The Cancun airport. We arrived here after departing Denver at 12:40 am. It was now 5:00ish. I didn't get one wink on sleep on the plane. Some kid in front of me was crying and I was excited.
We unpacked and chamoied up.
Finally on the road. Only wearing shorts and a jersey is a wonderful thing.
The traffic was pretty bad on this stretch of road but the drivers were respective.
40 miles later were in Playa Del Carmen. We made really good time and were ready for some lunch. We found some nice on the beach ate and moved onward 40 more miles to Tulum.
Once in Tulum we found some hotel run by a guy whose sole purpose in life was to screw Americans. But we made it out on the town and had a wonderful meal, a few drinks and a good time. After logging 80 miles in the heat we were all ready for bed.
Or dessert.
The next day we just hung out in Tulum. We found a cenote and snorkeled around for a bit. There are fish in this picture somewhere.
The next morning we woke up to check out the ruins. Which are pretty famous for being some of the most beautiful.
This place was absolutely amazing.
Later that day we cruised down to Felipe Carrillo. It was a long 65 miles in nothing but the heat of the jungle. I pretty much blew up and the guys had to drag me into town but we made. I think this was one of the best days we had. Good miles, ended in a great little town and started out with beautiful ruins.
The next day Wayne wasn't feeling well so we hopped on a bus to Chetemal and rode across the border to Belize.
Us at the border.
The view from our hotel room ($11 a night) in Corozal. Belize is a wonderful place and by far the best country we visited on this trip. Not to mention the LOVE cycling.
On New Years day a bike race headed to Belize city left Corozal and we were lucky enough to be there for the start.
Tons of people in the town came out to watch. They loved talking to us about our touring too. Really great people.
Team support vehicle.
Onward to Orange Walk.
Blake and I were both struggling today. I was really hot the roads were rough. We bonked after riding like 25 miles.
Then it started raining. Oh well still many laughs.
Our Hotel in Orange Walk. It was like $9 a person. A.C., cable TV, big beds and couldn't be any cleaner. The laundry place was closed so the owner let us use his washer and dryer. He also offered us some really good advise on the next day's travels. Again another experience with the nicest people ever.
Parked at a bike rack getting some breakfast from the gas station. We were told that hitchhiking out of town was easy and the buses were to crowded to take us so we gave it a try (We didn't ride because we really wanted to hurry down to Honduras and ride back incase we ran out of time). All I could think was: Here we are 3 white young kids, with 3 bikes and 3 BOB trailers carryiing big bags wanting to go 60 miles from here to Belize City. Yeah, we'll be getting a ride right away, not so much.
We'll it turns out the second car stopped and offered to take us plus the local guy waiting with us. It was a brand new F 250 truck of which the local waiting with us helped us load our bikes up and the proceeded to tell us to go ahead he would catch the next ride (keep in mind he was waiting there before us, nice guy). We headed down the road sitting in the back of the truck. It then started raining so the driver stopped and let us into his leather interior AC cooled truck. We began talking to him only to figure out he owned one of the largest concrete companies in Belize and was kind of a big deal. We ask where the airport was and he told us how to get there but as we got into Belize city we rounded a corner and realized he had drove out of his way to take us to the airport. So we thanked him a ton and offered him $10 for the ride of which he declined. The good experiences in Belize just kept coming. If you ever have the opportunity to go here...do it.
So at the air port we found out there wern't flights to Honduras, only in Belize. So we caught a flight as far south in Belize as we could to Punta Gorda. The guy putting our bikes on the plane was really excited to see us. It turned out he was a racer and had rode his Cervelo to work that day, pretty cool to see people like this in developing countries.
Blast off!
Wayne really likes flying, especially on small planes so he was having the time of his life.
Our "paved" runway full of potholes and dogs running aound.
The piolet drove this thing like a stunt plane. I tried to hold the camera level with the horizon.
Cruise ships off the coast.
Mountains were something we hadn't seen in a while. If only we knew what we were in store for.
There she is. We landed safely. At the runway/skyway/gate/terminal/baggage check and claim/and parking lot. Yes those are all included in this picture. Blake was really excited to be here.
As we waited for our BOB trailers to come on another flight2 hrs later Blake choose to catch up on a little sleep.
We loaded our bike onto our pirate ship..I mean ferry to Guatemala.
We were the only one's on this bumpy evening ferry, where we experienced ferry jumping 101.
We made it to Guatemala just before night fall where we raced around the finding customs and a hotel as quick as we could per recomendation of a local. This places had kind of a dangerours vibe to it but we found a nice hotel where we left the AC running to Colorado Winter temperatures and probably racked up an electricity bill over what we payed for the hotel.
We ate dinner at the restaurant attached, had a few beers and watched the sunset over the ocean. Great hotel.
