We already have to say bye-bye Mexico. Time always goes so fast. While packing the bikes I was thinking about the passed 3 weeks and our trip.
Mexico is an absolutely nice country.
Traveling in general is easy here and so it was by bike. As long as you ride on side roads there is almost no traffic and you can enjoy pedaling. You should be aware of the hot and violent sun, so always put enough sunscreen, except you want to look like a cooked lobster in the evening. We mostly felt comfortable with the weather just if there was a lot of humidity, cycling was a little bit exhausting.
Depending on the time that you have you could chose shorter stretches than we did, practically you can find places to stay everywhere, expect the very small mayan villages.
This time we didn´t want to visit the big architectural sites which are the tourist magnets but to see some flamingos and other birds at the coast and then later cycle through some less touristic areas. The coastline at the Golf of Mexico is just beautiful and you can see lots of flamingos, pelicans, sea ravens and other birds. Also there are always some iguanas around.
Cycling through the inner parts of Yucatan, you feel like exploring the real Mexico with all its beauty and with all its problems. Sometimes real poorness we did not expect as this is not the third world. In these areas it´s really helpful to speak at least a little bit of Spanish because just with english it could get difficult to communicate with people. Oh yes, the people.
They were always more than friendly and helpful. In the less touristic parts some are very shy. If you enter the touristic parts of Yucatan, like e.g. the Riviera Maya, you can be sure they charge you the „Gringo prices“ and not the ones for Mexicans. But it´s like that and if you feel like, you always can try and bargain. Mostly it gets a little bit cheaper then…..
The food mostly contains tortillas in all varieties, avocado, smashed beans (Frijoles) and scrambled eggs. These are – let´s say – the basics. If you buy vegetable be sure to wash it properly as normally here they even recommend to disinfect it.
For me it was my first trip (Premiere!) with my new „Pocket Llama“ frame and I felt very good with it. Biking was without any problems and the same with my wife´s „New world tourist“ that she´s been using for years now.
So sad this tour is over but I already start thinking about the next one Philippines, Africa…
