Hi everyone!
Yesterday we pretty much just zoomed over to Villahermosa, Mexico from Veracruz, about 500 km.
After a great breakfast at Gran Cafe Parroquia, our awesome new friend Carlos (but they call him Pato which means Duck) from the local BMW motorcycle club in Veracruz, rode with us for half of the way here on his own shiny new BMW motorcycle. He went to school for two years in Brockville, Ontario so his English was very good. He zipped ahead and paid all of our tolls along the way so all we had to do was ride!
Yesterday is honestly all a blur… I can barely remember anything about it I’m so tired. I do recall the road being good to start with and then disintegrating into a potholed mess of construction and narrow one-lane bridges while they repaired the damage from all of the recent coastal flooding. Dad got to do some creative off-road riding again while following Pato, cutting between the many cars and trucks parked in the long lines of construction. Hurray for the motorcycle!
When we arrived in Villahermosa we had contact numbers for the local RE/MAX office and also for a local motorcycle shop owner. We rode into the city as dusk approached and headed into the center and parked at the main cathedral to check for messages. Dad’s iPhone was nearly out of battery power but he managed to fire off an emergency message to his two contacts with our location. We waited 20 minutes and just as we were ready to ride away in the dark along came a beautiful shiny motorcycle and we then met Jesús (pronounced “Hay-Zeus”) León in front of the church!
By this time I was so tired I could barely keep my eyes open but I do remember following Jesús through the crazy traffic and pulling up to the Ducati store he owns with his brother Juan. Ducati is a famous Italian motorcycle brand.
When we got to the store they immediately had trays of cheese and meats and bakery treats and espresso and water. And then the local RE/MAX office agents showed up and we had a little party for a few hours. And then two really nice journalists from the local daily paper showed up and interviewed us and took lots of photos. Florencia Estrada, the kind owner of the local RE/MAX, had arranged for a hotel for us but Jesús had already offered us a place to sleep at his house, so after the party ended we rode with him to his place and spent the night there with his family. What a beautiful house they have!
Today (November 26th) we woke up WAY TOO EARLY!
We had to be at the television station by 9:30 am for an interview so we were up early so we could shower, wash our clothes and have breakfast.
Jesús drove us to the TV station, where we checked in and sat in the waiting room. After a while a man came out, introduced himself and started to ask questions off-camera about who we were, what we were doing and why.
Dad gave him the full story and the reporter wrote down a bunch of notes in Spanish.
After that we left for Jesús’ house to grab the bikes so we could film some footage of us riding around the city pointing at things. We met the camera crew at the Ducati store and they filmed us coming in to the parking lot, leaving the parking lot, parking, getting on, getting off, putting on all of our gear and entering the store (not in that order).
They then interviewed us in Spanish for about half an hour. I don’t speak Spanish but it was pretty simple to understand what was happening due to Dad’s hand gestures and their body language. They asked me a few questions and Jesús would translate my answer into Spanish.
After that we took to the road. Jesús on his bike, Dad and me on ours and the camera crew in a pickup truck with all of the equipment in the back. The camera guy nearly fell out of the truck during a sharp turn. That was interesting.
They filmed us driving for a bit before we circled back, said farewell and left for Jesús’ house.
The plan was for Jesús to accompany us to his friend’s hotel in Palenque, Mexico. We would arrive tonight at the hotel and then we’d wake up early so we could see the ruin site just down the road. We pretty much accomplished the plan.
We made it here to Palenque long before dark and the view from our hotel is AMAZING! This hotel is called Hotel Casa Lakyum and the owner (a super nice friend of Jesús’) Felipe Casanova García, donated two nights here! It is near the entrance gate to the famous Palenque ruins. You can hear the howler monkeys at night and the birds in the day! The hotel overlooks a huge canyon-type crevice and directly across from us is a mountain with trees and fields, totally untouched by humankind!
After marvelling over the sight for awhile we unpacked and left for a nearby restaurant. It was a mix between Italian food and Mexican food. The food was really good though!
While we were eating we met a girl from Japan named Moe (pronounced Mo-Way) who is a 12-year-old homeschooled student traveling with her Mom around Mexico and Guatemala. Dad invited her to go to the ruins with us tomorrow and her Mom said yes! She talked with us for a long time (her English is REALLY good) before we left so we could get some sleep before tomorrow. After this we returned to our hotel room.
Oh, and by the way, it POURED the whole day and it’s raining even as I write this!
Sorry for any lack of detail… As I mentioned earlier, I’m SUPER DUPER sleepy…
I’ll update tomorrow for sure! Thank you for reading this and for your comments below, it lets me know someone is actually reading this and even though I can’t reply, because the wifi is quite a challenge, it means a lot to me!!! Also because of the lack of strong signal it is really hard to upload photos but Dad is updating the Photo page as often as he can, take a look by clicking here. Thanks again!!!
~Holly J
P.S. Are you on Instagram? Follow @thehomehunt! Here’s a photo of the view from Hotel Casa Lakyum.