Mexico: Let the Good Times Roll

Wedding in Oaxaca

It all started with a wedding. It was sometime in the spring that Gili shared the news that his cousin was getting married in Mexico in November. Mexico, in November? Sure, that doesn’t sound too bad. We were excited for the wedding of course, but November is also our favourite time to get away from gray and rainy Vancouver. So we started thinking how we might combine the wedding with our annual fall cycling trip.

We left late at night with an elaborate plan to leave our bikes and gear in Cancun during a short five hour layover between our flights. It was a great plan but the timing was tight. Luckily there were no delays or surprises, and we landed in Oaxaca as planned in time for all the wedding events. 

It was great to connect with family we hadn’t seen in a while and to be able to celebrate together. The wedding was very special and the highlight was the mariachi band that led everyone through the streets of Oaxaca. One of my favourite moments was when the band played Hava Nagila, an old Jewish song often played in weddings, in front of the old cathedral in the centre of Oaxaca.

Cancun & Isla Mujeres

We did not love Cancun. It felt like a combination of a jumble of hotels and a not so pleasant area of car shops and big roads which is where we stayed. It was also hot and incredibly humid, and after beautiful, spiritual and cooler Oaxaca everything felt like a bit of a disappointment. Still we had a couple of days to pass in Cancun in order to put our bikes together and make sure we didn’t have any major issues. Our first destination was Isla Mujeres just on a day trip. Riding on Isla Mujeres was our first experience with riding in the heat and it sure was hot! 

Luckily there were many iguanas and the beautiful ocean down below to make the ride enjoyable. There was hardly any traffic too, however there were lots of tourists. It was the boys’ first experience dipping in the Caribbean and they loved how warm the water felt! They are used to our west coast swims where the water is hardly comfortable even on the hottest days of summer. 

Cozumel – The Dream Island for Cyclists 

After Isla Mujeres we were more than ready to leave Cancun. We heard from a few sources that it shouldn’t be a problem to take bikes on the bus in Mexico. We’d even done it about ten years ago when we biked in Baja California. However, we were still quite skeptical. This time we had four bikes, one of them a cargo bike! To our relief, the bikes fitted easily in the hold and with a tip to the conductor we were on our way. 

Cozumel looked a bit touristy at first, but we warmed up to it quickly. We booked a room in Hotel Caribe and jumped into the pool right away. It was already late in the afternoon and it had been a long day of bussing, ferrying, and just a little bit of cycling.

The next few days on Cozumel passed very quickly. We ended up staying five days due to some stomach bugs, general tiredness, and simply because it was so relaxing and beautiful that it was hard to leave. 

We biked twice to Playa Azul for some snorkeling off shore and also we discovered that just across the street there was the The Key Lime Pie Factory. One day we went on an organized snorkeling tour and when everyone was feeling well enough we finally biked the 65km loop around the island.

We started biking early to make sure we’d have enough time, but already before lunch we had covered half the distance. Neil rode everything with no issues. It was his second longest riding day so far and he felt very proud. The separated bike lanes and the amazing vista of the ocean made this day one of the highlights of our trip. 

A Night in Playa del Carmen 

We’d taken our bikes on the plane, on the bus, and on the ferry, and we did some biking on Isla Mujeres and Cozumel. However, it still didn’t really feel like we had started our bike trip and we were ready to let the good times roll… (as it said on Kai’s swim shirt). We arrived at Playa del Carmen at 5pm after a very rough ferry ride back from Cozumel. Playa del Carmen was exactly as horrible as we remembered it from 14 years ago. It felt like the Las Vegas Strip and in the morning we were more than happy to finally leave…. 

You Are Not in Playa del Carmen Anymore…

Our hotel was in the touristy zone of town and I was quite skeptical about how easy it would be to leave the city. The nice thing about Playa del Carmen was that it actually had some bike lanes so it was quite easy to navigate. Within half an hour we were on a small rural road far away from the busy centre. From then on our motto for the trip was “you are not in Playa del Carmen anymore”. We were mainly on quiet roads, passing through sleepy villages, and waving and meeting friendly locals. 

