Santa Elena and Ruta Puuc to X’canchakan by Bike and Bus

My wife Jane and I began this three day excursion busing with our folding bicycles to the seldom visited out of the tourist loop town of Santa Elena formerly known as Nohcacab.

A fascinating chain of events took place in the early 1840s when the famous world traveling explorer and author John L. Stephens and his graphic artist associate Mr. Catherwood struck off into unexplored regions of tropical Yucatan landing at Santa Elena.

Following closely in the footsteps of Stephens and Catherwood, Jane and I set out to bicycle and photograph a portion of that historic 1840s adventure.

The following story is told with captioned photos plus excerpts from John L. Stephens classic book of exploration; Incidents of Travel in Yucatan.

We begin this chronicle in Santa Elena where we disembark our bus from Mérida looking at a side of Yucatan seldom seen by visitors.

To read the story in a pdf file click  here

Or to view on another weblog, click here.

Mérida: Faces of Carnival 2008

Mérida pulses with the ear-splitting reverberations of festive carnival music booming out of gigantic speakers lining the parade route for a week of day and night celebrations until ultimately the burning of the carnival effigy that begins the Lent season.

Tranquility and beauty of another kind can be found on the quiet side streets of Mérida where flowering trees of vibrant colors distinctly mark the seasons. This February day is brightened by pink; the previous month was ablaze in brilliant yellow.

Festivals and tropical flowering trees make the winter season very tolerable here in the “land of take it easy”. Photos by John M. Grimsrud

Xocchel, Hacabá, Sanahcat, Polaban and Homan

After our bike trip from Cobá to Valladolid, we took a bus to Xocchel and biked some Yucatán side roads to Homan. Our destination was Cuzama but we were to pedaling into a strong hot wind when we spotted a bus heading for Mérida. It took less then a minute remove our packs and fold the bikes and sit back and let the bus carry us home.

For the story click on the following link:

Xocchel

Cobá to Valladolid

The perfect bike trip:  The wind and sun were on our backs and the temperture was a cool 14.8º C.  To read about this incredible trip from Cobá through Chan Chen 1, Xuilub, Xocen and Chichimila to Valladolid, click and open the following link:

coba-to-valladolid.pdf