I’m staring at a wall of photos. Staring at a life, at many lives. It’s mesmerizing. Days of youth, a wedding day, travels, the babies growing older, stronger. It occurs to me that most houses in most towns on the planet have similar walls. People who have a fear of travelling need to remember these very walls when debating the merits of traveling versus staying at home in their comfy cocoons. Humour me for a moment and take a stroll past your own family photo wall and imagine someone from far away staying in your home with you, briefly sharing your life, and the feelings they would get from looking at the snapshot of your days here on earth. Now go book a flight to a place you’ve always wanted to go and arrive with an open heart and a smile. Wonderful things will happen… because they continue to happen to us on a daily basis here in Mexico.
We just spent two marvellous days traipsing around the cities of Tulum and Playa del Carmen. I have great memories of passing through this area on my old 1981 BMW R100 R both in 1988 and 1991. Back then they were sleepy villages with palm trees on the beaches and hammocks strung everywhere with chatty travellers playing backgammon in the soft white sand and sharing info about the Gringo Trail. Today, they are unrecognizable to me. Both have grown into full communities with municipal water and sewer systems, tall hotels, upscale shopping malls and thousands of stylish condo units. And through all of this, their beaches remain astoundingly beautiful, among the nicest in the world in my opinion.
Our guide for this area was Roberto Rivas, the broker owner of RE/MAX Tulum. Roberto had been following our progress through Mexico and invited us to come north, off of our route, to visit his area of Quintana Roo, the Mexican state that includes the cities of Cancun, Playa del Carmen and my old stomping ground of Chetumal. He had arranged for us to stay in a hotel in Laguna Bacalar and then put us up for two nights at a comfortable hotel in Tulum.
The ride up to Tulum from Bacalar was remarkable simply because the road was in perfect condition, not a pothole to be found, and only two or three villages to pass through with topes to slow us down.
At every tope there is someone in the middle of the road with dirty orange construction pylons, trying to sell drinks and assorted snacks to the cars and buses that slow down there. They jog along beside the vehicles, exchanging product for cash and then return to their speed bump.
Occasionally there are entire families set up with umbrellas or small tents and cooking stoves moving through the busier traffic like efficient ants, servicing the needs of the hungry bus travellers.
Years ago these same entrepreneurs used to sell pop in plastic bags with straws and the roadways throughout Mexico were littered with tiny bags blowing around. Today, one very noticeable thing about Mexico is how clean the highways are compared to 25 years ago. They have a strong anti-littering campaign throughout the country as well as signs everywhere reminding people to buckle up, not to drive tired and not to drink and drive.
We had estimated our time of arrival for Roberto and as we entered Tulum someone yelled my name from the roadside. Roberto had just arrived five minutes earlier to welcome us to town. He took us to his office where we met his partner RJ Thoman and then we went off to tour the area in what is probably the coolest vehicle in the RE /MAX empire: his lifted and fully-wrapped Jeep. These two agents move a lot of property through their office and it’s no wonder, as everyone in Tulum waved at Roberto and called him professor because of his former days here as a language instructor.
We visited an incredible beachfront restaurant called Mezanine and he told me a story of how he was having dinner there once with a client who was on the fence about buying a property when Demi Moore walked up the stairs and passed their table. The buyer was so impressed that he went through with the sale and Roberto promptly thanked Demi for helping him make the sale. A lot of well known people come here to relax as it is so easily reached from the U.S. and Canada.
We spent the next morning in Playa del Carmen having breakfast with the effervescent Dulce Elorriaga, owner of RE/MAX Maya. She signed the Motorcycle for Miracles flag and then we had breakfast at La Cueva del Mono and later visited the beach.
Roberto insisted that we take the afternoon off and just relax on the beach so he dropped us off at a spot near the entrance to the Mayan site of Tulum and we enjoyed three hours of blissful ocean time in the warm Gulf of Mexico. Sheets of rain would approach the shore and wash over everyone and then carry on to the southwest, leaving behind a series of broad bright rainbows. We even had the rare pleasure of seeing a triple rainbow at the water’s edge.
It was so wonderful for me to see Holly in her water element. She misses her swim team back home and whenever she can be in water, she lights up. Her feet didn’t touch dry sand the entire time we were there. My daughter was a dolphin for an afternoon.
There was a large motorcycle rally in Tulum for the weekend and several hundred riders came from all over Mexico to enjoy the sites, drink some Tecate beer and shop the streets for souvenirs. I met some BMW riders from the state of Campeche and there were other Beemers among the various bikes but I couldn’t locate their owners.
That night, we had yet another stellar meal, this time at Pequeño Buenos Aires, an Argentinian steakhouse on Tulum’s main street. Of course the owner, Ezequiel Ausimour was a friend of Roberto’s and he brought samples of this and that (empanadas and sauces from Argentina) to the table. Holly and I were even able to do a video chat with my family back home celebrating my dad’s 79th birthday and the passing waiters all wished him a happy birthday, pressing their smiling faces close to the screen.
On this journey I’ve yet again found Mexicans to be among the happiest and most generous people on the planet. Indeed, it’s been hard to spend my pesos here as our hosts continually buy our meals and hotels, politely refusing my offers to pay.
