Akil 2

It was a typical Mexican breakfast for them. Empanadas, tacos and Cokes. B and I had scrambled eggs with the local sausage. Juan disappeared after we had ordered and returned carrying something wrapped in what looked like paper towels from a truck stop bathroom. It turned out to be a large piece of deep fried pork with a stack of tortillas. The family immediately tore into it. Although not something we would ordinarily eat for breakfast, it was quite good. Since they were certainly enjoying it more than we, we declined seconds. After they gathered up all the leftovers into napkins and stuffing them into purses, we were back in the cars and on the road again.

A little further down the road we passed through Cristobal Colon and Maria yelled to pull over and stop. She wanted to pick up a few plants for the house in Akil, where we were headed. As they piled back into the Jeep, I noticed something on Lizzie’s shoe and all over the floor and back of the Jeep. Yup, dog poop. I located my emergency roll of toilet paper and handed it to Lupe to do the clean up. She used half the roll and just threw it over the side of the Jeep. Littering is a big problem in Mexico. The whole time, Lizzie was screaming and sobbing at the indignity of having dog poop on her shoe. After retrieving what was left of my stash of toilet paper, I gave B a big eye roll and we were on our way again.

Our route took us past Zaragoza, which is the turn off to Isla Holbox, thru Chemax and skirting Valladolid. We took the cut off to Peto and as we turned onto this road, Juan pulled over and ran back to the Jeep. He wanted us to know that this was a “good” road and ran for 100 kilometers. He wanted to be sure that we had enough gas since we would not be encountering any gas stations on this route. I wondered why he didn’t ask before we got to this point but kept my silence. Thankfully, I had enough. He also wanted us to know that the police did not patrol this road so we could drink beer while we drove. I assured him that our Cokes would do us just fine! So on we went and he was right. The road was in exceptionally good condition for the first 20 kilometers or so. Then the potholes started. It was a dizzying drive after that, scooting from one side of the road to the other. We had stopped before this to put the top up and Maria, Lupe and Lizzie decided that they had had enough Jeep adventure and went back to the comfort of the air conditioned car. Thank God.

Shortly after passing through Chikindzonot, the skies opened up and boy did it rain. We had not brought the back passenger windows with us, never expecting to encounter such a downpour. Besides, we didn’t have room for them. It didn’t take long for the back of the Jeep to turn into a swimming pool. Thank goodness the makers were smart enough to install drain plugs! So on we drove, dodging puddles of water that we had no idea of how deep they might be. All the time the windshield wipers on full blast but not doing much good. By the time we got to Xcocmil it had let up. I was glad for that just for the driving factor but also because this was a village that we had been looking for. It is the hometown of Rogelio, the mariachi singer that has his little boy, Roger, sing with him. We wanted to take some pictures to bring back to show them. We got our photos and proceeded on to Peto. Peto is a fairly large town and it was the first place we noticed bars on all the windows, just like in Cancun.

We stopped for an uneventful lunch in Peto. They informed us they had the best seafood available (miles from any coast?) but Juan was quick to point out to them that they were mistaken. He had the best seafood at his restaurant! So after a boring little lunch, we loaded back into the vehicles and headed out for our next stop, Cenote (water well) Keken, which was to be a wondrous experience.