January 9, 2026
Day 11: Coba to Valladolid
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To leave Coba we passed back along the length of the main street. Thisw took use past our former favourite hotel, the Lol-Ha, with its big asset, the grocery next door. The grocery seems to have been renamed since we were last here, apparently with the complicity of Coca Cola. It is now the Coba Mayan Walmart - quite humorous for the little hole in the wall. It is a fun use of a big corporate name similar to one we saw at a shawarma type place in France, that was called McDoner.
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We set off along the fairly straight shot to Valladolid, the road being not too travelled and quite wide. We were acutely aware of this going straight through the jungle, with nothing but brush and trees on either side,
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2 weeks ago
One of the roadside plants turns out to be called the Buttercup Tree. It has attractive flowers and sticks up higher than the surrounding brush.
Although the road did have some busses and big trucks going by, it established its character for us by having those motorcycle powered trikes, which trundle along very slowly. Slower still are the one speed yellow trikes made by Mercurio. On this road, a number of people were using them to transport firewood cut by the roadside.
From the sign below, we see that they are designating this the Archeology Route. That's a bit overblown, because this leads mainly to the major Chichen Itza site. Well ok, you can not help but hit other sites along the way, so fair enough.
The day was pretty hot and we were cycling through the middle of it. Perhaps that is the reason we saw nary a bird along the way. Well except for this: Dodie spotted a really interesting looking lifer for us - the Bat Falcon:
Closer to Valladolid, at Tikuch, a number of stands popped up offering containers of cut up fruit, and many cocos frios - which are fresh coconuts with the top taken off and a straw inserted for the coconut water.
After you drink the water, they will scrape out the fresh coconut for you, adding optional chili powder.
They seem to have a lot of coconuts, but the price was still 100 pesos.
We rolled on through the hot day, passing the first haphazard buildings of Valladolid. Similar to the old cities in Europe, you have a less pretty ring around the beautiful old towns. In the case of Valladolid, the old town consists of pastel coloured row houses from the early Spanish era. At the centre of town is a square with Iglesia de San Servacio on one side. Our hotel, the San Clemente, is across the street from one of the side faces of the church.
We bumped our bikes up the short stairs of the San Clemente, and parked in their customary temporary spot by the Valladolid crest. The bird on there is a "zaci" in Mayan, which means white hawk.
We got a good room, #103, which is right by the pool. One year we got a room around the side, opposite where they were chopping wood and running some sort of boilers or compressors. We have been careful to avoid that section since.
We dropped our gear in #103 and threw ourselves into the pool. This description is accurate for me, because I just dive in head first, while Dodie cautiously wades in. This time my technique was a bad choice, because the impact of the water jarred that root canal area. I have needed pain killers since yesterday, as the whole thing tries to settle down, and it did not consider the impact very settling.
With our core temperatures brought down sufficiently, we were ready to walk out into the square. As is customary for us, the first stop was the church.
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It has been months since we have been in a Catholic church, and I had rather forgotten how heavily they rely on statues. I also noticed how, as sometimes in Spain as well, the statues are rather simplistic or doll-like.
Some other elements reminiscent of Spain are those "rays of power" that Jesus has by his head, and the sadness and tears that Mary shows any time she is around the guy.
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Christmas decorations are still up, and the church had this nativity scene, with attractive flashing lights.
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2 weeks ago
Saint Michael picking on dragons is a frequent theme. I asked a divinity professor friend of ours if truly Christianity believes in dragons. He replied that the dragon is merely symbolic of evil. Now I see the inscription below this statue, citing chapter and verse. Apparently the dragon is Satan, and pursuant to a war in heaven (batalla en el cielo) he gets the boot, together with his followers. Our hotel in Izamal is often the San Miguel Arcangel - St Michael is popular hereabouts.
The final statue I noticed was this rather Spanish looking Jesus, with a pretty nice shirt and sash, three rays of power, and a crown of thorns, with some blood.
We crossed the street to the square, which features an iconic statue of a Mestiza woman. Statues like this are found scattered around Yucatan, and I don't know which may be the original. The statue is kind of politically incorrect, since it does not depict a Mayan woman but rather a Spanish Mayan blend. Oh, maybe that is the politically correct approach?
The first thing I noticed in the square was the coconut ice cream lady. There is only one flavour on offer here, and that is the local coconut. Lots of other vendors around also have coconut water for sale.
We made our way next to the food court, which features about ten "cocina economica" type restaurants. They really do feature Yucatecan food, as we can see on their signage:
As is done with food courts, the restaurants share a common seating area, which in this case is very large:
Families can take advantage of the relatively low prices and available space:
One thing I happened to notice was an old lady who circulated among the tables asking for handouts. We see many of these very tiny old ladies, in traditional garb, either begging or selling small items on the streets. We don't know how social security works in this society, but suspect older women having lost their husbands (since males commonly die younger) commonly rely on family. But failing that they must land on the street (unless they all own Apple stock, which I suppose is possible). Anyway, this particular lady seemed to be successful at most tables. Although the photo shows coins changing hands, I did see paper money in play as well.
Back in the square, we watched large flocks of Grackles arriving to roost in the trees. They would come in from all directions at high speed, and then instantly disappear among the branches. At first we thought it was just Grackles, but we spotted many of the dark shapes below:
We got Merlin to listen in, and it mentioned Bronze Cowbirds. Indeed, that is what you see in the closeup. See the telltale red eye:
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2 weeks ago
2 weeks ago
Today's ride: 62 km (39 miles)
Total: 312 km (194 miles)
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2 weeks ago
Jacinto says he seldom sees people asking for money in Mexico, and he always gives them some small change. His thought being that they must be desperate.
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