We spent a couple of sweltering nights in Villahermosa sleeping on the biggest bike fan in the city’s floor and providing a feast for the local mosquito population. Juan, our host, knew all the names, brands and had been collecting bits and pieces from ebay for years to and was attempting to build his own bike, which sat wobbling upside down in our bedroom. With a little help from Matt it was slightly less wobbly when we left. Juan seemed to have people staying from warmshowers most nights and made us realise there may be more of us on the roads in mexico than we thought! Unlike the single road through Baja, on the mainland everyone takes different routes so it’s rare for us to bump into each other.
Villahermosa didn’t hold too many charms, but it’s main attraction made it worth the stopover. La Venta park sat on a gorgeous pedestrianised lake in the middle of the city, and held collection of Olmec sculptures found in local ruins in the 1950s, and moved to the park when the archeoligical site itself was threatened. .
La Venta lagoon and a Egrit kindly posing for me
Spot the difference
Walking through the park felt like wandering through a bit of jungle, humudity hanging in the air and all sorts of crazy plants and animals fighting for space. More worrying were the traces of animals that we couldn’t see, including huge spiders webs at perfect gringo head height (no problem for the tiny mexicans!) and the shedded skin of a snake.
Spot the line of ants carrying bits of leaf
We made some new friends who really only wanted us for the fresh coconut slices we were eating. The park gardeners watched us with amusement as we fawned over the probably rabid cuties – a cross between a racoon, an aardvark and a cat. Occasionally we got a glimpse of there not-so-cute sharpened teeth, when they growled at each other whilst fighting over our donated (or occasionally stolen) coconut treats. A flashback to a close call with a set of teeth owned by a “cute” posing monkey in Indonesia told me it was time to move on!
Our new friends the Coatis
Leaving the city, Juan joined us for a few miles, zig zagging us through the rush hour traffic and taking on the evil collectivo buses which have become my number 1 enemy! These buses are really minivans that folow a set route but will drop and pick up people anywhere along it. They seem to make a game of staying still for the minimum amount of time and often speed off again before the poor passenger has quite gotten all of their limbs out of the door or the gringo cyclist has made it past the wing.
Our host Juan
It seemed like I’d been waiting to see the sea for weeks now and after saying farewell to Juan and speeding away from Villahermosa after surviving a few good attempts by the collectivos to keep us in the city, we finally saw a sign for “Playa Mirador” . We couldn’t resist turning off down the 6km track, images of white sand, crystal seas and waiters delivering me frozen margaritas whilst I relaxed in a hammock under a swaying palm tree flashed through my mind.
Sadly what greeted us was slightly different! A grey beach covered in man and sea made debris, a smell of rotting fish and a rather heavy set family already nailing the Coronas at 11am and swimming in the murky waters. Boo!
Not quite the beautiful beach we'd been dreaming of!
Putting my dreams of an afternoon of pampering on hold for now we carried on.
The road along the coast up to Campeche was straight, flat and perfectly paved – which is great at first but quickly becoming quite dull with little at the roadside to entertain us. Never happy eh! With so little need to concentrate, I mastered a new art of watching a film on my phone whilst cycling, and probably could have taken a wee nap on my handlebar bag. Thanks to a bit of help from a tailwind for once, the boring terain did mean we managed to smash a new distance record for me. Not completely intentional, but as we hit 80 miles and started to look out for somewhere to stay we were met with empty roadsides and villages that felt a little too sketchy to camp in. So we kept going, evertually rolling over a 2 mile causeway after 115 miles into industrial Ciudad del Carmen at dusk. My aching limbs just about managed to win the mosquito death cull battle before sleep – armed with a can of something very toxic and a rolled up magazine and a frenzied look in our eyes we probably whacked 50 mossies in our room. But of course one survived and enjoyed dining on my comatosed body all by himself that night!
The wind turned on us for the next couple of days and what could have been a pretty ride along an shimmering sea felt like an inch by inch battle next to churning waters .
Taking a much needed break and sheltering from the wind in a bus shelter. Reminded me of Blackpool!
Look at the palm trees in the background for an idea of the wind strength!
This whole stretch of coast felt abandoned, and every house we saw seemed to be up for sale. We never quite got to the botttom of why, but our theories revolved around a combination Gulf of Mexico oil spill a few years ago, hurricaines and the recession in the US and falling oil prices in Mexico causing repossesions of second homes.
One of hundreds of abandoned houses, restaurants and shops we saw aling the gulf coast
There must still be some pull for Americans here though, as we were passed by a convoy of RVs 50 miles south of Campeche with license plates from all over the country . A strange sight that took me back to the days of Alaska, and though it seemed like a fun adventure they were on, I fear they may have been headed foe the huge gated community of Aak-Bak that we passed a litttle down the road. Seems a shame to head all that way to hide away feom anything differen to home.
American RV convoy over taking us on the gulf highway
We met a more intrepid traveller later that day, doing the same trip as Matt but in reverse and with a little help from an engine. God knows how he doesn’t boil from the inside out in those leathers!
Home is behind and the whole world in front"
We made it to Campeche, a pretty but sleepy colonial town next to the sea, to be unexpectadly greeted by an incredible light show projected onto one of the old colonial buildings on the square. Very hard to describe but very impressive, using the arches and curves of the buildings to project different parts of the story of Campeche. Touristy but fun.
The weekly light show in Campeche
My day off in Campeche was slightly tainted by the after effects of an unfortunately chosen luke warm chinese buffet that we gorged on upon arrival. Say no more. But Matt tells me it was very pretty, a quiter version of the colonial towns we saw in the central highlands with lots of art and history.
Sculpture art taking over a pedestrianised street in Campeche
So, that is it for the cycling! I’ve run out of time but happy to have made it this far and just a short bus ride across to Cancun for the next stage of my trip – a couple of weeks backpacking in Mexico and swapping the bike and sex hotels for night buses, hostels and maybe the odd swanky hotel. I’ve loved cycling in Mexico, especially once we got off the main roads, and want to do the whole country again one day.
Doris will be sleeping over in Playa Del Carmen for a fortnight until I come back. Then who knows what next…..6 weeks until I have to be back in the UK. Watch this space!
Grrrls On Tour 