Garmin Info: Comalcalco to Paraiso
Two days was enough time in Comalcalco. Even though it was another small, gritty and busy town, I really enjoyed Comalcalco. This town has a nice vibe. I went to the mercado in the morning before leaving to get a small bag for carrying my Removu K1 camera in. I needed something while walking around town. Using my backpack was time consuming because I had to remove the pack every time I wanted to use the camera. I found a small bag with a shoulder strap. It has a few zippered pockets where I can keep my money, hotel key and cell phone handy.
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| Felix and family adjusts the brakes on Myrtle |
A day in Comalcalco
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| Comalcalco Plaza from above |
Just as I was leaving the hotel, on a whim, I asked the owner if he knew where there was a bike shop in town. I had found one listed on Google but he said they weren't in business any longer. There isn't anything urgent that needs repairing but one of my brakes isn't as responsive as I would like. The owner sent me to a Goodyear auto center 2 blocks away where he said a bike mechanic worked. Sure enough, Felix was more than happy to help tighten the cable on one of my Avid BB7 brakes. I met his whole family. Everyone was super nice and excited to meet me. They stopped what they were doing to help me. Felix did a great job and I think I paid him the equivalent of $4 which didn't seem like enough although he seemed happy enough.
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| Finca on the road to Paraiso |
Soon, I was back on the road. It was a hot day and, luckily, I didn't have far to go. The temperatures for the next 2 days were going to be close to 100 degrees. I decided to wait out the highest temps in my next town of Paraiso. This is a town along the ocean where Pemex, the state run oil company, has a big presence. Pemex gas stations are all over Mexico. The town itself was about 1/4 mile from the ocean. I found a nice hotel and got checked in for 2 nights.
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| Church in Paraiso |
My 1st night in the hotel was strange. I had a patio and there was some kind of machine outside that started up at 11 pm. It was loud. After about 10 minutes I got up and went to the front desk to ask what the noise was. The young man said the noise would only last a short while. I think the machine was refilling water tanks on the roof. The machine was so loud I couldn't sleep. After another 1/2 hour I went back to the front desk and the young man offered for me to change rooms. So, after midnight, I changed to a room 3 floors up. This is when I really appreciate having only 2 panniers.
Mango madness in Paraiso
There was a big thunderstorm overnight and rain was expected all morning. The rain really cooled down the temps. In the morning, on the recommendation of the morning receptionist, I went to see if I could find some mangroves. On the way out of the town, I found the bus station to see about getting a lift to Ciudad del Carmen. There are no hotels between Paraiso and Ciudad del Carmen and the distance is more than 100 miles which is too far me. I showed the bus attendant my trike and he assured me that taking Myrtle on a bus would be no problem.
From there, I followed a quiet road in the direction to Puerto Ceibo. I passed through some very small pueblos surrounded by banana trees. At one point, I was followed by a police car with his lights flashing. There is so little out here, I couldn't imagine why the police needed it's lights flashing. Finally, I pulled over. It took awhile for one of the policemen to get out of the car. Eventually, he explained that this area is owned by Pemex and it is a federal zone. In fact, I shouldn't be there. Ooopppsss! The policeman was very nice and continued to follow me for a couple of miles. I passed a giant oil refinery being built. This was a huge project. There were enormous trucks lined up to take dirt away and others bringing in piping. I could see why Pemex didn't want strange people poking around. A little while later, a reporter stopped me to do a video interview. I did my best speaking Spanish trying to answer his questions. It didn't last long and I continued on. Pretty soon, I was on the highway heading back to the hotel.
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| Niños waiting for the parade to start |
Later in the afternoon, there was a parade. There were 2 floats with many beauty queens on each one. And following the floats were souped up street racing cars with giant speakers playing music so loudly all I could hear was distortion. Before the parade started, I walked the route taking pictures. I was very surprised how many people knew I was riding a tricycle. Lots of teenagers approached me to ask questions about my trip. Then a woman with a young girl invited me for tacos. She showed me on Facebook that the reporter who interviewed me had a very popular page. In fact, the interview was a Facebook live event so most people were watching as the interview was taking place. Oh my, that was very embarrassing.