The next morning we made the decision to bus to the border because we felt the roads we pretty unsafe and we really wanted to get to Honduras and out of Guatemala. We loaded the bikes and BOBs onto the roof a prayed they would be there when we got off.
The drive was beautiful. Probably some of the best secenery on the trip.
Chiquita bases there banana production out of Guatemala here. There where hundreds and hundreds of square miles of bananas.
At the border we hoped on another bus (an old US school bus) to Puerto Cortes.
The great scenery just kep coming.
We finaly had made it to where we though we could catch a ferry to Roatan only to find out it didn't run any more and had to cover about 100 more miles out of the way to get where we needed to be. This included more bus for us.
We got on a bus that we were told would take up to where we needed to go only to figure it drops us off in the middle of the country. San Pedro. Not the friendliest place certainly not a gift of God as this car would state. So we hopped on another bus which proceded to back over a small car and caused us to have to get off this bus and onto another. Keep in mind moving all the bikes isn't so easy. Anyway we made it. The day was alot of traveling but a really good learing experience. No regrets really.
We got up early on the mainland of Honduras to finally take the ferry to Roatan. Well, a guy at the ferry place told us that he could not fit our bikes onto his ferry the size an appartment complex. We yelled at him for crushing our dreams and tried to find other options. One was a cargo ship leaving at 2 in the morning and the other was a ferry going to Utila (a small island next to Roatan) Well the smaller ferry to Utila offered to take us. It left in a couple of hours so we headed back into town to get lunch out front of a busy grocery store where we almost got held up/robbed/jumped/attacked/killed whos knows. It's a story in itself but we got out of there just in time.
The small ferry to Utila. Which proceded to hit 5 foot swells the whole way there and I almost lost my lunch like the lady next to Blake and I.
Finally on Utila watching a great sunset and ready for a good time.
Snorkeling was a blast and absolutely beautiful. There were tons of fish.
Playing with the underwater features on my digital camera. I love it.
Fishies
Blake diving down and chashing the fish.
Wayne being happy. This water was like a bathtub.
The coast was beautiful. We kayak around a checked out the reef.
Just cruising around the island.
This was the dive center we stayed at for $4 a night.
Blake and wayne thought they would try there luck at fish with a BOB trailer flag, a clothes line, half a paper hook and a piece of bread. Needless to say it didn't work very well but kept us all intertain for a while. It's nice having nothing to do.
Almost got that one guys.
The view from our back porch.
Looking down one of the three roads on the island.
Our place of residence.
This was a repeat parrot that just hung around. We tried to get it to say bicycle for like 2 minutes then gave up.
This is where the instructors stayed and you can see the dive boat in the background.
The hondurian money had som crazy exchange ratio which made us feel very rich as we look at out account balances. This totaled to like $150 US.
Wayne on the dive boat.
Me about to go SCUBA diving for my first time in the ocean.
Below the surface was beautiful and I wish my camera was waterproof to 60 ft. But let me tell you if you have the opportunity to get SCUBA certifed it is worth it. So even if the opportunity doesn't arrise that much you can go when it does. It is one of the greatest feelings ever.
Paradise
I wish all the roads had looked like this.
Kumba. The dive center's puppy.
So cute and entertaining.
Us on the dive boat for our second day of diving.
Oh yeah. Could it get any better?
The dive center's 2 story dock was perfect for jumping off of in the day and drinking beers and watching the sunset at night.
Life is good.
After a long day a SCUBA a $5 plate of nachos 8 inches tall is the most wonderful thing in the world.
Leaving Utila about to get in to our Sauna...I meen plane.
We made it to Caye Caulker we did some more relaxing. Drinking beer, hanging or feet of the edge of a dock looking out into the caribbean and fishing.
We woke up to a down poor and were very sad we couldn't go diving today.
So we bundled up and headed out to battle the storm and find breakfast.
Our hotel with newly added swimming pool.
I don't even know?!?
Leaving Caye Caulker.
Getting some lunch in San Pedro.
Sunset in Corozal.
Blake helping me sleep.
Breakfast on the way out of town was some of the cheapest and best we had from this little place.
Bird.
The road to this camp site was slicker than ice and after 60 miles of riding with out a meal not exactly what we were looking for. More rain.
Blake wondered what it would be like to crash with a BOB trailer attaced so he tried it and I followed.
The campsite was nice and we finally got a good meal.
Calling the trip off a few days early we scavenged the streets of Cancun and scrounged up a few boxes of which we taped together to make a "bike Box"There is so much more than I could ever descibe in a blog that happened and I have spent 3 hours now posting this some so sorry it got brief at the end. The trip was fun. A learning experience that I will never forget with some really great people. Thanks guys for the good times and putting up with the bad times. We made it and we'll do it again next year, except different.
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