Today was an eventful uneventful day.  We had some doctor stuff to do in the morning, and the plan was to get that done, then drop off our laundry (since we haven’t had enough access to water to use our on-board washing machine), then get groceries, then figure out what we were going to do with the rest of the day.

Everything went according to plan, until we got to the “figure out what to do with the rest of the day” part.  We got the groceries, so we won’t starve for at least 5-7 days, and decided to head towards the Dzibilchaltun Maya site where we were told we could camp and see the ruin in the morning.  The archeological site is only about 5 miles from the hospital where we were parked last night, so it seemed like a no brainer.

Until, that is, we hit a tope a little too hard, and the truck started to make a disturbing scraping sound.

Fortunately, we were at the town square in the town of Chablekal, so we had plenty of room to pull over so Tom could diagnose and fix the problem - which he did.  Turns out the air ride valve lever flipped when we hit the bump too hard, and had to be repositioned, which involved jacking up the truck and removing both back wheels from the passenger side.

After the truck was fixed, we headed to our original destination, Dzibilchaltun.  Adrian told us campers always parked in front of the church, and it was listed on iOverlander.  It was easy to get to, and the parking was very easy, and nobody seemed to care.

All was quiet until cars with mountain bikes started pulling in.  Nobody cared that we were parked in the church lot, until there wasn’t enough room for the cars with mountain bikes.  Then, we got a knock on the door and were asked to park tail-end in to the curb rather than along the curb.  We complied, and a few more cars carrying mountain bikes were able to fit.  Turns out they’re having a 30 kilometre night race through local towns and the jungle, which they do every Monday night.  They take different trails through the jungle, leaving around 9:00 and getting back around 11:30.  I guess we’re not so weird in the things we do for fun.

We feel like a yo-yo because we’ve had a busy few days with a couple of different sleeping places, but we’re back where we were at the end of our last post.

We got done at the hospital last Thursday morning and decided to brave the tree-lined streets and head back into Merida to the Alemán Parque, which is not only recommended by iOverlander, but was also suggested by friends we visited near there.  We managed to get to it without doing any further damage to the camper, and found it to be a very lively and friendly city park, very typical, in our experience, of city parks in Mexico.  It had small carnival type rides for the kids, lots of playground equipment, a skate/skateboard/trick bike park, brick-paved trails, and a large paved area for basketball, teaching your kids to ride a bike, or whatever else you might want to do on a large paved area.  The people were all super friendly and wanting to talk to us, and when we asked the park police for permission to park on the street by the park overnight, instead of giving us a hard time, they went out of their way to assure us that we were welcome and that we would be safe.  It’s less than a half mile to our friends’ house, so we walked over there for a nice visit before heading for the beach on Friday.

On Friday we headed northeast to the beach, to a village called San Crisanto, and a hotel/campground called Palula Beach.  It was delightful!  We drove through the regular afternoon downpour, and the final 9 mile stretch to the village was a very narrow tree-lined road which was a little harrowing, but we made it intact.  We parked on a fairly wide street in the village and Tom went to find the campground, and returned to the truck with the owner, Peligro, in tow, to make sure we would fit.  Peligro happily hacked a few branches off a couple of trees, and guided us into a great parking spot just off the beach with a view of the sea.

After our walk this morning, we took another dip in the sea, and then got packed up to head back to Merida.  As Tom was showering, the water started to sputter.  One of the things we didn’t anticipate with our travels would be difficulties finding water to fill our tanks.  Either it’s scarce, or it’s unsuitable because of dirt or salt, or it’s very difficult to get into our tanks because it can’t be done with a hose because the source is too far away, or the pressure is too low, or just because there aren’t any hose fittings.  So, one of our goals before stopping for today was to get water.  The campground where we stayed had enough for our use there, but they survive on rainwater collection, and we would have had to bucket it into the camper.  We stopped at a couple of gas stations, but their water was either dirty, or they worked from a tank with a limited supply.  We finally stopped at a fairly upscale mall because we had to get data on our phones, and we were lurking around the businesses surrounding the mall looking for faucets.

We finally found this restaurant, Los Trompos, which had regular hose bibs with regular screw fittings for a hose.  We went inside to ask if we could get some water, and the front end manager talked to the restaurant manager, who said sure, and told us where to park and how to do it.  We were super grateful, an ended up having a really good meal, which we definitely did not expect from a chain restaurant at a mall, and really only did to show our appreciation.  The food was great - Tom even had a second order of tacos al pastor - the service was excellent, the front end manager came out to help us fill, and they had super water pressure which filled the tanks in under 10 minutes.  So, if you’re ever in Mexico and see one of these restaurants, it’s worth a stop.

We ended up out of range of cell service two nights ago, and last night it just wasn’t working, so this blog is the past two days and today.  Two days ago  was great.  Yesterday had challenges.  Today we are regrouping.

The cenote was beautiful, and Tom jumped in from the rope swing.  He says it was higher than it looks in the video.  Also, he probably had 40 years, at least, on the next oldest person using the swing.

We woke up in the Pemex parking lot after a surprisingly excellent night of sleep with no real idea of what we were going to do today.  Our friend Chrissy had recommended a good place for lunch in Tulum that serves excellent chile rellenos which are my favorite, so we decided Tulum for a lunchtime destination was as good a plan as any.

We hit Tulum at precisely noon, found the restaurant - Don Cafeto - stowed the animals in the camper in the shade on a side street, and had an absolutely delicious lunch.

When Moonracer was a jungle lodge, we had a lot of guests who came to us from Bacalar, which is now a resort town that up until 15 or so years ago was a fishing village on the Bacalar Laguna.  They all said it had a good vibe and was a nice place to chill for a few days, and we always intended to take a weekend and go there, but we never did.

So, on our way north, we decided to see what it was like.  Let’s just say we were underwhelmed.  IF we had found a nice little hotel on the beach where we could use their kayaks and paddle boards and drink beer for a few days, it would be great.  However, going in with a self contained rig where we’d like to see the water but eat our own food and drink our own drinks (okay, a beer on the beach would be fine, but not necessary), we felt less than welcome.  Almost all of the waterfront is privately owned by hotels, restaurants, bars, marinas, and whatever you call the places that rent kayaks and paddle boards and sell tours on boats that go out into the lagoon.  And, while iOverlander has entries that say you can park for the night around the very lovely town square, the current rule is that there is no overnight parking on the streets.  And, because most of the other parking places that can fit rigs like ours are hotels, restaurants, and marinas, they don’t want pets. So, in addition to being generally underwhelmed, we weren’t feeling especially welcome.  None of this was helped by the fact that the weather varied between drizzle and outright downpours and we spent most of the day being soaked to the skin, but ultimately we decided to get in the truck and look for another parking spot for the night.

That also didn’t work out as planned, because most of the friendly camp grounds north of the town are down hill from the highway on white mal dirt roads.  Which, if you know white mal dirt roads, you know that they are slicker than snail snot when they are wet.  Which they were, after a day of alternating drizzle and downpours.  We started down a couple, and ended up backing up to the highway, and we’re now at a gas station for the night at the turnoff to Merida.  In the morning, we will decide if we are going to go directly to Merida, where we need to be by Wednesday, or take a couple of days and head towards Valladolid, or maybe even Cancun.  The weather report isn’t promising for the next few days, but we’re going to sleep on it.