Everything had been going so well. Checking out of Belize was just about paying some money and the officials helped us with the formalities. Then we fell on a Mexican Immigration official who was auditioning for his role as God in a future film. When asked how long we would be staying in Mexico we said we could not be precise, but one to two months sort of thing. We are both allowed 180 days. Our man was not happy. He asked again. We repeated. He then scribbled 35 days on the pieces of paper. Mexico is a huge place. We were not happy. Françoise went back and, Oliver like, asked for more. She even suggested he could put a 1 in front of the 35 to make it 135 days or change the 3 into an 8 to make it 85. After all, it was only a handwritten scribble on a piece of paper - that we then had to take to a cashier, pay some money, and then return to him to stamp our passports and let us into the country. It wasn't as though it had been written in an official document (yet) or entered into a computer. The official said that he would have to call his boss. His boss was clearly ahead of him in the pecking order for the role being auditioned. He became a tad aggressive and told us that, should we want to stay for more than 35 days, we would need to show him proof of our departure from Mexico with a plane ticket - we pointed to our motorcycle helmets on the seat next to us - AND give him day by day proof of all our hotel reservations. Clearly we don't have this and who knows what you are supposed to do if you are camping? So all this means we are stuck with 35 days.
For the two of us it would just be a fine for overstaying our welcome. However in every country you have to obtain a Temporary Import Permit for the vehicle. With Mexico you have to pay the equivalent of 400US$ bond that we would also lose if we stayed too long. The real issue is not that, however. If the TIP has expired they impound the vehicle as well as cashing the bond... bye bye Harley.
So we were somewhere between despondent and angry as we headed to our first stop in Mexico. We had some online chat that evening with other motorcyclists and it seems that the auditioning has been going on a while at this border crossing and, yes, we should have been given the 180 days and no proof of what we were doing or where we would be staying was required. As we mentioned, Mexico is a big country and it will be somewhere between 4-5,000km for us to exit no later than the 19th June at the planned border crossing into the USA. There are shorter routes but we had already identified a border crossing for the USA ESTA paperwork.
We came up with three options. Option 1 is to go to a big city and find a Mexican Immigration facility and try and extend our stay. This might not have a strong chance of success, would cost more money and if it didn't work we would use up some of our 35 day allowance.
Option 2 would be to cross the border between Mexico and Guatemala and come back in again, but this time from Guatemala, hoping that we would get more than 35 days. This was tempting but apart from costing exit and re-entry fees we feel we are living on borrowed time at present with some seriously hot weather and the impending rainy season that should already be upon us.
Option 3 is simply to take the 35 days as a little bit of additional spice to our adventure and run with it. So that's what we are doing. Our plans were never that fixed anyway, so it might be a bit of an exaggeration to say we are totally replanning things. However some things have to go and the first thing we have given up is the Yucatan peninsula - known for its beaches and Mayan ruins amongst other things. We are not really beach people, Paul hasn't got over his snorkeling with sharks in Belize yet and we have seen some Mayan ruins already. That's our logic to assist with 35 days.
We had already planned our first stopover in Mexico before all this happened and we had a very nice stay at Bacalar overlooking the lagoon which is supposed to have seven colours, but we could only see two, maybe three at a pinch. Bacalar was almost like a normal European town with lots of cafes and restaurants BUT it is still mega hot and being the softies that we are, we still need A/C where we sleep unless we are at altitude. We didn't do much planning in Bacalar, apart from deciding we would head west to Palenque to see some more Mayan ruins in the jungle and that we would not be able to get there in a day. The only place we could find to stay was only 120km away but at least it would reduce the distance. 34 days left.
The road we took in the morning was in excellent condition but it was awful. Train tracks have been pulled up throughout South and Central America and train travel is virtually non-existent. However in Mexico they are building a 1,600km line, the Maya line, and some of it runs parallel to the road we were riding on. There were hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of lorries carrying big lumps of limestone, medium lumps of limestone and gravel either as excavated material or to make railway embankments with gravel ballast for the sleepers. There were also a number of precast concrete yards along the route making concrete sleepers and other structural items. All this meant that as well as the lorries and their fumes there was dust everywhere. It looked like it had been snowing. Everything is also baked hard with the heat and lack of rain. The locals are hoping that the vegetation will be 'cleansed' when the rain comes but we have our doubts. In the meantime, people are living in dust clouds with no water. Our accommodation was a one room, perhaps two, establishment in the middle of a forest on the outskirts of nowheresville - expensive as usual due to it being nowheresville. The town itself, Xpujil, had no water, so perhaps paying extra was worthwhile? And it wasn't the first time that we have eaten at a Petrol Station but this one had no wine or beer, Mexican laws...
The following day was a long ride, 360km, into Palenque. 41°C when we arrived according to the hotel; 37°C feeling like 49 °C according to the website we use. And the road was immensely boring. Steamy jungles are often mentioned in books. Well it was either steam or heat haze or dust or all three. We are not the most lively in conditions like this after over five hours on the bike! But Palenque town is quite nice and what we thought was a late night disco/club we could hear from our room turns out to be another Evangelical Church - on a Saturday! That promises for Sunday... 33 days left.
Mayan ruins seem to be everywhere. There have been signposts everywhere along the roads we have travelled on. It seems that the encroachment of the jungle on the cities after the Mayan abandoned them has both preserved them by hiding them and partially destroyed them by dislodging the stones. In Europe abandoned fortifications were often plundered for the stone which was then used to build other structures in the surrounds - but not here. Palenque is very similar to Tikal and perhaps smaller. As for Tikal, only a fraction, 2%, of the site is visible and that is possibly/probably the most important part. However the hill behind the main Palace compound is said not to be a natural hill. Is it another temple covered in jungle? Because the area is designated a National Park further excavations are not permitted. Where are these Universities wanting to trial their latest ground penetrative radar technologies? Again like Tical, the reliefs were all in stucco which has long since surrended to the jungle. Red, from cochineal is thought to have been the colour of the structures.
There seem to be many differing theories on Palenque but the fingers of drought, deforestation, overpopulation seem to be consistent with those of Tikal. It also seems that the structures were built by slaves and these slaves were the spoils from warring with other Mayan offshoots. So Mayan infighting didn't help the cause either. What is said to have been different in Palenque is that at one time it was ruled by Queens rather than Kings. It is still very hot so it's hard to undertake long visits, even of just 2% of the site. The walk back through the jungle and along a stream was therefore actually quite refreshing. The Tropical Greenhouse at Kew Gardens will never seem that overpowering again. 32 days left.
