16657 km Valladolid

It’s been a while again, so I figured to give you all an update on what I have been up to the past weeks. I left Guatemala city and started making my way north towards Coban  and Tikal. The first two days it was nice cycling into the mountains. The region is very dry here and the weather was hot. This all changed once I was actually in the mountains, because on the other side there was lots of lush green jungle. Unfortunately this also comes with a lot of rain. The road from Coban to Flores looked more like a river than a road at times. It’s in these mountains, where I had my first accident this trip. A truck overtook me in a descent and decided it was a great plan to suddenly break like mad for no apparant reason. This all happened while still very close to me. I was forced to make an emergency stop. As I already learned the hard way with Tjeerd in Istanbul, this cannot be done. I was going around 50 km/h and the roadsurface was wet and slippery. The wheels slipped under me and I fell to the left side. I landed on my hip and shoulder. The second impact was that of my head on the roadsurface. I’m so glad I had the helmet on, because it was quite a crash. I was very lucky, that I had no permanent damage from the fall whatsoever. My head hurt for an hour or two because of the impact, but the helmet did what it needs to do. The sore shoulder and hip were just bruised, so no major harm was done. I guess all the safetymoments within Lyondell and Heerema have paid of for me over the years. 

A little shellshocked from it all, I continued just 30km more and decided to call it a day. The next day I cycled down the last of the mountainrange and it therefore got a lot safer. I did encounter a washed out bridge the next day, stopping all trafic on its way to Flores. When I say all, I mean all motorized vehicles. I managed to cross the river with my bike, giving me the road to myself for the entire rest of the day. 

Despite the rain, I had a great time cycling through the countryside in the north. Lot’s of kids on the farm welcome you with an enthousiastic ‘Gringo Gringo!’, and the people are very friendly here. After 6 days I finally made it to Flores. A fairly uninteresting town, but it functions as the main hub for people that are visiting Tikal. Tikal was truelly beautifull. The second largest Maya site, only surpassed by El Mirador, which can only be reached by a 5 day jungletrek and is therefore a lot less popular. Recently another 60.000 structures have been discovered in the jungle. So I guess I have to come back in a few years, to have a look at those, once they are excavated.

After Tikal I headed east to visit Belize. A country mostly skipped by backpackers due to it’s high pricelevel, but luckily my budget is not all that tight. The vibe in Belize is very relaxed. It has a very carribean feel to it. Due to all the rain, camping was almost impossible. I did not pack a waterbed. There are some hostels to be found in the country though. I went to Belize city, via San Ignacio and took the ferry to Cay Caulker. The place to be for a little rum, beaches, palmtrees and more of that good stuff. I was there during the blue bloodmoon and of course this was to be celebrated at the beach.

After a few days, the legs started to get itchy again and it was time to take the ferry back to the mainland and start cycling to Mexico. As you can see I made it here. I first headed to the beautifull lake at Bacalar. Here I met the first other Dutch cyclists of this trip, Njal en Roosmarijn. They are on a similar long trip. They headed of to Tulum a day before me, but I catched up with them a few days later. We spend some time together in Tulum and headed of together the next day. Our routes intertwined for the first 45km, so we teamed up. Thanks to this there are finally some pictures of me cycling again. The first since Bolivia. 

Yesterday I went to visit the ruines at Coba and today I have cycled to Valladolid. From here I plan to make a daytrip to Chichen Itza. I will pass the ruins on bike later, but won’t feel  comfortable exploring then, with a fully loaded bike with all my valuables at the entrance. After Chichen Itza, I plan to head west to Merida and then it’s time to move south again in the direction of Palenque. Mexico is huge and there is still so much to see......

Take care everyone and untill the next update

Erik