Some owners, who double up as waiters whilst their wives cook and his son does the home delivery service, are more friendly than others. Many places we go to have loud music playing and we politely ask them to turn it down. This chap went a step further and played music from one of Olivia’s favourite Spanish singers.
We are now crossing an ecological reservation area and were expecting to hear birds singing, signs directing people to eco sites and some visitors. What we saw were no signs, no people, one Glamping campsite which fronted the road we were on and these yellow flowers or plain bush and trees. Surprisingly there were also numerous places where people dumped their rubbish and the men were allowed to collect firewood – not something that would be tolerated in Europe.Sotuta is the target destination for tonight and we still have the road to ourselves, which, to be fair, is quite smooth by local standards.We are now in the centre of the reservation area and something of a peculiar interest to the local population. There are clearly attempts to open this up to larger numbers of tourists than two random arrivals on bicycles, however, for now we will be the talk of the village before we leave. Of greater concern is the number of times we see children of school age like this who are not in school; we’ve witnessed this everywhere we have visited since we arrived ten weeks ago.Most wild dogs we see are more focused on finding the best place in the shade than strangers on bicycles.We are always impressed by the poorest villages having such well preserved churches.A rare encounter with liquid sunshine during the day.Another feature of many towns and villages are the murals on display and which are not ruined by graffiti.This place took our experience of renting a room to a different level……………downwards.
The only hotel in the village was not occupied by owners or staff on our arrival in Sotuta and no one appeared to know where they were. The lady in the dress shop opposite offered to contact her uncle who had a room for rent. This is the room. Fortunately there was a bathroom a few metres away accessed by a covered passage – very useful because the afternoon light shower became a downpour during the night.We have erected this tent more times indoors than outdoors on this trip so far. At least it provides peace of mind should the creepy crawlies choose to pay us a visit when we least expect it.Almost all homes and public places have a place of worship, including room only rentals.These murals display how the facial features of the Mayan descendants are different from the Mexican facial structure.This is the owner of the Cenote we are about to show you who we randomly met in the local mobile phone shop whilst buying credit for the ‘phone.Here we are attempting to show the steep steps down, 8 metres to be precise, to enter the underground Cenote (an underground lake).The only thing we are allowed to touch is the man made balustrade given that the stalactites take one hundred years to grow one centimetre.The colours of the rock are determined by the minerals filtering down through the soil above and are many and varied.
Still raining so we cheat and take a ‘taxi’ to dinner – not that it kept us dry.Olivia has a way of entering people’s homes to demonstrate the simple life (notice the lack of ‘things’) the Mayans lead. Hammocks are preferred to ordinary beds. Here we have the grandmother and 10 year old grandson occupying themselves whilst the son/father runs the restaurant attached to their home.This is the owner who learned how to cook in the Hyatt for many years in Cancun who always wanted his own restaurant; the food was exceptional (we don’t think they taught him at the Hyatt how to cook on an open fire).The owner’s father (he’s 80 years old and still goes into the woods every day to collect the firewood), brother and one staff member are also involved.Making paper shapes with a very talkative 10 year old. This was a Saturday and he enjoyed telling us about his school and will do well in life.A rare outing after dark on a moto taxi, with headlights.
Mexico and Belize 