The first day of “real” riding seemed to include everything – a dirt road which didn’t appear on Google Maps and we were not sure would lead us in the right direction (it did), a flat tire on Gili’s bike, and we couldn’t really find a decent place to sleep. We ended up camping at an almost deserted eco hotel with lots of potential…

Finding a Tire in El Cuyo 

Over the next few days things were going smoother, sort of. An ATM in an out of the way town swallowed Gili’s credit card (luckily we had a few more). But there was also an awesome hotel in the same town with a pool with a waterfall, and towels folded like swans (Kai called them his pet). 

One day we only biked 15km till an amazing place called Cinco Cenotes. It was our first taste of the wonderful cenotes of the Yucatan. Even though we had biked so little that day we just couldn’t get ourselves to keep riding. There was an option to camp there which looked magical. The overnight guard was very friendly and helped us pick and open some coconuts and a watermelon straight from the field. 

In the morning just as we were about to start I noticed my front tire was out of air. On a closer look we discovered that the tire was torn. It was an oversight on our part as we should have replaced it before we left Vancouver. We still had a big distance to cover that day but miraculously – maybe thanks to the 20 peso bill we placed between the tube and the tire – my tire held.

El Cuyo is a small fishing village on the Gulf of Mexico with a handful of hotels but the place still has an authentic charm. One of the things it didn’t have though was a bike shop… The owner of the amazing place where we stayed, Ah Muzenkab, had a friend who was coming back from Playa del Carmen the next day. He asked his friend to look for this size tire (700c – a challenging size), his friend found what was the one and only tire of this size and brought it back with him. Aside from that ordeal we spent a couple of relaxing days in El Cuyo before we were ready to carry on. 

The Flamingo Route

From El Cuyo we were en route to Río Lagartos. We had heard that the first section of our route was unpaved and can be challenging. We left early and quickly we felt out of civilization. Soon enough we started seeing flamingos in the distance. Some parts of the road were flooded and Neil even took a dunk by mistake. Luckily he was wearing his bathing suit, like he did for most of our trip. 

It was a scenic section but the road was very exposed and it was hot. We couldn’t really take a proper lunch break, so we carried on to the closest village – Las Coloradas which was more than 30km away. By that point Neil was hot and exhausted. Luckily we found the covered basketball court (almost every village had one) and we cooled off in the shade while Gili and Kai went to bring some ice cream, and coconuts they had found on the way. After a long break and a swim in the ocean we were ready for the second part of the ride.

From Las Coloradas we were back on a paved road and our progress was a lot quicker. In a couple of hours we were in Río Lagartos. When we arrived at our hotel Neil had ridden about 60km, half of it on an exposed unpaved road. He was pretty proud of himself and we were too. 

The next day was dedicated to wildlife watching. We arranged to go on a boat tour in order to see the flamingos up close as well as crocodiles, and to do some fishing. The highlight though was the mud bath which the kids absolutely loved.  

Cycling With the Pilgrims

Over the next few days we started seeing a lot of other cyclists on the road. It turned out that December 12th is the Virgin of Guadalupe holiday in Mexico which also involves some sort of pilgrimage. It was a lot of fun having more company on the road, since the cycling was sometimes monotonous. 

The day before the holiday we arrived at the small village of Cenotillo. At first glimpse it didn’t seem like there was any accommodation in that village. The pilgrims said that they would just sleep on benches in the plaza… The plaza indeed looked nice, but sleeping in the plaza wasn’t something that I really wanted to experience. 

The place we found eventually was one of our best on this trip and looked really out of place – it was more like a cabin in the alps. Since it was in a family’s backyard there were also chickens that the kids enjoyed feeding a few times. 

We celebrated Gili’s birthday there with some cards and pictures that the kids made and a private tour to an out of the way cenote. We biked a few kilometers on a gravel road till we reached a gate, we made our way in, but there was no one there. Since it was a holiday in Mexico we were very grateful that Ananias showed up with a key to the cenote. It was one of the largest cenotes on this trip with beautiful clear blue water. 

