km 14084
We arrived in Cobá at the end of the afternoon. In a small shop on the Mayan village we bought the ingredients that were missing for the big supper: eggs, onions, potatoes and other items, to an apathetic lady that seemed to have some difficulty in adding the cost of the goods we were purchasing. She was speaking in one of the Mayan languages to a young girl who showed me the total sum in a calculator – 64 pesos. We paid and cycled trough the village in search of a place to camp. The ideal spot seemed to be near the lake next to Cobá ruins however we did not have any intentions of sharing our dinner with the crocodiles that lived there so we opted for the soft grass of the village’s football pitch.
During the day the salted cod fish brought from Europe was soaked inside a 5 litre bottle of water, placed in the basket of Joana’s “Mexican donkey”. The intense sun and the holes in the road accelerated the desalinization process. We debated how we were going to cook it. Cod fish “à bráz” or “bacalhau à bráz” (as it is known in Portuguese) was the chosen dish. I did not recall the last time I had eaten this delicious Portuguese dish and accounting for the state of the fish after 40 kilometers on a bumpy road it was just the perfect choice. (for those who never had the privilege to experience this dish, it is made with small pieces of cod fish rather than the whole fillets)
Joana was using the little stadium seats as kitchen whilst I was setting up the “house” near one of the goals. For instants my eyes focused the dense forest on the other side of the pitch, and my thoughts penetrated the jungle in to the main square used for rituals, this was surrounded by many Ceiba trees of the long gone Mayan City, located less than a kilometre from there. The Mayans believed that the sky, the earth surface and the mysterious world underneath it (called Xibalba) were a unique universal structure. From its centre transcended the “arbole del mundo” the first form of life to surface from the chaos of the cosmic creation.
The Mayans frequently associated this tree to Ceiba tree, which is very common throughout the whole region. Ceiba tree branches grow perpendicularly to the trunk creating a cross like shape. With the arrival of the Spanish Missionaries who made the natives worship the cross, to the eyes of the Mayans the Christian symbol was associated with the “tree of the world”. This association is still observed to this day.
That night’s dinner would be the first of many gastronomic Portuguese treats prepared in Mayan territory. Joana brought in her two panniers not only a great will for cycling but also some things that I needed such as 2 Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires, maps and guides to Central America, Portuguese literature, and also some ingredients to satiate my cravings for the Lusitanian Gastronomy, homemade chouriços, codfish, olive oil are a few to mention.
Three days before, when I went to wait for her at Cancun airport, I had my thoughts full of doubts. How would she adapt to the bicycle I had bought her, to the humid heath, to the traffic of the Mexican roads, to random camping. And how would we be as travel companions? How would it be? During the prep for this adventure Joana was the person who most encouraged and supported me. The dream of cycling the whole American Continent was not just mine. It was ours! We visited the Mayan Ruins very early on the following morning, before the arrival of the numerous buses with air conditioning full of tourists from the many resorts that raise to the skies like gigantic cement boxes and that transform the beautiful coast of Yucatan in a enormous fortified “gringoland”.
We followed our journey.
Joana’s “Mexican donkey”, a bicycle made in Mexico, brand Mercurio, that I bought in Playa Del Carmen, had only 18 wrist gears, and they did not always work, heavy with front suspension practically unutilized by the front basket placed in the handlebar, it was not the ideal choice for this type of journey, but for only 1300 pesos (85 Euros) with all the extras, we could not expect much. Joana was playing with the advantage of the Yucatan being one of the few parts in Mexico without mountains, and with her incredible will and determination for cycling. The result was 500 kilometers in two weeks, which for her lack of experience was something extraordinary.
We followed into the countryside of the peninsula trough small roads, away from the coast, the tourists and the traffic. The Yucatan Peninsula, which comprises the States of Yucatan, Quintana Roo and Campeche, was isolated from Mexico during several centuries (the constructions of roads only started in the beginning of the 60’s) and all this region developed an identity, gastronomy and own character. This region was the centre of the Mayan world and it still is!
The majority of people that inhabits this region is a direct descendent of the great creators of the empires of the past, and many still preserve the costumes of their ancestors including the languages, the outfits and religion.
With the appearance of a new empire, the “gringoland” of Cancun and surrounding area the landscape has been suffering immense alterations. But one only has to go a few miles inland to find Mayan villages where Spanish still is the secondary language and the houses made of wood and straw roofs outnumber the ones made of cement. Tourists, especially ones in two wheels, are still a focus of attraction for locals, in particular by children.
A week after, already with more than 350 kilometers cycled, Joana was not showing signs of being tired (on the contrary!) and not even her “Mexican donkey” despite her constant fight with the gears which did not seem to work properly. In fact, it was my “donkey” who was worrying me. Already with 30 thousand kilometers and the signs of old age were starting to show, the problems were accumulating, with the cassette and the chain wearing off, some gears were starting to jump, the cycling computer ceased to function, the back tire blew up, making me use one of the new tires that Joana got me, and the derailleur stopped working after spending a whole day cycling in the rain and going trough water puddles that sometimes submerse the bicycle to its brackets, not to mention the front support that broke for the third time. And all of the above happening in less than 72 hours.
At least there is something that doesn’t wear off: the willingness to continue cycling to the “Tierra del Fuego”!
With a few days to reach Cancun, we headed East initiating our return to the Caribbean Coast following through the Natural Biosphere Reserve of Sian Ka’an (it means where the sky begins in Mayan language), 500 km2 of protected jungle, UNESCO world heritage. These jungles are inhabited by pumas, jaguars, ant eaters, monkeys and many other animals. We entered the natural reserve trough Chumpón, the initial 50 kilometers were of road without tarmac that looked like it had been carved directly from the stone, we were received by heavy rain fall(the first one since I arrived in Mexico), the heavy rain did not seem to bother Joana’s good mood, but it made impossible a closer contact with the local fauna except the occasional crocodile, parrot, the thousands of mosquitoes, iguanas that sometimes would get closer that we wanted.
The Thames Mermaid has returned to the margins of the river that runs trough the city where she lives, and I am again alone with my “donkey”.
- “We’ll see each other soon”, were her last words before she disappeared with the other tourists in the departure area of the airport. I knew well what she meant and I know that she will be by my side during the whole journey.
Back in Playa Del Carmen, I am debating what my next cycling route will be. In my initial plans it never occurred to me to go to Yucatan Peninsula but once here Cuba is just an hour flight away…I have a friend in Havana, perhaps I should visit him. After all you measure a journey by the encounters, the people and friends and not by kilometers..
Nuno Brilhante Pedrosa
in Playa Del Carmen, Yucatan México.