On Sunday morning we rose early, had breakfast at a wonderful German restaurant with a hidden cenote in the back garden and then we toured the famed Mayan city of Tulum. The only changes here in the past 25 years were the ropes preventing tourists from climbing on the structures, as it is the most visited location in the Mayan world and too many feet were trampling the site. My first time here we had the place virtually to ourselves and we could climb each and every building and hang out on the beautiful beach alone. Again, the rains assembled quickly from the Gulf of Mexico and soon chased us back to the Jeep.
We had one more look at the stunning beaches of Tulum and then returned to Roberto’s office to load the bike and set off for my old home of Chetumal. It was by now early afternoon and I had given us a strong cushion of time to get to Chetumal before dark though we knew we’d be again riding in the rain. I noticed that my “lampf” warning light was on (thank you German engineers!) and discovered that my low beam headlight was not working. Uh oh. That might be challenging to repair here. We stopped for gas at a nearby Pemex station and as we were finishing fuelling a group of motorcyclists pulled in behind us, dressed in good bike gear. This was one of those Celestine Prophecy moments where you just feel like you are supposed to meet someone. I inquired about their bikes in Spanish and they asked where we were headed. When they heard we were headed to their hometown, they quickly invited us to ride with them for the afternoon. When they heard more of our story, one couple, Paco Bautista and Rosaura Gutierrez, told us they had a 14-year old daughter who spoke English and they invited us to spend the night in their home. Such is life here in Mexico! 30 seconds after meeting us they threw open the doors to their home and their hearts.
We set off together and soon the rains came, a little at first. We then stopped for a late lunch and this is where my gut instinct told me we should probably keep riding and meet them later in Chetumal but it would have been rude to take off so we ate, donned our rain gear and set off as darkness enveloped us. The rain increased to tropical status, which is pretty much blinding, so it was time for the four-way flashers as the cars and buses whizzed past us on the thankfully smooth highway. Our visors were fogging up but the spray from the road made it necessary to keep them nearly sealed. It was a long, slow, tedious ride using every ounce of my riding energy and when we arrived hours later (7 pm) in Chetumal I was utterly exhausted. I felt especially bad for Paco as he had to endure my high beams the entire time we were riding and it must have added to the difficulty of his ride.
As we rode into town, absolutely saturated from the rains, I was struck by how much had changed since I had lived nearby in the tiny village of Huay Pix on Laguna Milagros. Those were good days, with good friends here. I flipped up my visor at a traffic light, the rain bouncing off my tank bag onto my face, and I said to Holly, “How cool is this? In two or three minutes you’re about to make a friend, potentially for the rest of your life.” She gave her usual enthusiastic “thumbs up” sign and we continued following Paco and Rosaura to their home. We arrived to beautiful singing in the street as a baby was being christened across the street from their home at a tiny church at that very moment and it was a joyous arrival memory for me.
Shutting off the bike was also a joyous arrival memory for me. I was spent. My back and left side were still hurting from the truck incident and I was fighting a cold for the past 24 hours so I was ready to rest. Holly bounced off the bike, full of energy, and went off with Rosaura into the dark, rainy Chetumal night to pick up Lilly and her five-year old brother Jack from their grandparent’s house while I hung the wet clothes and got settled inside. Sure enough, they returned 15 minutes later and Holly and Lilly were already joined like twins. They went off to be kids and I was grateful for this because Holly has had to endure a lot of adult moments on our trip so far. They invited us to stay as long as we liked and I asked Holly if she wanted to have a pure rest day and readily accepted so today is my gift to Holly. One day free, not having to do what Dad asks her to do. You should see the smile etched on her face today.
Last night after our arrival, we spent a few hours getting to know one another and we share a love for travel and photography. I told them about the reason for our journey, our mission, and showed them the website and the collection of articles. They were immediately asking how they could help and Rosaura jumped on her phone and organized, in about 20 minutes, an impressive press conference for the next morning here at their home to share our story with Chetumal and the rest of Mexico yet again.
After hearing of our loss of Alyssa Rae after just 20 brief but powerful days of life, they told me they had suffered a miscarriage at 16 weeks (on my birthday) years before and I shared our story of also losing a baby boy, little Hunter Schroeder Johnson, at the same stage of development. We shared many tears together at their dining room table and I found myself reflecting on the fact that we had only just met but had common ground in heavy losses and understood one another immediately.
They had prepared a room for us with a hammock and a small mattress but Lilly and Holly decided to bunk together upstairs in Lilly’s room, leaving me happy and alone with the hammock and my thoughts. They brought me arnica cream for my back which I applied and when I awoke this morning everything felt much better.
A chorizo omelette and fresh coffee greeted me when I emerged from my room and then the media began to arrive. One, then two, then someone with a tv camera, then three more tv cameras, and soon their living room was full of microphone cables and recording devices and local journalists, all here to spread the word of the Children’s Miracle Network and the good work they do.
Holly really enjoys these moments. You can see it in her face in the photos. This is a girl who specializes in taking moments as they arrive. Never too high, never too low. I grow prouder of her and who she is becoming every single day. Her dream remains to be on the Ellen (Degeneres) Show and I keep reminding her that she of all people understands how to make their dreams come true.
So the media have all left and I sit here alone in front of this beautiful wall of Bautista photos and I wonder whose photo wall we’ll be seeing in the coming days. This magical tour continues and it saddens me to think we’ll be putting Mexico in our rear view mirror tomorrow…but much more adventure awaits us.