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| Balloon seller at the parade |
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| Cool Chicos |
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| Brothers |
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| Myrtle and gear loaded on the bus |
Eventually, I made it to Ciudad del Carmen and a new state. Ciudad del Carmen is in the state of Campeche. The bus station is a few miles out of town. Using Google Maps, I wanted to find a hotel along the malecon and the Gulf. I really wanted to find a hotel with decent wifi because I had a lot of photos to upload and was hoping a touristic hotel would have what I needed.
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| Fishermen preparing the boat |
The hotel I picked was very strange. It had a beautiful pool with probably over 100 rooms. One thing I have learned is that most hotels lie about the strength of their wifi. Even though the front desk guy assured me the wifi was good, this hotel had some of the slowest wifi of any hotel I've stayed at on this trip. And that wasn't the strange part. It turned out the toilet didn't have any water in it so I couldn't flush it. The sink stopper was stuck so the sink was quickly full of water. I took a shower and there was no hot water. And then the air conditioner was so loud I couldn't sleep. This hotel wasn't cheap either so I was very disappointed.
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| Music in the park |
In the morning, I got packed and went looking for another hotel. I found the Hotel del Parque that was really nice and cheaper than the last hotel. It also had some of the fastest wifi of the trip so far. My room was 3 floors up with a fantastic view of the ocean. For $30, this was a total score!
Getting my bag fixed at the mercado
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| Patron Saint of Ciudad del Carmen |
I spent 3 nights in Ciudad del Carmen. It is a lovely town. The bag I bought in Comalcalco needed a tailor. There are lots of zippers on the bag which is nice but what I didn't notice was that there is a zipper on the inside as well. I was worried that the zipper would scratch the lens on my K1 camera. I went to the mercado and found a husband and wife team with a sewing machine set up. They dropped what they were doing and the man removed in the zipper in no time charging me less than $3. Luckily, there was a seam all around the zipper so nothing else was required and it was an easy job. Now I didn't need to worry about my K1 in the bag. I also got all my photos uploaded, I updated my blog and made 2 videos while I was there. It takes a lot of extra time every day to deal with all the photos and video I take. Looking them over, transferring them to my computer, processing and then figuring how to use them in videos is time consuming. Hopefully, I'll get faster at all of this but, in the meantime, I find it all very rewarding.
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| Fishing boats parked |
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| Lighthouse from above |
Mosquitos Suck!!
On my last day, I rode to the botanical gardens. On the map, the area looks fantastic. Ciudad del Carmen is on the island of Carmen. The Gulf of Mexico is on one side of the city and the Laguna de Terminos is on the other. I brought my drone hoping to get some footage. This trip was a total bust. The gardens are part of the University where they do research. The garden is very nice as is the laguna. Unfortunately, it is located in the No Fly Zone of the airport. It is prohibited to fly drones within 5 miles of any big airport. Any airport anywhere in the world. In fact, the software won't allow my drone to take off in a No Fly Zone. So, no drone footage from here. And then the garden was completely infested with mosquitos. There were hundreds of mosquitos trying to get at me. I found some gardeners and asked if they had any spray. Mind you, I use mosquito repellent every day on my feet, ankles, behind my knees and thighs. I needed more, much more. The gardeners totally understood and gave me a bottle of repellent. I felt like I doused myself but this did not deter the mosquitos. Not at all. There was a cloud of mosquitos around me. I found another gardener who was burning garden debris. I ran into the smoke of the fire to get relief. Standing next to a fire when it is hot and humid isn't so great. As soon as I moved away from the fire the mosquitos were back. I couldn't get out of there fast enough. Mosquitos were chasing me out of the garden. That was a very intense experience.
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| Large mural |
After 4 days, I was ready to move on. The next few days look to be in a fantastic area right along the coast with more reasonable temperatures.
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