Oh man, we got another late start today, and most of it is my fault. We woke up later than expected but, to be fair, it may have had something to do with the blackout shades in the room. We went downstairs to take advantage of the enormous breakfast buffet that was offered. I crashed the omelet station and asked for pretty much everything he had stuffed into mine. Joe opted to hit the fruit cart for his meal only to eventually supplement with some beans and rice. I wanted to cry. The meal was good but more importantly huge and bottomless. Joe and I have the tendency when sitting down for a meal to get into some pretty heavy conversations and this morning was no different. The scope of the convo took us into the noon hour and I finally realized we had to get out of there if we were going to beat our 1 pm checkout time.

We hustled upstairs fat from eating and Joe promptly got himself ready to leave. I, on the other hand, took so much longer because I had all my gear out while I had decent wifi. I am in no condition to move quickly with all this stuff. It took me the better part of the remaining hour to pack up and get everything ready to haul downstairs. I hoisted my gargantuan Mosko Moto BC40 onto my back while I grabbed one pannier in either hand. Between the two side cases, I must have close to 50 pounds worth of stuff. This is not the way to travel and I am regretting overpacking to this degree. It makes loading and unloading the bike a pain and a sure fire way to ruin a good riding day. I will figure it out eventually, I am sure.

We get all the way down to the parking garage where I bikes spent the night and all I can think as the hot sun hits its high point in the sky, is how did I not get into the pool at some point in our stay? Joe was good enough to remain patient while I strapped everything down and locked up for our ride. Finally, we were able to take off with a short day ahead of us because we are stopping at Palenque to visit the ruins. We have just over 150km to cover so we are taking it easy.

The trip was completely uneventful until we arrived in Palenque. There is a main drag that runs right through the middle of the town. At the beginning of this road there is the first in a series of traffic lights. I was trailing Joe by a little distance when the light he just passed through turned yellow. I figured there was no need to push it, so I slowed assuming Joe would either see me or get stopped himself at one of the many lights ahead. Unfortunately, neither happened and I watched, stuck at the light, as Joe became a smaller and smaller figure and eventually disappeared in the distance. Damn it. I rode ahead with the thought I would eventually catch up. Then as I rode over the last hill that limited my sight from my perch at the light just a few minutes ago, I see a split in the road for a roundabout where the town’s brightly colored sign stands. Do I go left or right? What if I choose a path at the same time Joe doubles back? Is this where I get lost in Mexico forever?

Relief washed over me as I realized I had my Garmin InReach on me and so does Joe. I sent out a quick text to tell him I was waiting at the sign whenever he could make it back to me. It only took about ten minutes but the entire time I was battling with my fear of what I was going to have to do to ensure my safety alone for the night, if need be. Luckily, it wasn’t long before I heard the distinct sound of the KTM’s exhaust as Joe came back around the corner. I knew I should have gone right. The hotel was only about 3 miles away from my tumble into the abyss and we pulled up laughing about my misfortune with the light.

We were happy to have a short day of riding but it was still the hottest part of the day so we wanted to get inside quickly. The hotel was called, Hotel Villa Mercedes Palenque and it was a beautiful, grass-roofed series of huts. In the distance, I could see pathways stretching towards pools and spas. This was going to be a fine place to stay and I was looking forward to some much-needed downtime because my back was getting awfully tight.

Joe came out with a room key while I slowly disassembled my cumbersome load. The golf cart took him to our room with the promise to swing back to pick me up when I had finished. More and more I am realizing why it is so important to pack well and sparsely for trips like this. God forbid I had to carry everything to our room. I might die on the way of heat exhaustion. The cart eventually doubled back and off I went down the path to our very luxurious room. I passed not one but two pools on my way to the room. This was going to be very nice indeed. The room was already cool when I got there and Joe was already changed over for our journey to Palenque. We decided to forgo ATGATT for the park visit as it was just a mile or so down the road. We got to the front desk to inquire about which direction we should go and once we got past the obviously rough Spanish, they informed us the park would be closing in about 30 minutes and they probably wouldn’t let us in this late. Damn it again. My feet dragging and packing nonsense cost us an opportunity to visit some of the oldest ruins this side of Mexico.

We rolled with the punches and decided this was fate’s way of telling us to hit up the pool. We quickly changed back in the room and headed to the only pool where the bar was still open. Drinks were ordered and I decided to drink my sore back away. While in the pool we were approached by a man and a woman who had clearly been drinking a little longer than us. They introduced themselves as Carlos and Elena. Carlos was from Medellin, Colombia and Elena was from Guadalajara, Mexico. They were at the hotel on business which seemed to be going very well because Carlos was downing top-shelf tequila and buying drinks in an effort to catch us up. We talked about our travels and they talked about their business (plastic roofing for agricultural and industrial sites) for a couple of hours. Carlos told us about his desire to have Columbia and specifically Medellin was known as something other than Pablo Escobar’s formal stomping grounds. We listened and practiced our Spanish a little even though both spoke perfectly acceptable English. As the sun dropped lower and lower, Joe had to leave to catch his massage appointment (like I said, we needed a break) and I said goodbye to our new friends with tentative plans to see them again at dinner.

Unfortunately, dinner never happened, likely because Carlos couldn’t see straight but we both valued our first real conversation with people other than each other. We were invigorated and definitely slightly more confident giving Spanish a shot. Our dinner was very good and the restaurant was practically empty. We each had about three Fantas to celebrate our last full day in Mexico. Tomorrow we will ride for the Guatemalan border with the goal being Flores and the ruins at Tikal.

I am so excited because this will be my first international to international border. The Mexican border at Reynosa still felt like home. Tomorrow I will be crossing a “real” border and I imagine it is going to be tough to sleep. I can’t wait to see Guatemala.