we were riding out of Valladolid.



We sat on the libre road all the way into Tulum, where we were greeted with the expected tourist haven. Lot of western styled restaurants, hotels and all inclusive beach resorts. We visited the post office to learn our packed is in Mexico, but another 5-7 days is expected before it makes it to Tulum.

After a quick visit to the supermarket for food and water, we headed straight out of town, heading into a federal biosphere reserve and onto the town of Punta Allen. This small fishing village sits at the end of a 40km long spit and the road to it is rough gravel, sand and mud.









The ride was completely joyful and not at all challenging.. expect the challenge of dodging the pot holes as best we could! We caught our first glimpse of the Caribbean and was greeted with lovely, white sandy beaches and turquoise waters. It was a little windy, so the ocean was a bit rough, but beautiful all the same.



It took us two hours to travel the 40km due to the condition of the road, but it was a fun and interesting ride. We rode through town to the camp we had picked out and found a lovely little spot right on the beach, under the shade of a couple of coconut palms (dont worry CI people, we checked for coconuts before setting up camp!!).





The rest of the afternoon was spent reading and lazing about on the beach, followed by a short walk to find a cold !











After cooking ourselves some dinner, we drifted off to the sleep to the sound of the ocean with a lovely cool breeze floating through the tent.