Day 36

Day 36  12/1/2021

Odometer   27,845 – 28,535 —— 690  Miles  (5835 Miles Total)

San Cristobal De Las Casas – Tulum, Mexico

I started out on this trip wanting an adventure and I sure got one today.

I got up at 5:30 today. Thankfully the fireworks weren’t going all night. I threw my bike in a parking garage last night in case those shit heads decided to steal my bike as well overnight. I hit the road at 6:20am. I took the long route to Tulum. Saw a lovely sunrise over the mountains near San Cristobal and suddenly the desert turned into thick lush forests with low fog and rain. When I left San Cristobal it was 45 degrees and it quickly turned into 75 and humid as can be. Slowly the temps creeped up to 95 which it stayed at for the rest of the day.

The ride in the morning through the jungle was a cool experience. I have never ridden in a thick jungle like that before in my life. The humidity and low fog and clouds on the hillsides were incredible. The small villages with everyone taking care of each other, growing all their food in the backyard on their farms. Everyone was just hanging out in their driveways enjoying a leisurely life. It was beautiful. I got off the busy main roads and my GPS took me through a 30 mile twisty road in a light drizzle and it was quite slippery on the roads. The views I saw there were lovely. I wish I could have pulled over to take some pictures but I didn’t since I was rushing a bit today.

When I left San Cristobal my GPS said 14 hours and my arrival time was 9:48pm. I was planning on stopping at a town 10 hours away where I saw some ruins on google and it would be an easy day but the more I rode I noticed I was shaving a lot of time off my 14 hour trip. Every three hours of riding I would knock an hour off my ETA. At one point I was supposed to get there at 6:48pm. THREE HOURS OFF MY ETA. I figured I’ll keep pushing hard to try to make it to Tulum right after sunset. Most of the ride was boring after I got out of the jungle portion of the drive. Just straight roads that reminded me of being in the everglades of Florida. I was doing 80-85 for hours upon hours. I stopped for fuel twice, didn’t eat a single thing all day and had maybe a cup of water out of my camelbak at noon. I was really excited to get to Tulum today and have an extra day here so I didn’t want to lose any time for anything.

I was getting closer to the 6:30pm arrival time. I was pretty bored and threw my legs up on the crash bars to stretch them out, I took a picture and typed up “definitely one of the most boring rides of my entire life” and as I was hitting post on Instagram I was slowing down for a speed bump and boom my front end started wobbling like crazy. Fuck. I got a flat. Literally the second after I hit the post button on IG my front tire blew out. So much for one of the most boring rides of my life. I almost crashed with all the weight of the bike on the front wheel slowing down for the speed bump and I was slowly heading into oncoming traffic. I got the bike turned to the right a bit and pulled off the road.

Well thankfully I went to auto zone and replaced the bare minimum of my tools needed to change a flat if I got one. Number one rule is always be prepared to fix a flat. Well I guess I wasn’t making it to Tulum at sunset. I wanted to try to beat my 20 minute record I set in Monterey in the beginning of the trip. I got the front wheel off ASAP, sprayed lube on the tire, popped it off, slapped the new tube in and when I tried to fill it up with air it had a leak. OH NO! I pulled it out and realized the guy who sold me the tube yesterday sold me a tube with two holes in it. Well shit. I bought a patch kit for a super rare emergency like this. I pulled out the patch kit which I’ve never used before on a motorcycle tube and figured I had a better shot at patching the old tube and not the new one.

I put the patch on and threw it back in the tire, filled it up with air and no good. It was leaking again. It did not seal right and folded up in the tire when I filled it with air. I realized I was screwed at this point. I scrambled to call my friend Alex who speaks Spanish and sent him to a few motorcycle shops nearby about 45 minutes away in a large city. He called a few shops and found a guy that had tubes in the shop and would deliver them to me for $120 USD. Not bad but not great. He sent me his number and I called Jesus. Jesus said he would come at about 8PM. No good, I couldn’t wait on the side of the road for another 4 hours and then fix it. Pretty sketchy in my opinion. I don’t want to be on the side of a deserted road at dark and then I definitely wouldn’t get to Tulum. I said get over here as soon as you can, which was still 8pm for him.

I wasn’t going to sit there and let time pass. I pulled out the patch kit and ripped the tire off the rim again. I cleaned up the tube with brake cleaner and applied a bunch of rubber cement on the tube and then slapped the patch on. I pressed my knee cap on the patch for about 5 minutes and then slowly put it back in the rim. I filled it up and I couldn’t believe it. It held air! I didn’t go too high on the pressure initially and decided I would leave it at that and limp into town to the guy’s shop to get the tubes. I cleaned everything up, loaded the bike up and rode into the city Chetumal. Jesus hooked me up with two heavy duty tubes for $500 pesos and I decided I would ride to Tulum on this patched tube. If I changed it in Chetumal I wouldn’t make it into Tulum till about 9pm. But if I did get a flat on the way to Tulum I would be changing it on the side of a busy highway with no shoulder in the dark and there’s a ton of cartel around here. I took my chances and hit the road. The rest of the 3 hour ride felt like forever. I was praying every minute that my front wheel wouldn’t start wobbling again which would mean I had another flat. Slowly I made it to Tulum. About 45 minutes out it starts to rain. This day just isn’t getting any better. My clothes were covered in grease and lube from the tire removal. My hands were covered in grease, my face was soaked from sweating because I did the work in my motorcycle pants and boots. I was over it. I needed a bed, AC, food and water. It was down pouring for the rest of the ride. The inside of my helmet visor was covered in dead bugs and dirt from the last few days of exploring. I couldn’t see shit it was terrible. I made it into town and of course it’s been raining here for a few days so the streets were flooded. Water was everywhere. My bags were gonna be soaked when I pulled them into the hostel and I was going to make a mess. Oh well.

I got to the hostel and was so thrilled to finally be here. I met a nice guy at the counter who is from Nashville. I’ll be teaching him how to skydive next summer after our chat! hah

I dropped my stuff here, showered, went out for two dinners, cokes, OJ, chocolate cake and shot back to the hostel to write this up. Tomorrow is going to be a long day. I have a feeling there’s something sharp on my front rim so I’m gonna wrap the center of the rim with some sort of tape tomorrow, sand down the inside of the rim as well and then reinstall the new tube that doesn’t have a patch on it. I might also do an oil change and check up on everything on the bike before I head to Belize in a few days. Would be very happy to also lay on the beach for a day or two with some Mezcal sours after today’s events. I’m very happy I’m here safe and sound and the bike is ok. Today could have been much worse. I was on the road today at 6:30am and got here at exactly 8pm. It’s been one hell of a long day at 690 miles.

They just shut down the hangout area at the hostel so it’s time for me to take an edible and pass the hell out hard tonight in this lovely AC. I’ll wake up tomorrow and post some pictures before I head off to Crossfit. Night Y’all! <3