Felipe Carrillo Puerto

I have so many beautiful emotions to describe this town and words will never fully give the proper feeling to what was experienced in Felipe Carrillo Puerto thus, photos will suffice in hopes to transport you into my shoes and give you a glimpse of what I would so far call my favorite place in southern Mexico.

If you made it this far you will have noticed I decided to follow up with writing something after all. The trip to Felipe Carrillo Puerto began at 6:00 in the morning after a rough nights sleep in the tent. Rough night sleep yet the night sky was magnificent and each time I woke up to some odd noise or to turn on my camping mat I always opened my eyes to see how the stars and constellations had moved slightly to my right. First task was to divide and conquer, one makes coffee and the other packs the tent. We either got too comfortable or we were being tested because next thing I know Kevin in his quiet scream tells me to turn off my head lamp because a car was coming. It stopped and all I could see were the red tails. I held my breath and they carried on their way. We just looked at each other and began packing got our bikes secured and were off to the main road to reconfigure anything we needed–which was nothing because we just wanted to get biking and find breakfast. The day before some locals told us about Muyil a small or tiny village with a place to eat and get water (they also gifted us two bottles of water—lets just say we haven’t been fully hydrated because our pee slightly stinks and is yellow-brown) Muyil was the start of our travel angles because our “Mexican Mama” fed us the most delicious meal and then packed all 5 of our steal to-go containers full of rice, beans, tortillas, and chicken for our lunch. It was nice to finally feel the warmth of locals and eat side by side with them as they thanked us for stopping by because we were the first of that kind to stop there and actually spend time with them, not to mention we got two full breakfast meals and two full lunch meals for the total of $9 USD. When I was living in Switzerland I would dream of such meal prices. The people of Muyil informed us as soon as we hit the road we wont find anything until we reach the next town….Felipe Carrillo Puerto a mere 85km ride. Now I am sure in 2 months I will think nothing of riding 85km in one day in the hot sun therefore I must remind you this was only day 3 on the bike and the first two days I had a brake which rubbed my tire making me work twice as hard to ride, easy fix as I just disconnected my front brake and currently ride with only the back brake working and the front brake is just on the bike hanging there till I decide what I want to do with it, fix it or just take if off the bike. This ride was long, lots of big trucks passed us and the jungle was on both sides yet there were still moments of laughter and water breaks. * STOP READING NOW IF YOU ARE EATING OR GET GROSSED OUT EASILY* TMI** My favorite by far had to be when Kevin promised a short 10 minute water break only to decide once he got off his bike seat he had to poop. He then took 20 minutes to wipe his but because the first wipe he got poop on his finger and after that it took him probably 10 more minutes before he finished wiping because of his “butt hairs” and “cars passing” and that I was “watching and laughing and needed to turn away”. We also got passed by a police truck with a few guys in all black from top of their head covering their face all the way down to their shoes with machine guns, that was the moment we looked at each other and decided we need to get to the town and we probably should not wild camp in the area, plus we needed to shower, wash clothes, and restock on food and do minor repairs on the bikes for upkeep. At 13:30 we stopped for lunch because we thought we still had an hour or two to go (always better to over estimate in these situations as to not get your hopes up in the heat and on the bike) till we got to town and we stopped to eat our Mexican mammas food on a little roadside pull off where a truck was stopped. Little did we know a cop had pulled him over and as we enjoyed lunch the cop drove over to us. It went something like this in Spanish:

• Cop: You get that food in Muyil
• Us: yes, how did you know that?
• Cop: I passed you guys there. You bicycled all the way here?
• Us: yes, (in my head I was thinking, well how the hell else did we get here?DUH)
• Cop: where do you go?
• Us: uh, Carrillo Puerto….is it far?
• Cop: oh no about 6 km…..HE LIED, MORE LIKE 10! I am doing a speed stop here, hope you guys are doing well, have any troubles?
• Us: troubles, No, well no need to worry about stopping us for speeding, I don’t think we can hit the limit with our packs on our bikes.
• Cop: have a good day.
• Me to Kevin: Should we be worried he asked if we had any trouble?

We enjoyed this town so much we stayed an extra night because tomorrow we are planning to try and get 120km to Bacalar, where a kind local on the flight to Cancun told us to visit due to its beauty. We hard boiled some eggs, bought more coffee grounds, repacked to what we think is now a more efficient packing system and plan to get a good nights rest and the universe was asking us to stay because a really shy young boy here told us they have a local festival in the city center tonight (I almost forgot it was Friday haha a weekend night) so we plan to enjoy the scenery and festive time before going to bed at 20:00 tonight and waking up before the sun to hit the road.

VAMOS A BACALAR…

Plan to write more on this place in the near future once I digest the last of it…if I have time and the will power.