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Once Again

Once again, the road has surprised us by putting us exactly where we ought to be. If only we could learn to let it lead instead of constantly stepping on its toes. But, I get ahead of myself. Lets go back a few days.

A few days ago, as we were visiting our 5th cenote, we started contemplating our next move. If you have been following the blog, you know we don’t plan very well…just not our travel style. So, we look at the map, check iOverlander and decide we will bypass the busy city of Merida and go to Campeche for restock, and either camp at Walmart or do a long overdue hotel night. It will position us nicely to start our swoop around the Gulf Coast and back to the good ‘ole US of A. Perfecto, all planned, all set, we are good to go.

The next morning, Darrin starts mumbling something about flamingos, and tuk tuks. As usual, I ignore him for a while until the mumbling starts to form into a new plan that involves a place in Celestun, an owner who takes you on a Tuk Tuk tour of flamingos and restocking in the busy city of Merida instead of Campeche. I am not sold on the idea as it is miles and miles out of our projected path, so Darrin starts to waver, perhaps we should stick with our original plan.

The next day, he brings up the flamingos again. And just like that, the unplanned plan disguised as The Universe sends us off on a tangent. 100 miles later, we have restocked in Merida and are pulling into a camping place way, way, way out on the Gulf of Mexico in Celestun. We look around at the only other rig there. The camper is white, German plates, looks familiar…it is our friends Jens and Susanna who we first met over a year ago in Oregon.

Once again, we are right where we should be. Good friends, flamingos, tuk tuks, and beautiful sunsets.

All is good.

Oregon…almost 2 years ago!
Hmmmmmm…what do you think?
The food that makes the flamingos here pink.
A little tuk tuk cattle herding.
We made it back in one piece!
The owner’s horses wander the beach during the day, but head home at night for dinner.
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Chipmunkin’ (verb: to chipmunk)

We have reached the western coast of the Yucatán Península and have begun preparing the Wee Rover for the 1500 mile push around the Gulf of Mexico to the US border in Texas. The preparations are taking place between cooling swims in the various cenotes that surround where we are camping. Our count is up to 5, as of today!

Back to Chipmunkin’ – We dug into the winter clothes box in order to consolidate some things and create some storage room for a couple of souvenirs. This is what we found…..Fig Newtons….from Arizona!

Chipmunkin’ also refers to when we are camping in cold weather and every piece of extra clothing ends up in the bottom of the sleeping bag, just in case one needs another layer…putting on cold clothes when chilly isn’t any fun.

Darrin laughs at my Chipmunkin’, as he calls it, but he was quite happy to have a Fig Newton after months in Mexico without them.
Cold weather Chipmunkin’. Every piece of clothing is either on, or tucked down under the covers waiting to be put on.
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Amateur Splunking

We have been to two cenotes that were very ‘touristy’, one that was ‘otherworldly’, and one that was ‘gone to the birds’. Today, we visited one that was ‘amateur splunking’ with a small cenote on the side.

We are camping at La Candelaria Grutas y Cenote, a small establishment in Homún, Yucatan. In the middle of the compound is a large tree growing out of a hole with a steep staircase leading down. Darrin being the adventuresome one headed down immediately to check it out. A few days later, he convinced me to descend.

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Follow the Leader

Our fourth cenote was Yaxbacltun in Homún. Like the other cenotes, the water was cool and refreshing, especially after a hot 100 degree drive. The cool feature of this cenote was the swallows. I am not sure who was following who, and why they don’t get dizzy…it was amazing to watch.

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Jailhouse Swing

A small sign jumped out at us as we passed by a Mexican Jail ‘Prison Made Crafts’. Hmmmm…sounds interesting. An hour later, we had purchased handmade Mayan hammocks. Each hammock takes weeks to make, depending on the size, and the profits help support the prisoner’s family. We were happy to make a purchase we knew would directly help a struggling family, and they are gorgeous. I can’t wait to get home and swing in my new hammock, or perhaps even sleep in it as many locals do.

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Cenote Choj Ha

Cenotes are limestone caverns filled with wonderfully cool, fresh water. They are basically the aquifer for the Yucatan. The prevalent theory is that they were formed many years ago when an asteroid hit the earth…think dinosaur extinction.

Today, we visited our third cenote, Choj Ha. It was a wonderful place! Down, down, down into the cave. Clear, cool water, swim, swim, swim and swim…repeat. Trying to keep cool in the 100 degree heat. In between swims, we set up the Wee Rover for the night and showed a few locals the tent, maps, and set up.

Promply at 6PM the workers left for the day, after explaining that the outside gate to the cenote would be closed for the night. Alone, we cooked up our dinner, and settled in for the night.

About 2AM we were awoken be someone trying to open one of the doors on the Wee Rover. The person must have heard us waking as they crept off into the jungle. A bit rattled and hyper aware, we listened to see if they were coming back. We finally drifted off to sleep.

This was our first occurrence of the sort. Nothing bad happened, except for a couple missed hours of sleep. It was unsettling, but it is hard to think too badly of someone whose needs are probably far greater than ours.

A monster lurking deep in the cenote.
Looking up
Two happy prunes!
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Camp Ten Bear

…another 100 Mile reference!

The Vermont 100 mile course looks a bit like a 4 leaf clover, the criss cross point being an aid station called Camp Ten Bear. You hit it for the second time at 70 miles, the medical check pulls some, many drop out, most stop to fix blisters, eat, change clothes, and push on for the long, long, long night to the finish. We found our Camp Ten Bear in the Yucatan at the edge of the Caribbean Sea after hugging the borders of Guatemala and Belize. We changed the oil in the Wee Rover, tightened up some loose nuts & bolts from the #@&%# topes, stocked up on food and headed north and west. We are officially heading towards home. Like in the 100 miler, its still going to be a long, difficult section, but we can see the finish far off through the long, long night!

Tidbit: One morning while camping on the Caribbean Sea north of Tulum, and directly across from Cuba, we woke up early and took a short walk on the beach. Floating just offshore was a tiny, rickety, bamboo raft that had made it into the cove under the cover of darkness. Did it drift in empty? Was there someone on it? Did they make it to shore? Did they walk by the Wee Rover as we slept?

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Valentine’s Day

We spent Valentine’s Day at Bacalar Laguna with new friends from Canada, Gwen and Cory. We ate homemade pizza and drank coconut water right out of the coconuts. We had a fabulous time and are very grateful our paths crossed.

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We Found Paradise

And it is called Bacalar Laguna, a small lake in the Yucatan. Actually, I believe it is several cenotes that converged, but hey minor details. The important thing is that it was gorgeous! Beautiful fresh water in hues of blue and green. Dappled sunshine to read and relax. A small bit of paradise.