April 27 - Felipe Carrillo to Escarsega - 260 Miles

Today was just a day to ride across much of the Yucatan Peninsula to get us closer to the city of Palenque, in the state of Chiapas, to view more Maya ruins.  Palenque is supposed to be of high interest, so we'll see how it stacks up with the ruins we have seen in the past few days.

In the process of riding, we almost ran out of gas, after misjudging how far it would be between PEMEX gas stations in this part of Mexico.  In the northern and central parts of Mexico, you are never farther than about 50 miles from a government controlled PEMEX gas station (there are no other kind).  But we are finding out that they are not so available in the southern Yucatan.  Fortunately we had just enough gas to reach a PEMEX station in Chetumal, which is the Mexican city closest to the border of Belize. 

At the gas station we met Bob Pearson, a motorcyclist from Canada.  Bob is recently retired, and in February of this year when it got down to 58 degrees below zero at Bob's home near Regina, Saskatchewan, he decided it was time to go South.  He had his bike, a Harley "Dyna Wide Glide", and his little trailer, trucked to Houston and then started riding.  After a little side trip to Daytona Beach and back, he entered Mexico and has been taking it easy.  Since Bob was going the same way we are for the next two or three days, we invited him to ride with us.  He was happy to do so, since he speaks no Spanish, and was having a difficult time of it.

On our way today, we ran into two rainstorms and got a little wet, but not too bad.

We knew that the further south one goes in Mexico, the shorter miles per day one should plan for riding.  So, today we rode just 260 miles, and felt that was enough.  That's how we happened to stop in the little town of Felipe Carrillo yesterday and the little town of Escarcega today.

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