May 6, Wednesday I checked out of the hotel and got to the Vesca BMW dealer right at 9:00 am as they opened. After a bit of back and forth explaining what I wanted - the routine 12,000 mile service - I was told to expect it to be done by 4:00. So, since they didn't offer loaner bikes, unlike the Beaver Falls WI shop, I walked a few blocks to a big mall. Breakfast, coffee, and walking around the mall took up about two and a half hours, then I walked back to the dealer in the 90 something heat. [View Full Entry]

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May 3, Sunday Up early, packed and on the road prior to 8:00 am, the earliest departure so far. We had an easy day's run into Veracruz from here, only about 160 miles, and the road was a lot more twisty than most of the Yucatan penninsula, much more like a relative of Chiapas. We stopped for lunch at Catemaco, in the same restaurant overlooking the beautiful lake as before with Rafa and friends. More good food here, and we watched the baby ducks feed, the little boat taxis run in and out, and finally decided to continue on. The last [View Full Entry]

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May 1, Friday Another pack the bike event, this time with lots of extra clothes aboard, and we headed north from Playa del Carmen looking for the cut-off road to the west so we could miss the snarl and mess of Cancun. After a short back and forth, we found the proper road, which looked originally like an entrance to an amusement park. This short cut began as a brand new blacktop road, and we whizzed along with almost no traffic. When we reached about 5 kilometers from the next main highway, the construction vehicles showed up, then the road turned [View Full Entry]

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April 29, Wednesday Up and at it early enough to easily make my 8:15 dive appointment. I was excited as we were going to dive two places along the reef system, which is fairly close to shore here at Playa del Carmen. Helene, a pretty Danish girl, was my "Dive Mike" quide/dive buddy, and we chatted about where we've both camped in Denmark. We carried our gear about 1/2 block down to the beach, loaded up on the boat, and in about 10 minutes were at the dive location. This was about a 60 foot deep area, and we saw many [View Full Entry]

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April 28, Tuesday I had picked up a brochure for BioMaya, a jungle adventure site just north of Bacalar, where the beautiful 7 shades of blue fresh water lagoon is located. Deb was a little disappointed that we didn’t get to try zip-lining while in Belize, and this place offered us the chance, with the added benefit of its being directly on the way to Playa del Carmen. We pulled in to the site and were greeted by an employee with a surprised look on his face. Come to find out they didn’t expect to see anyone, as all the holidays [View Full Entry]

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April 27, Monday I got some last minute signatures and stamps on my dive credentials, and we packed up Bear. I had scoped out an escape route that was much better than the way I had ridden in to Julia's, remember we are not along a normal road. Two corners had to have wood placed along it so I could push the bike around the bend without dropping the rear wheel off the walkway and into the deep sand, but we were successful in getting to the hard packed road. I did notice our first equipment casualty. The stock rear mud [View Full Entry]

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April 22, Wednesday Happy birthday to me. I've never been 51 before, so I'm not sure how to act, but I'll just keep on faking it as I've done for the last 50 years and everything will work out fine. I decided to sign up for the Open Water Scuba course at the Splash Dive Shop. Cost is $350 USD and it includes all gear, books and 4 dives out on the reef. Today was all academic work, I read some of the manual and watched 5 videos. Patty, the owner, who has certificates plastered all over the walls of both [View Full Entry]

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April 19, Sunday We were up fairly early and packed, then I had the desk clerk call the Mayan Air office to reserve a couple of spots on the 9:00 flight. She told me that the flights for Corozal are at 7:00 am and 10:00 am, so we booked the 10:00 and got a taxi ride to the airstrip where we dropped off our duffel bag, and then walked into town for a bit of last minute shopping. San Pedro is several streets wide, all of them packed with shops and houses, and the traffic is busy busy busy with bicycles, [View Full Entry]

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April 17, Friday Packed up and on the way to the Belize border. We rolled up to the Mexican authorities, and had to stop and pay 200 more pesos. I'm not sure if that was to get out of the country, or to allow us to return since he did stamp my paperwork "dos entradas" and told us we wouldn't have to pay anything on our return. Across the river we were hailed to the side of the road at the "Auto Insurance" shack. Belize requires you to buy their own liability insurance, $20 USD or $40 Belize Dollars (bz). Turns [View Full Entry]

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April 14, Tuesday Taxes are done and I'm a happy camper. Actually I'm a happy hotel-er since we've only camped once in Mexico so far. I have to keep in mind that the rooms are between 250 pesos and 750 pesos - or between $20 and $60 per night. Not really that bad considering the cost of camping in a lot of State Parks is about $8 to get in and another $20 to $30 to camp. We left Palanque and headed north and east to Escarcega, in Tabasco State. I'm not sure if that's where the spicey sauce got it's [View Full Entry]

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