January 4, 2026
Day 6: Cancun to Leona Vicario
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The fact that our neighbour last night was playing loud tuneless music at 5 a.m. had me Googling "Loud Mexican Music". I was looking for some commentary about it, but Google began by offering a pile of it, like a Youtube with "One hour of loud Mexican music". Rebuffed in this, it went on to discuss the Mexican shout, "el grito": "That loud, emotional shout in Mexican music, especially mariachi, is called "El Grito," a spontaneous yell expressing joy, passion, or sorrow, rooted in the cry for Mexican independence from 1810 and a key cultural expression. It's a distinctive vocal technique, often high-pitched and released from the head, signifying deep emotion in performances and celebrations like Independence Day. "
After I peevishly declined to listen to a lot of different forms of "el grito", I did get the philosophical review of why the Mexicans favour loud music, often delivered while blocking a street at 3 a.m. for a party, or with the effect of driving away customers from a restaurant or clothing store. The AI review of the whole matter was surprisingly well presented and reasoned. Suffice it to say that noise is a deeply ingrained, and accepted, part of the culture.
We slipped out onto the appropriately noisy Huayacan avenue, the one with the bikeway.
Of course, as we knew it would, the bikeway ended - near the airport. It was replaced by highway 180, or 180D, or something. There is a toll road and a free road version of this, and we of course were staying off the toll road, where no doubt we were not allowed anyway. We were not immune, however, to a sort of gratuitous jab, in the form of a no bikes sign. We didn't take it to heart, because we were sure the authorities did not really mean it. This was confirmed as were were passed by numerous police cars, that paid no attention to us.
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At least the part of the road shown in the photo above had a good shoulder. But that didn't last. That's ok with us, because most of the roads that we have enjoyed in Yucatan look like the photo below:
However, I guess because we are so close to Cancun, the lack of a shoulder became stressful, given a high volume of traffic:
I was spending most of my time trying to thread the way down the white line, especially as there was often a fairly knarly dropoff beyond. Dodie must have more processing power than me, because she stayed on the straight and narrow while still scanning for birds. And she was successful, adding seven species today to our yearly total, which now stands at 53. Here are two of my fav shots from today:
Despite the uncomfortable traffic volume, things were going well and we knew we would shortly arrive at the town of Leona Vicario, where we had told the "Green Paradise" that we would arrive mid-afternoon. The problem of being too early was fixed, though, when I came down with a flat in the rear.
A rear flat on the Bike Fridays is not quite as much of a bug as on our internally geared European bikes. But there is one trick. The Bafang rear hub uses a kind of a slotted bushing on either side, that grabs the rear dropout and I think prevents everything spinning uselessly when the powered hub turns on. Those bushings have to fit between the dropouts, and we just could not get them in there. It's like the frame needed to be spread apart another 1/8", and we just couldn't do it.
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I put the thing back together without the bushings, then not daring to try to use the assist. So just like that time in France, I was having to pedal a heavy e-assist bike, but with no assist. Dodie pointed out that unlike France, Yucatan is flat, so no problem. Great!
Soon Leona Vicario did come into view. This is the kind of environment we enjoy, where slow moving vehicles, dogs, and pedestrians dominate the streets.
In fact one main side street (the one we needed to use!) was simply blocked up by market vendors. These vendors actually had one or two items of plastic kitchenware we could have used, but we were by then too hot and frazzled from fighting with the bike to stop.
Our destination was called the Green Paradise, and it was. I guess it is a BnB. The owner is from Switzerland, and he says he built the various cottage units on the well landscaped grounds. The pool was clear, deep, and cool, and we went in immediately. The cooling effect, and the plants all around were wonderful.
With the cooling effect of the water, with shade, and with a nice table to put parts on, I re-thought how those bushings might be encouraged to go in. It wasn't really easy, but it did happen. So we are back at 100%. In fact more so, because this a place we will remember fondly for a long time. Cool water, plants, and a clean well built and ventilated place to sleep covers a lot of what we need to be happy.
(Ok, a bakery and deli across the street would be nice! And oh, the distant neighbours did not get the memo about how serene it is here, so they have cranked up their music. But hey, it's still great!)
Today's ride: 47 km (29 miles)
Total: 129 km (80 miles)
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