The Cenotes Route

By this point we were definitely on the cenote route and almost every day we stopped at a different cenote, sometimes a few. We also spent a couple of days in Homún, a village surrounded by a hundred cenotes. At a few cenotes we were able to camp which was very convenient and special. There were cenotes of different sizes, some were completely covered, some were open, one had a rope swing, one had a little kayak, and one was in a family’s yard, right in the centre of town. 

Izamal the Yellow City

In Izamal we took a break from the cenotes in favour of the hotel pool where we camped. Izamal is known as the Yellow City and indeed many of the buildings are painted yellow. There is also a very impressive pyramid right in the centre of town. We climbed up to the top and could see really far away because of the flatness of the Yucatan. Outside of our hotel there was also an orange juice vendor whom we visited frequently. He even let Neil use the manual peeling machine and Neil was very impressed…

World Cup on the Road

Our time in Mexico coincided with the World Cup. It started with us watching a game with the family in Oaxaca. It was Mexico vs. Poland and the game ended 0-0. Not the the most exciting game. While we didn’t make a particular effort to watch the games, we were always aware of what was going on and when the next game was.

When the day of the final game came we were on the road. When we stopped for lunch in a small village, I went into the store to get some Gatorade for the kids (a common thing during our lunch breaks). They had the game on, and I came out announcing that I know the score and probably who’s going to win the World Cup. At that point Argentina was leading 2-0, so it seemed like a safe bet.

However, half way through our lunch we checked the score again and it was 2-2! At that point Neil declared that he was going to watch the end of the game no matter what. I took him to the same little corner store where the TV was on. He sat on the floor and made himself at home till the end of the game. Gili stayed outside to watch our stuff and joined a few teenagers who were watching the game on their phone. It was quite dramatic to see Argentina win the World Cup from a small village in Mexico. 

Life in a Small Maya Village

We spent two days at a very small and out of the way Mayan village called Yaxuna. There we were mostly taken care of by Olga at the Parador Turístico. We made corn tortillas with her and she showed us her house and animals. One pig was going to be cooked a few days later in order to feed 25 of her family members during Christmas… The village also had a cenote (of course), and impressive tree-covered Mayan ruins. A guide showed us around the ruins and told us stories about each building. 

Valladolid

In order not to bike back to Cancun we had decided early on that we’d finish the bike portion of the trip in Valladolid. Gili and I had some great memories from fourteen years back, especially involving food… We booked two nights at a small hotel right in the centre of town. Our arrival to Valladolid brought us a great feeling of accomplishment, but also a bit of sadness – that another great bike trip was coming to an end. We treated the boys to gelato before we checked in at our hotel and jumped into the pool. 

After a couple of relaxing days in Valladolid that included a final cenote, great food, and purchasing a hammock to take back home it was time to catch the bus back to Cancun. This time we made sure to arrive early, it was a lot easier fitting everything on to the bus, and there wasn’t an extra charge in the form of a tip. Things seem to be a lot more low key in Valladolid. 

A Windy Day in Cancun

We thought we’d spend our final day in Mexico relaxing on the beach, but for the first time the weather was almost winterlike. It was very windy, cloudy, and a ‘cool’ day of just over 20°C. We spent a few hours at Playa del Niño and the boys even braved going in for a swim. Kai was very proud that he went in without his life jacket which we didn’t bother to bring with us because it was so cold… 

Christmas Miracle 

Finally Christmas Day had come and it was time to leave Mexico. We had heard horror stories of snow storms back home, canceled flights and a lot of delays. On top of this, a story showed up on my newsfeed about construction on the road to Cancun airport. The delays were so terrible that people actually abandoned their taxis and walked over 3km along the highway in order to make it to their flights. So we decided to give ourselves plenty of time, but because it was Christmas Day there wasn’t any traffic to the airport. We ended up at the airport five hours before our flight. 

To our surprise the flights were relatively on time without major delays. We had a layover in Calgary where we had dinner. When we were going to pay we were notified that someone had paid for a portion of our meal with vouchers. Thank you secret Santa! 

We landed in Vancouver to piles of suitcases, some of which seemed to have been there for days. After a bit of a wait we eventually got all our stuff which was some sort of a miracle. Finally, we arrived home in the middle of the night, after a very long day, a great trip, and with many memories to treasure.